Penn State wrestling comes off yet another dominant season on the mat, racking up Big Ten and national titles as a team and across individual wrestlers. Heading into 2026-27 and beyond, head coach Cael Sanderson will have another season with an impressive roster that will be a force to be reckoned with for other squads in the country.
The Nittany Lions' Class of 2027 is proof of that.
MatScouts updated its high school wrestling rankings, according to Blue White Illustrated. Penn State Class of 2027 commits Grey Burnett, Landon Sidun, Clinton Shepherd, and Gavin Mangano are all ranked in the top five in their respective weight classes.
Burnett and Sidun are the No. 1 and No. 2 wrestlers in the 126-pound weight class, respectively. Shepherd and Mangano are ranked first and fourth in the 150-pound weight class, respectively. Burnett, Sidun, and Shepherd are also in the top 10 overall rankings.
According to Greg Pickel, Sidun is on track to winning his third PIAA state championship, which will make him the 31st wrestler in Pennsylvania history to do so. Mangano and Burnett seek their fourth state championships in New York and Ohio, respectively. Shepherd is preparing to win his second state championship in Indiana.
Will Soto and James Whitbred are the other Class of 2027 commits for the blue and white. The Nittany Lions have the No. 2 recruiting class with six wrestlers, according to FloWrestling as of Dec. 10, 2025. Four of their six are ranked in the top 25 and all are in the top 100. Virginia Tech has the top class with five wrestlers, all of whom are tanked in the top 50.
These six wrestlers will join a Penn State squad absent of high-level talent, such as Levi Haines, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Shayne Van Ness, Tyler Kasak, and Braden Davis. Haines graduated after the 2025-26 season and the remaining four are entering their senior season in 2026-27.
Haines was the only wrestler to make Final X out of that bunch, largely due to many of them not opting to compete at the World Team Trials in mid-May. Rising junior Luke Lilledahl and rising sophomore Marcus Blaze also made Final X and will compete in the 57-kilogram and 61-kilogram men's freestyle best-of-three series, respectively. The event is scheduled for Friday, June 19 in Newark, N.J. and the men's freestyle session will begin at 2 p.m. ET.
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