Penn State Wrestling Star Mitchell Mesenbrink Named Academic All-American

Penn State's Mitchell Mesenbrink won his first NCAA wrestling title while compiling a grade-point average of 3.92. As a result, Mesenbrink earned a major academic award.

Mesenbrink was named a first-team Academic All-American by the the College Sports Communicators organization. The CSC (formerly the College Sports Information Directors of America) awards recently released its Academic All-America At-Large Team, which covers a variety of Olympic sports, including wrestling, hockey, volleyball, lacrosse and gymnastics. Mesenbrink was one of two wrestlers awarded first-team honors.

Mesenbrink produced one of the top performances in college wrestling last year, going 27-0 at 165 pounds to win his first NCAA title. The rising junior, a two-time NCAA finalist, scored 18 technical falls last season before defeating Iowa's Mikey Caliendo 8-2 in the championship match.

In two seasons at Penn State, Mesenbrink is 53-1, and his .981 winning percentage represents the best career start of any Nittany Lions wrestler. He has recorded bonus points in 40 of those wins. FloWrestling ranks Mesenbrink as the nation's No. 1 overall wrestler entering the 2025-26 season.

In the classroom, Mesenbrink, who is from Wisconsin, has compiled a 3.92 GPA in psychology. He earned first-team Academic All-Big Ten honors last season as well.

Mesenbrink is the ninth Penn State wrestler to be named a CSC Academic All-American. He joins Zain Retherford, Nico Megaludis, Matt Brown, David Taylor, Glenn Pritzlaff, Dave Hart, Jim Martin and Ken Chertow.

Mesenbrink leads a Penn State wrestling roster that will pursue its fifth consecutive NCAA team title next season. The Nittany Lions return seven All-Americans from last year's team, which also added former Ohio State All-American Rocco Welsh and Japanese world champion Masanosuke Ono.