Photo courtesy Penn State University Athletics Penn State’s Shayne Van Ness sizes up his opponent, Oklahoma State’s Casey Swiderski, during their 149-pound bout Friday night.

CLEVELAND — Penn State is well on its way to a fifth consecutive championship after the second day of the 2026 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Friday at Rocket Arena.

The Nittany Lions lead the team race with 153 points and have advanced six to the finals, with two more still in contention for third-place finishes.

Luke Lilledahl (125), Shayne Van Ness (149), Mitchell Mesenbrink (165), Levi Haines (174), Rocco Welsh (184) and Josh Barr (197) will wrestle for championships in Saturday night’s championship finals.

Marcus Blaze (133) and P.J. Duke (157) lost in the semifinals and face consolation semifinal bouts this morning.

Those eight Nittany Lions have earned All-America status.

Braeden Davis (141) and Cole Mirasola (285) lost third-round consolation matches and were eliminated.

“The guys wrestled really well, obviously scored a lot of points. A couple really tough heartbreakers from two true freshmen who have long careers ahead of them. So, hopefully those guys just need to bounce back and, you know, finish strong, and then let’s go wrestle well in the finals,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson said.

A year after sending seven wrestlers to the semifinals, the Nittany Lions went one better this year with eight, a team and NCAA record. Iowa also had eight semifinalists in 1991. Penn State improved on last year’s 3-4 performance in those semifinal bouts, going 6-2.

A full 20 teams contributed to the 40 semifinalists. Penn State, of course, led the way with eight. Oklahoma State and Nebraska had five each. Michigan and Iowa had three each.

Lilledahl got his offense going early in his semifinal win over Oklahoma State’s Troy Spratley. He scored two takedowns, catching the Cowboy on his back for two nearfall points on the second to open an 8-2 lead after one. Spratley escaped to start the second and that was all the scoring. Lilledahl made the tactical decision to emphasize defense over risk and there was no further scoring in his 8-3 decision.

“Setting the tone is something that I’ve been kind of trying to do this whole season. And really this match was the first match that I kind of went out there and did that. (It’s) the most important match so far when I kind of wrestled my best. I wrestle better throughout the tournament, so hopefully tomorrow night, I wrestle my best that I’ve wrestled this weekend,” Lilledahl said.

Lilledahl will meet Princeton No. 10 seed Marc-Anthony McGowan in tonight’s final. In the final dual of the season, McGowan refused to engage and was eventually disqualified for stalling after being warned five times.

Lilledahl had to gut out a tiebreaker win over Iowa’s Dean Peterson to earn his semifinal berth. Regulation and the sudden victory period ended with the score tied at 1-1. In the tiebreakers, Lilledahl escaped in 11 seconds in the first. In the second, the Nittany Lion rode Peterson for the entire period to earn the 2-1 win.

In the semifinals against Nebraska No. 20 seed Chance Lamer, Van Ness was in control from the start and was relentless in amassing a 22-1 technical fall in 5:21. He led 3-0 after on and then shifted into another gear in the second, escaping, scoring two takedowns and nearly pinning Lamer but settling for four nearfall points. He finished it off in the third with a takedown to the Husker’s back for four more to settle the score and end the match.

Van Ness will face Stanford No. 10 seed Aden Valencia in the final.

Van Ness had to survive a wild battle with Oklahoma State’s Casey Swiderski to gain his semifinal berth. Regulation ended 2-2 and it looked like the match might go to the tiebreakers, but in the waning seconds, Van Ness emerged from a frenetic scramble with a double and the winning takedown in a 5-2 decision.

Top-seeded Mesenbrink earned his third trip to the finals by punishing Columbia No. 12 seed Cesar Alvan 15-0 in 4:11. Usually content to dominate by scoring with a deluge of takedowns, this time the defending NCAA champion displayed punishing pinning combinations.

In the first, he scored a takedown and then turned Alvan and held him on his back for nearly two minutes to lead 7-0 after one. In the second, he escaped, scored another decisive takedown and turned Alvan again for four to end the match.

For the second year in a row, Mesenbrink will face Iowa’s Mikey Caliendo in the final. The Nittany Lion is 8-0 all-time against the Hawkeye, including 8-2 in the 2025 final.

Mesenbrink, for the first time in a long time, was presented a real challenge by North Carolina’s Bryce Hepner in the quarterfinals. The Tar Heel was injured in a scramble that went out of bounds and a stretcher was summoned. But, after going through concussion protocol, he was able to continue. With the match 0-0, Mesenbrink turned Hepner for four points and rode him the entire second period. In the third, Mesenbrink escaped and added a point for riding time for a 6-0 decision,

Haines has not been challenged in his march to a third NCAA final. In the semifinals against Iowa’s fifth-seeded Patrick Kennedy, used two takedowns and an escape to forge a 7-1 lead after two. In the third, he scored two more takedowns, a four-point turn and a riding time point to earn an 18-3 technical fall in 7:00, his fourth bonus point win.

Haines earns a rematch with Nebraska’s Christopher Minto in the final. Haines owns 8-6 and 2-1 wins over the Husker this season as he searches for his second title as a four-time All-American.

Haines continued to bulldoze everything in his path in the quarterfinals. Against Michigan’s Beau Mantanona, Haines used five takedowns, a two-point turn and a riding time point to amass an 18-3 technical fall in 7:00.

Trailing 1-0 at the start of the third, Welsh escaped and scored the decisive takedown, ceding an escape and late stall point to emerge with a 4-3 win and earn his second trip to the finals. Two years ago he dropped a 2-0 decision to Penn State’s Carter Starocci when Welsh wore an Ohio State singlet.

This year, Welsh will face a rematch with Minnesota’s No. 3 seed Max McEnelly, who Welsh beat 2-1 in tiebreakers in the Big Ten tournament final.

Welsh took control of a scoreless match in the second with an escape and two takedowns to open a 7-1 lead on Nebraska’s Silas Allred. The Husker chose bottom to start the third and when Welsh returned him to the mat Allred sustained an apparent ankle injury and had to default in 6:08.

Barr, paired with Wyoming No. 5 seed Joey Novak in the semifinals, exploited his superiority on his feet, scoring four takedowns and tacking on an escape and point for 3:20 in riding time to earn his second trip to the finals with a 14-3 major decision.

Barr’s finals opponent will be No. 7 seed Cody Merrill of Oklahoma State,

Barr blitzed his way into the semifinals with a 19-3 annihilation of Stanford’s Angelo Posada. He took a 7-0 lead after one with a takedown and four-point tilt and then ended the match with four singles in the second, the last coming at at the 4:50 mark.

Blaze and Ohio State’s Ben Davino went to the tiebreakers for the third time this year, having split decisions in the first two. After regulation ended with the score tied 1-1, Davino appeared to have a takedown with 14 seconds left in the sudden victory period but an official’s review declared no takedown. Blaze rode Davino for 21 seconds in the first tiebreaker. Davino would not let Blaze escape in the second and those precious seconds were the difference in the win for the Buckeye.

Blaze made it a trifecta of wins over Iowa’s Drake Ayala as he posted a 5-2 decision. A takedown on the edge that Blaze doggedly pursued proved to be the difference.

After being a veritable wrecking ball through three wins into the semifinals, Duke was decided more measured and unable to score against Oklahoma State No. 5 seed Landon Robideau. After regulation ended 1-1, Duke appeared to have the winning takedown late in the sudden victory period when he countered a Robideau shot and locked up a cradle and was awarded a takedown. Oklahoma State challenged and the call was overturned.

That sent the match to tiebreakers. Robideau won the toss and chose bottom. He scored a reversal to lead 3-1 after one. Duke was forced to take neutral to go for the takedown but couldn’t do it and was sent into the wrestlebacks.

Duke mauled Ohio State’s Brandon Cannon again to punch his ticket to the semifinals. He scored three takedowns in each of the first two periods and then ended it with another in the third for a 21-5 technical fall in 5:23.

Davis survived a rollicking battle with West Virginia’s Jordan Titus in. his second-round wrestleback match. The bout was tied 5-5 after one but Davis escaped and scored a takedown to open a 9-5 lead. He tacked on a riding time point for a 10-6 decision. He was bounced from the tournament in the next round by Penn’s C.J. Composto, whose reversal and takedown in the second period made the difference.

Mirasola stayed alive with a 18-3 technical fall over Appalachian State’s Stephan Monchery in 6:03. Mirasola did it with six takedowns.