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UNIVERSITY PARK -- The best wrestlers in the United States will gather in the Bryce Jordan Center today and Saturday to determine 18 representatives to the Olympics in three disciplines and, predictably, Penn State has a large presence.
The 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Wrestling will determine potential Olympic representatives for the U.S. at the Summer Olympics July 26-Aug. 11 in Paris in three disciplines: men's and women's freestyle and Greco-Roman.
Lewistown's Trent Hidlay, a five-time All-American, four-time placewinner and two-time NCAA runner-up for North Carolina State, has qualified at 86kg (189 pounds). He has been pre-seeded third.
Penn State's fingerprints are all over the freestyle competitions, mainly men's freestyle. A total of 21 wrestlers with past, present or future connections to the Nittany Lions have qualified.
Two future Nittany Lions, seven current Nittany Lions, nine members of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club/Penn State Olympic Regional Training Center and three former Penn Staters not affiliated with the NLWC/RTC have qualified.
Headlining that group of 21 are four Olympic medalists, two gold medal winners and two bronze, who train in Penn State's Lorenzo Wrestling Complex: gold medalists David Taylor (86kg) and Kyle Snyder (97kg) and bronze medalists Kyle Dake (74kg) and Thomas Gilman (57kg) will all be vying for a berth to try to earn another Olympic medal.
Other RTC teammates include Zain Retherford (65kg), Nick Lee (65kg), Jason Nolf (74kg), Max Dean (86kg) and Jennifer Page (57kg).
Of the seven current Nittany Lions who have qualified, four are 2024 NCAA champions and two more are 2024 All-Americans. Four-time champions Aaron Brooks and Carter Starocci will compete at 86kg. First-time champions Levi Haines (74kg) and Greg Kerkvliet (125kg), as well as All-Americans Beau Bartlett (65kg) and Mitchell Mesenbrink (74kg) have qualified. Alex Facundo (74kg) will compete, too.
Two future Nittany Lions, current high school students, have qualified for the trials. Connor Mirasola, a four-time Wisconsin state champion, is a member of Penn State's Class of 2024. He will compete at 86kg. Luke Lilledahl, a Missouri native who has wrestled for Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania, is also part of Penn State's Class of 2024. He will go at 57kg, which features two other high school standouts.
Three former Nittany Lions, who are not affiliated with the NLWC or Penn State RTC, will also hit the mats in the BJC. Nico Megaludis (57kg), Vincenzo Joseph (74kg) and Mark Hall (86kg), who all won national championships at Penn State, will be familiar faces for most in attendance.
The time schedule for each day is the same, a session starting at 10 a.m. and running until approximately 3:30 p.m. and a second, evening session that starts at 6:30 and runs until around 10 p.m.
Session 1 will feature preliminary, quarterfinal and consolation bouts in all styles and weights.
Session 2 will feature the semifinals and finals of the challenger tournaments.
During Session 3, Round 1 of the final 2 out of 3 championship series will be contested.
And, in the final session, Session 4, Round 2 of the final 2 out of 3 championship series are scheduled, as well as Round 3 of those series if needed.
In the U.S. qualifying system, wrestlers meeting certain criteria can earn what essentially are byes to different points in the competition. Some sit out until a winner emerges from the challenger tournament and wrestles the winner in a best-of-three format. Others, who excelled at non-Olympic weights in world competitions, earn byes until the semifinals of the challenger tournament.
At 65kg, Retherford earned an automatic spot in the semifinals of the lower half of the bracket.
At 74kg, Dake awaits the winner of the challenger tournament in a best-of-three series.
At 86kg, Taylor also awaits the winner of the challenger tournament in a best-of-three series. Zahid Valencia earned an automatic spot in the semifinals of the lower half of the bracket.
At 97kg, Snyder awaits the winner of the challenger tournament in a best-of-three series.
And, at 125 kg, Mason Parris awaits the winner of the challenger tournament in a best-of-three series.
All four sessions will be broadcast and/or streamed in their entirety on Peacock or USA Network. Subscribers to Peacock can choose between a quad box that will feature all four mats, or individual channels dedicated to each of the four mats.