Six Penn State-affiliated wrestlers competed in this weekend’s Poland Open, a freestyle wrestling tournament that takes place annually in Warsaw.

Of those six, five are currently with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club (NLWC), and three are on the active Penn State roster; four earned gold medals, one earned bronze, and one placed fifth after a loss in the bronze medal match. Combined, the six went 22-3, with 11 wins by technical superiority and six by fall.

How It Happened

Luke Lilledahl

The 2026 NCAA national champion, who might be on the mat in Las Vegas at the U23 World Championships, got to the finals with two dominant wins via technical superiority, taking down Hungary’s Balazs Racz in a 10-0 shutout before punching his ticket to the gold medal match with an 11-0 victory over Thomas Epp of Switzerland.

For the gold, he faced Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz, a Pan-American Games bronze medalist and an NCAA champion in 2017. This match would be much tighter, but the Nittany Lion brought home the gold for his country, winning 2-0.

Marcus Blaze

Blaze has always been a tremendous freestyle wrestler and will look to show that at the Senior World Championships in a few months, but if this tournament was any indication, he’ll do just fine.

He started his day with an 11-0 win by technical superiority over Yaroslaw Hurskyy of Poland before moving on to face a fellow American in Austin DeSanto, a former four-time All-American from Iowa. In a tighter match, Blaze prevailed 5-0 to get to the semifinals, where he pinned Josh Rodriguez, a former Pan American champion in 2019.

In the gold medal match, Blaze faced a third American in Kyle Burwick, a former Wisconsin and North Dakota State wrestler who made three NCAA Championship appearances. Blaze took the 61-kilogram gold with a dominating effort, winning the match 11-0 by technical superiority in under four minutes.

Beau Bartlett

While no longer affiliated with Penn State wrestling, Bartlett’s folkstyle career at the university makes him worth following throughout his freestyle career, where he made a nice run at 65 kilograms.

It wasn’t a pretty start, as he was knocked off by Penn’s CJ Composto in the first round, 7-4, but he got the opportunity to fight through the consolation bracket to wrestle for bronze.

He started his wrestleback journey with a pin of Poland’s Bilal Bayduev before teching Mykyta Abramov of Ukraine, 12-2. Needing two more wins, Bartlett shut out Switzerland’s Nino Leutert in a 10-0 tech before throwing 15 points on the board to blow out Belgium’s Ayub Musaev to earn the bronze medal match.

While Composto, the man he lost to, fought for gold, Bartlett wrestled Georgia’s Mikheili Berdznishvili for the bronze medal. It was a tight match into the second period, but Bartlett stuck the Georgian on his back for a medal-sealing pin to end his run with five consecutive wins.

Zain Retherford

The uber-accomplished Penn State alum, Retherford, is continuing his journey back toward the Senior World Championships after winning the US Team Trials and Final X following a near-two-year layoff from the sport after the 2024 Olympic Games.

Competing at 70 kilograms, the two-time Hodge Trophy winner took out former All-American and Pan American champion Alec Pantaleo in the first round, 8-2, before rolling to a technical superiority win over Ukraine’s Narek Pohosian and pinning Hungary’s Marton Varga to advance to the gold medal match.

Competing for gold with Retherford was Armenia’s Arman Andreasyan, who was a takedown away from winning the match in the final seconds, only to be driven to the mat and pinned with 0.8 seconds left, adding another piece of hardware to Retherford’s mantle.

Levi Haines

The two-time NCAA champion and World silver medalist got some reps in ahead of this fall’s U23 and Senior World Championships, where he’ll hope to get a pair of golds.

The field stood no match for Haines, who pinned Poland’s Fabian Niedźwiedzki in the first round and defeated ex-Iowa rival Patrick Kennedy by technical superiority in the semifinals to advance to the gold medal match.

With gold on the line against Germany’s Stas David Wolf, he dominated from start to finish, winning 11-0 by technical superiority to complete a dominant run to a Poland Open gold medal.

Cole Mirasola

The wrestling team’s starting heavyweight in 2025-26, Mirasola, competed at 125 kilograms in Poland, getting things started with a 12-1 win via technical superiority over fellow American wrestler Jacob Bullock Jr. from Indiana.

His chances at a gold medal would go up in smoke in the quarterfinals, however, dropping a 13-7 bout to Germany’s Mohsen Siyar, knocking him into the consolation bracket, where he defeated Crew Howard, currently affiliated with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club, 7-3 to advance to the bronze medal match.

Mirasola fought for bronze against a third American, former three-time All-American heavyweight Jordan Wood from Lehigh, but this one was ugly from the start. Wood dominated the match, defeating Mirasola 11-0 with technical superiority to take bronze.