Penn State wrestler Mitchell Mesenbrink will compete for a U-23 world wrestling championship at 74 kilograms on Saturday in NoviSad, Serbia, while teammate Josh Barr, if healthy, will vie for a bronze medal at 92kg.

Mesenbrink , a defending NCAA champion and two-time NCAA finalist at 165 pounds, cruised to the semifinals with wins over Aliaksandr Hulnik of Turkey, Parvinder Parvinder of India and Omar Mourad of Egypt.

While he dispatched those three with an array of offense that Penn State fans are used to seeing from Mesenbrink, the semifinals weren’t nearly as easy for him.

Japan’s Yoshinosuke Aoyagi, a senior world champion at 70kg, countered a Mesenbrink shot for an early 2-0 lead. He stopped the match for injury time because of a problem with fingers on his right hand and pointe

See Full Page