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Wednesday saw the U20 men’s freestyle team put the finishing touches on a historic tournament. At one point, it seemed we could make a compelling argument that this was our best team ever. Once the smoke cleared, it’s hard to argue that it wasn’t! So, how good was the team? We have uncovered several key facts, trends, and “firsts” from the tournament to help illustrate our point. Not only did eight team members earn medals, but nine wrestled in medal matches. The team went 37-6 overall throughout the tournament. For comparison’s sake, the 2024 squad won the team race, but finished with 10 losses. The American team lost six matches during the entire tournament - three came against Kazakhstan. The remaining three losses for the men’s freestyle team came against Iran, Japan, and Russia (UWW). Team USA went 5-1 against Russian wrestlers competing for Team UWW. The five wins at the expense of Russia were the most for the US against any single country. They went 3-1 versus Iranian wrestlers. Other frequent opponents were Georgia and Turkiye. The Americans went 4-0 against both countries. Seven of the ten team members advanced to the semifinals. The five champions set a new U20 American record. The team previously had three champions in 2017 and 2021. The Americans were 5-1 in gold medal matches, which was a sharp contrast from 2024, when they went 1-4 in the finals. The most dominant American champion was Marcus Blaze, who had four wins via tech (including the finals) and one via cautions. Bad news for college wrestling fans of programs other than Penn State. The Nittany Lion contingent was responsible for two world titles, a silver, and two bronzes. The last two U20 world champions at 61 kg will be new arrivals at Penn State. Blaze and Masanosuke Ono. Blaze, PJ Duke, and Justin Rademacher’s gold medals represented their second U20 world medals. Blaze now has world titles at both the U17 and U20 age groups. Bulgaria has been good to the U20 men’s freestyle team. With the five champions this year, they now have eight gold medalists the last three times this tournament has been held in the country. Jore Volk and Ben Kueter (2022) and Kyle Snyder (2013). For the second straight U20 tournament, all ten of the men’s freestyle team members won at least one bout. Since this tournament went to ten weights in 2018, this is the first time that the men’s freestyle team has five team members with prior U20 world experience (Blaze, Duke, Lockett, Connor Mirasola, Rademacher). Max McEnelly’s path to a gold medal includes wins over wrestlers from Russia, Iran, Georgia, and Armenia - probably the best list of opponents for the American contingent. The Iranian was the only one to score on McEnelly. Justin Rademacher is the third American wrestler since 2007 to have wrestled in an NCAA Tournament and not medaled, then won a U20 title. He joins Mason Parris (2019) and Bubba Jenkins (2007). Rademacher is also the third American to win the 97 kg title in the last five years. Kueter (2022) and Braxton Amos (2021) were the others. 70 and 97 kg are the only two weights in which the USA has medaled in every year since 2021. In a rematch of last year’s bronze medal match at 92 kg, Connor Mirasola flipped his result against Azerbaijan’s Anar Jafarli and got a 10-0 tech. Last year, Jafarli won, 6-2. Since 2021, Wisconsin is the state that has produced the most U20 medalists, with five. Connor Mirasola, Cole Mirasola, Mitchell Mesenbrink x2, Keegan O’Toole. Minnesota and Ohio are next with four. The Mirasola brothers are the first pair of American brothers to earn medals at the same U20/Junior tournament since 1973 (Jimmy and Joe Carr). (from Jason Bryant) The team has improved its point total in every tournament since 2018 (from Willie Saylor)