Penn State's Mitchell Mesenbrink, center, celebrates after defeating Iowa's Mike Caliendo in their 165-pound match in the finals at the NCAA wrestling championship, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State wrestling team (15-0, 8-0 B1G) will host the 2026 Big Ten Championships on Saturday and Sunday, March 7-8. The event takes place in the Bryce Jordan Center with sessions at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and a combined session on Sunday starting at 12 p.m. All rankings are InterMat/InterMat TPI.

The Nittany Lions are coming off a dominant 50-0 shutout victory over Princeton in the dual meet finale for the team on Friday, Feb. 20, in Rec Hall. The shutout victory was the eighth of the year for Penn State, meaning the Nittany Lions posted shutouts in over half their duals this year. Penn State now has 33 shutouts since Sanderson’s arrival as head coach in 2009-10. Senior Levi Haines got a pin in the dual, his final appearance in Rec Hall.

Penn State has ten wrestlers ranked by InterMat. Luke Lilledahl is 17-0 and ranked No. 1 at 125. Marcus Blaze is 19-0 and ranked No. 2 at 133. Braeden Davis is 9-3 and ranked No. 14 at 141. Shayne Van Ness is 18-0 and No. 1 at 149. PJ Duke is 16-1 and No. 4 at 157. Mitchell Mesenbrink is 19-0 and No. 1 at 165. Levi Haines is 18-0 and No. 1 at 174. Rocco Welsh is 17-0 and No. 1 at 184. Josh Barr is 16-0 and No. 1 at 197. Cole Mirasola is 14-4 and No. 5 at 285.

The Big Ten Championship serves as the NCAA qualifier for the conference. The conference received 87 automatic qualifiers: nine at 125, eight at 133, seven at 141, nine at 149, eight at 157, nine at 165, ten at 174, eight at 184, ten at 197 and nine at 285.

Heading into the 2026 tournament, Penn State has won three straight Big Ten Championships and nine overall, all since head coach Cael Sanderson took over the reigns of the program for the 2009-10 season). The Nittany Lions recently won their sixth straight Big Ten Regular Season Championship and 12th overall (all since Sanderson’s arrival as well).

Penn State’s national qualifiers will head to Rocket Arena in Cleveland for the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships. The three day event runs Thursday through Sunday, March 19-21. Thursday’s sessions begin at 12 and 7 p.m., Friday’s at 12 and 8 p.m., and Saturday’s at 11 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.