Penn State Wrestling's Future Will Highlight USA Wrestling's U20 Team Trials

Want a preview of Penn State wrestling's future? The Nittany Lions' 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes takes center stage this weekend at USA Wrestling's U23 and U20 World Team Trials. Some of Penn State's top prospects, including Marcus Blaze and PJ Duke, are scheduled to compete for bids to the world championships at the trials in Geneva, Ohio.

Penn State wrestling dots much of the roster in men's freestyle, with wrestlers competing in six weight classes at the U20 trials. Duke, who will be a freshman at Penn State next season, already has had a phenomenal freestyle campaign, winning the U20 title at the 2025 U.S. Open and the 70 kg weight class at the U.S. Senior World Team Trials.

Duke will face four-time NCAA champ Yianni Diakomihalis at Final X in June for a trip to the World Wrestling Championships. Before that, he's qualified into this weekend's best-of-three championship series at the U20 Trials.

Blaze, another Penn State 2025 commit, placed third at the Senior Team Trials, beating Iowa commit Bo Bassett in the process. Blaze will compete at 61 kg, where he made the semifinals of the 2025 U.S. Open and won bronze at the 2024 U20 World Championships.

Two current Nittany Lions, Connor and Cole Mirasola, have byes into the best-of-three final series at their weight classes: Connor at 92 kg and Cole at 125 kg. Both won U20 titles at the U.S. Open in April. The brothers redshirted at Penn State as freshmen. Connor Mirasola went 8-0 at 197 pounds, while Cola Mirasola was 6-2 at heavyweight.

Will Henckel, a two-time national prep champ at Blair Academy, also has a bye to the finals after winning the U20 U.S. Open title at 79 kg. Henckel is part of Penn State's 2025 class. Jayden James, a 2026 Penn State commit and New Jersey state champion who flipped from Virginia Tech, will compete at 74 kg.

Nate Desmond, a 2025 Penn State commit who won two Pennsylvania state titles before transferring to Wyoming Seminary, will compete at 57 kg. And Sam Herring (2026) is in the field at 61 kg with Blaze. Herring wrestled for the powerhouse Bishop McCort program in Pennsylvania.

How to watch the 2025 U20 Wrestling Team Trials

The U20 and U23 U.S. Team Trials are scheduled for May 30-June 1 at SPIRE Academy in Ohio. More than 1,000 wrestlers will compete in the three-day event that will determine who represents the U.S. at the U23 and U20 World Wrestling Championships. Winners of the best-of-three U20 championship series qualify for the 2025 World Championships in August in Bulgaria.

The U20 freestyle sessions are scheduled for 4-7 p.m. ET Saturday, May 31. FloWrestling will stream the event live from Ohio.