True Freshmen to Watch in 2024-25

Each and every year we see a new crop of freshmen that take the college world by storm. The jump from high school to college is significant, but there are a select few who appear to make that leap seamlessly. 

Just last year we saw Rocco Welsh (Ohio State) come out of a potential redshirt to make the national finals, while #1 overall recruit Meyer Shapiro (Cornell) was as good as advertised and finished third at a deep 157 lb weight class. Nasir Bailey (Little Rock) finished fourth in the country and is the centerpiece of an upstart Little Rock program and Luke Stanich (Lehigh) captured an EIWA title and was seeded second in the nation. Pennsylvania natives Tyler Kasak (Penn State) and Ty Watters (West Virginia) ended up wrestling each other for third place at nationals. 

We are usually shocked at just how good these young kids are and, at this point, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. 

Whether we realize it or not, there will be a handful of true freshmen who end up making a deep run at the 2025 NCAA Tournament in Philadelphia. So, who are they? 

InterMat has tried to identify seven true freshmen who have a path to a starting role and have the talent to win and win in a big way in year one. 

The key phrase in the previous sentence is “path to a starting role.” This isn’t just a regurgitation of the top high school wrestlers from 2024. Many of those wrestlers have a veteran in front of them on the depth chart, which leads you to believe that they’ll spend the 2024-25 season in redshirt. But, as we saw last year with Welsh or Kasak, an injury can change everything and occasionally thrusts a freshman into an unexpected role. 

The wrestlers have been listed along with their Big Board ranking from the Class of 2024 and their projected weight for the 2024-25 campaign. 
 

#1 Luke Lilledahl (Penn State) - 125 lbs

All signs point to the top overall recruit in the Class of 2024 getting the opportunity to compete right away for Penn State at 125 lbs. Incredibly, 125 lbs has been a revolving door for the Nittany Lions which has produced zero All-American honors since Nico Megaludis’ national title in 2016. That may not be much of a drought for many schools, but at Penn State, one that has produced All-Americans and national champions with such great regularity, it is quite surprising. Since 2017, the other nine weights have combined for 49 All-American honors.

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