Four Nittany Lions are finalists for college wrestling’s most prestigious award, and fan voting is now open.
Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl, Mitchell Mesenbrink, Levi Haines and Josh Barr are up for the Dan Hodge Trophy. They join three other undefeated 2026 national champions as finalists for the honor.
Fan voting for the award is open through Friday, March 27 at win-magazine.com/2026/03/23/2026-dan-hodge-trophy-fan-vote. The fan choice will receive five first-place votes to go along with the votes of each past Hodge winner, retired college coaches, national media members and representatives of each national wrestling organization.
Criteria for the Hodge Trophy are record, dominance/bonus-point percentage, quality of competition and sportsmanship.
Mesenbrink, a redshirt junior and the Outstanding Wrestler of the 2026 NCAA Championships, is widely viewed as the favorite for this year’s Hodge after winning his second consecutive national title at 165 pounds with a technical fall against Iowa’s Mikey Caliendo on Saturday. Riding a 54-match win streak dating back to 2024-25, Mesenbrink was 27-0 with a bonus rate of 96.3%, the highest in the nation with only one of his victories — in the national quarterfinals — by decision. He had eight pins, 11 tech falls, six major decisions and a win by forfeit and was named the season’s NCAA Most Dominant Wrestler.
Barr won his first national title at 197 pounds to finish a 24-0 season. The redshirt sophomore had a 95.8% bonus rate, the second highest in the nation, with his only decision victory coming in the championship final. The Big Ten champion and two-time NCAA finalist had five pins, 12 tech falls and six major decisions this season.
Haines finished his four-year collegiate career by winning the title at 174 pounds, his second national championship. The four-time All-American and Big Ten champion went 26-0 with a bonus rate of 80.8% this season. That included six pins, 13 tech falls and two major decisions.
Lilledahl, a true sophomore, claimed his first national championship at 125 pounds. Now a two-time All-American and Big Ten champion, Lilledahl was 25-0 with a 58.3% bonus rate that included one pin, eight tech falls, four major decisions and one forfeit.
Oklahoma State has two of the other Hodge finalists in freshmen Jax Forrest and Sergio Vega. NC State senior Isaac Trumble, the 285 pound champion, rounds out the field.
Five Penn State wrestlers have won the Hodge a total of seven times: Kerry McCoy (1997), David Taylor (2012, 2014), Zain Retherford (2017, 2018), Bo Nickal (2019) and Aaron Brooks (2024). Six of those wins came under head coach Cael Sanderson, who was the award’s only three-time winner during his undefeated career at Iowa State.
