True Freshmen to Watch in 2025-26

Having true freshmen start in the first year of a DI wrestling career isn’t a new phenomenon. However, true freshmen have never been as equipped to compete and win right out of the gate as they are in this era.

A fact I love to break out is that from 1981-2002, there was only one true freshman who won a DI title (Pat Smith - 1990). Two more occurred in 2003 and 2006. Since 2010, we’ve had six (Dake, Cox, Hall, Diakomihalis, Lee, Ferrari). There were also true freshmen who finished up as NCAA runners-up since 2010.

Another point of data to consider about true freshmen, particularly in 2025, is that there were two wrestlers who made the Senior World team in freestyle before ever setting foot on campus as a college freshman. The point being, not only do these freshmen have the potential to win national titles, but they could do so right away.

Here are the highest-ranked true freshmen that we expect to start for the 2025-26 season. Any by start, we mean wrestle for the majority of the season and into the postseason. The new-ish freshman redshirt rules allow coaches to get true freshmen a taste of duals or top tournaments and still retain redshirt status. We’re not looking for those wrestlers today, just the ones that are most likely to wrestle in Cleveland in 2026.

#1 PJ Duke (Penn State)

#2 Marcus Blaze (Penn State)

We’ll lump both of the Penn State studs together. Penn State is typically very tight-lipped about lineup-related decisions and this year is no exception.

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