Penn State wrestling: Emerging star snubbed in national polls

Penn State wrestling has one of the most dominant lineups in college wrestling so far this season. The Nittany Lions have ranked wrestles at all 10 weight classes. However, one wrestler still isn’t seeing the love from the national polls like he is from the public. After a dominant start to the year, redshirt freshman Mitchell Mesenbrink still finds himself surprisingly low in the latest InterMat Rankings released this week.

Mitchell Mesenbrink moves up to No. 7 in this week’s InterMat Rankings

Mitchell Mesenbrink has been one of the most dominant wrestlers in the country at 165 this season, quickly becoming a Penn State fan favorite. The redshirt freshman currently has an unblemished 13-0 record with an 84.62% bonus percentage. He displayed his dominance once again this past weekend with two major decision victories over top 10 opponents.

The first came on Friday night when Mesenbrink dominated then-No. 7 Cameron Amine of Michigan for an 11-1 victory. He then followed it up with a dominant 18-9 win over then-No. 10 Caleb Fish of Michigan State Sunday. This is after defeating back-to-back top 15 opponents in Matthew Olguin (Oregon State) and Tyler Lillard (Indiana) the two weeks prior.

Still no love for the young Penn State wrestling star in the polls

Despite the streak of impressive wins, Mitchell Mesenbrink currently sits at No. 7 in the latest InterMat Rankings for 165. Mesenbrink moved up just two spots in the rankings, even after dominating back-to-back top 10 opponents.

It is important to note that Mesenbrink is one of just two wrestlers who remain undefeated at 165. The other is No. 1 Keegan O’Toole of Missouri. The other five wrestlers ahead of Mesenbrink all have at least one loss on the season. That includes two Big Ten wrestlers, No. 5 Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) and Mike Caliendo (Iowa). Mesenbrink will get his opportunity to face Caliendo when Penn State wrestling travels to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to take on Iowa on February 9.

Like in any college sport, the other wrestlers are simply being propped up by preseason expectations and poll inertia, in my opinion. Mitchell Mesenbrink wasn’t supposed to be this good in his first season, so he has had to grind his way to the top. You would think that four straight-ranked wins in dominant fashion would allow Mesenbrink to jump a few wrestlers, but that hasn’t been the case.

Much of the wrestling community seems to think it is a three-wrestler race between No. 1 Keegan O’Toole, No. 3 David Carr, and No. 7 Mitchell Mesenbrink for the national title at 165 this season. Some have even gone out to say it is between O’Toole and Mesenbrink to see who will lift the trophy in March.

The great thing about the NCAA Tournament is that it will sort out all of this debate. But in a world where seeding can make or break how a bracket takes shape, it may help to use the eye test in addition to comparing resumes.

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