By ANDY ELDER

Wrestling correspondent

UNIVERSITY PARK — As the NCAA cycles through repeat sites for its Div. I Wrestling Championships, Penn State fans have been treated to a trip down memory lane.

Last year’s jaunt to Philadelphia evoked memories of where this Penn State dynasty under Cael Sanderson started in 2011 with the first of now 12 championships under his tutelage.

This year’s trip to Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Thursday through Saturday, will surely hearken back to arguably the most consequential bout in the history of the tournament – Bo Nickal’s pin of Ohio State’s Myles Martin in 2018 to clinch the team championship for the Nittany Lions.

Fans can only hope for something as dramatic this year. Penn State is heavily favored in the team race with an NCAA-record seven top-seeded wrestlers, six of them undefeated. It would be the fifth in a row and the 13th in the last 15 contested tournaments.

Based on seeds alone, Penn State has a good chance of crowning at least eight All-Americans, and those seeds would suggest seven national champions. Sophomore Luke Lilledahl (20-0 at 125), junior Shane Van Ness (21-0, 149), freshman P.J. Duke (19-1, 157), junior Mitchell Mesenbrink (22-0, 165), senior Levi Haines (21-0, 174), Sophomore Rocco Welsh (20-0, 184) and sophomore Josh Barr (19-0, 197) are all seeded No. 1 at their respective weights.

Freshman Marcus Blaze (21-1) is seeded third at 133, redshirt freshman Cole Mirasola (17-6, 285) is seeded ninth and junior Braeden Davis (12-5) is seeded No. 14 at 141.

“Like you said, it’s unprecedented. It’s obviously really cool to be part of a team that’s full of a bunch of savages. But at the same time, I feel like none of us really care about the seeds,” Lilledahl said at Monday’s pre-NCAA media availability.

“We’re just going to go out there and wrestle hard and do our job. Obviously, we want to have 10 NCAA champs. So, I feel like as a team, if we don’t have 10 NCAA champs, we’re kind of just like ‘next year we’ve got to get it done.’ So, I think we’re kind of always just looking to the next thing and trying to become better than the last year.”

Sanderson, as usual, provided his own unique perspective on his team’s rash of No. 1 seeds.

“Who’s the last guy in the bracket you want to wrestle? That’s really what the seeds are,” he said. “Our guys earn that by just wrestling hard this year and being consistent and obviously wrestling in a tough conference.”

Circling back to Lilledahl and his seed, or more specifically the matchups that seed presents, he had more to offer. In the middle of a question about his half of the draw, he started smiling. The question finished with the possibility of his meeting Lehigh No. 4 seed Sheldon Seymour in the semifinals, the guy who knocked Lilledahl into the consolation bracket last year in the quarterfinals with a tiebreaker win on riding time.

“I definitely wanted that rematch at the dual and didn’t get it. So, I’d be more than happy to wrestle him, and more than excited to wrestle him, but at the same time, I’m more than excited to wrestle every guy in that bracket. Whoever I have in the semis is whoever I have. It doesn’t really matter,” he said.

“I’m just going to go out there and score points and have fun. And you know, at the end of the day, my goal is to be NCAA champ, and nobody in the bracket is at my level, I think. And you know, if I just go out there and wrestle the way I want to, that’s going to be proven.”

Van Ness, who will be rooming with Lilledahl in Cleveland, said the keys to success and improving on his two third-place finishes, will be fun and trust.

“I just think I’m going to go out there and have fun. When I take things too serious, I tend to overthink, and I’m just not myself out there. So, as long as I’m having fun, everything’s going to take care of itself,” he said.

“I think for me, it’s just trusting in the plan. We have some of the greatest coaches in the world, if not the greatest, and they know exactly what they’re doing. So, just having that trust in them and our preparation, which we can see throughout history this is our best tournament historically throughout all the years of this program. So, as long as we can have confidence and trust in our coaches, I think there’s no reason to not go out there and go have some fun.”

It’s no secret that Sanderson and his staff have always prepared their teams to peak at the NCAA tournament. And with very few exceptions, the Nittany Lions have done that better than any other team in the past 15 championships. He said that track record helps inspire confidence in each succeeding team.

“I think when you’re prepared and you’re doing your best to do things the right way, then you can sleep when the wind blows. If the wind’s blowing, you can be at peace,” he said. “These guys that are in this room, they know there hasn’t been a year that our teams haven’t wrestled great at the national tournament. That should give them a lot of confidence and they can just be confident and comfortable and just go do what they do.”

Under Sanderson, what the Nittany Lions do sounds like the iconic motto of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders — just win, baby.

INFO BOX

2026 NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships

When: Thursday-Saturday

Where: Rocket Arena, Cleveland

Thursday

Noon: Session 1 – first round, ESPNU

7 p.m.: Session 2 – Second round, consolation first round, ESPN

Friday

Noon: Session 3 – Quarterfinals, consolation second, third rounds, ESPNU

8 p.m.: Session 4 – Semifinals, consolation fifth, sixth rounds, ESPN2

Saturday

11 a.m.: Session 5 – Consolation semifinals, 3rd-, 5th, 7th-place bouts, ESPNU

6:30 p.m.: Session 6 – Championship finals and awards ceremony, ESPN

Penn State first-round matchups: 125 – (1) Lilledahl vs. winner of (32) Mack Mauger (22-14, Missouri vs. (33) Jace Schafer (23-8) Bloomsburg; 133 – (3) Blaze vs. (30) Gabe Whisenhunt (9-8) Oregon State; 141 – (14) Davis vs. (19) Haiden Drury (21-9) Utah Valley; 149 – (1) Van Ness vs winner of (32) Clayton Jones (11-15) Michigan State vs. (33) Austin McBurney (21-13) Brown; 157 – (1) Duke vs. winner of (32) Jeb Prechtel (18-14) Bellarmine vs. (33) Yannis Charles (5-8) Morgan State; 165 – (1) Mesenbrink vs. winner of (32) Cody Walsh (27-13) Drexel vs. (33) Ryan Vigil (14-9) VMI; 174 – (1) Haines vs. winner of (32) Luke Condon (13-13) Wisconsin vs. (33) Grant O’Dell (24-8) Bellarmine; 184 – (1) Welsh vs. winner of (32) Caleb Uhlenhopp (16-14) Utah Valley vs. (33) Sam Goin (12-8) Indiana; 197 – (1) Barr vs. winner of (32) Blake Schaffer (22-9) Kent State vs. (33) Karson Tompkins (21-12) Air Force; 285 – (9) Mirasola vs. (24) Connor Barket (23-7) Duke.