Penn State wrestler Jayden James took home a silver medal as part of a three-man Nittany Lion contingent at this weekend’s U23 World Championships in Las Vegas. It’s James’ second medal of the offseason after also taking silver at the U20s’ last month in Kazakhstan.

James dominated the field on his way to the final, just as he did in the U20s, but ran into a wall in the final. While he led 3-0 at the break, he conceded five consecutive points to end the match and wound up taking silver.

Luke Lilledahl and Joe Sealey also competed at the event, but went just 1-2 combined, with Lilledahl falling in the bronze medal match.

How It Happened

Luke Lilledahl

Lilledahl, the reigning NCAA champion and U23 World Champion, first drew Merey Bazarbayev from Kazakhstan in the Round of 16 at 57 kilograms.

It was a quiet match to start. The two wrestlers stayed neutral and scoreless for the first minute and 50 seconds before Lilledahl was driven out of bounds for a step-out point at 1:50. That would be the only point of the first period.

It was clearly Bazarbayev’s strategy to muck this match up, as he rode the lead from that step-out point for all six minutes. Both wrestlers were put on the shot clock, but neither got a takedown.

The only point in the match where either nearly scored was a single-leg attempt from Lilledahl halfway through the second that the Kazakh fought off, not only by preventing him from finishing the takedown but by staying inbounds.

A desperate barrage of attacks ended in Lilledahl flinging himself out of bounds and finishing with a 3-1 defeat.

As disappointing as his first-round exit was, he would be pulled into repechage on Saturday afternoon after Bazarbayev advanced all the way to the final, where he would face France’s Rassoul Galbouraev for a spot in the bronze medal match.

The two wrestlers were scrapping through the first two minutes, constantly attacking and countering to no success. Lilledahl was put on the shot clock at 1:53, which lit a fire under him to finish his first takedown of the weekend at 2:20 in the first.

After the restart, Lilledahl kept the pace up, landing a buzzer-beating ankle pick to take the lead 4-0 into the break.

Nursing that four-point cushion, Lilledahl stayed neutral with the Frenchman, who couldn’t get close enough to attack. When he began his sprint with 20 seconds left, the Nittany Lion countered the snapdown from Galbouraev and held him at bay, ultimately winning 5-0.

He advanced to the bronze medal match on Sunday afternoon, where he faced Japan’s Daito Katsume.

The two battled for much of the first period with little action, but both had a few good shots that didn’t convert.

Lilledahl countered a shot from Katsume, but the whistle was blown before he could score a takedown. The Nittany Lion was then put on the shot clock and couldn’t finish a shot late in the period, going down 1-0 after three minutes.

He kept trying shots, but Katsume countered and put him in a bad position, forcing him to concede a pair of points for fleeing and stepping out of bounds.

Down 3-0, he started flying open, and the Japanese wrestler capitalized with a takedown and a subsequent leg lace to extend the lead to 7-0 at 5:14.

Lilledahl landed a desperation double-leg takedown in the final 15 seconds, but couldn’t do anything with it, losing 7-2.

Jayden James

Incoming freshman and U20 silver medalist Jayden James, who is grayshirting the 2026-27 season to maximize his eligibility, had to go through the qualification round first at 74 kilograms, matching up with Kyrgyzstan’s Adilet Akylbekov.

James was active right off the whistle, getting to Akylbekov’s legs, backing him to the edge, and throwing him on his back for what looked like a four-point move. Review overturned it, however, to four points for Akylbekov after a crazy scramble on the edge.

James didn’t wait long to avenge that missed opportunity, scoring two quick takedowns to tie the match just 90 seconds in.

A third takedown just before the two-minute mark turned into a six-point sequence after a pair of gut wrenches extended the lead to 10-4. Akylbekov scored a reversal on a third attempted gut wrench and got an extra point via step-out, cutting James’ lead to 10-6 after one period.

Akylbekov scored the first takedown of the second period after a long scramble, but surrendered one on the restart. The relentless James kept attacking and nearly converted a fifth takedown, but Akylbekov’s desperate attempt to escape a single-leg exposed his back, leading to a quick counter and fall at 4:56 for James.

In the second round, he faced Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Nasritdinov.

After a minute of hand-fighting, which prompted a restart, James successfully landed a single-leg on a reattack and switched off to get the opening takedown at 1:04. Inaction off the restart from the Uzbek put him on the shot clock, but he wasn’t able to score in the ensuing 30 seconds, giving James a third point late in the period.

With a 3-0 lead into the second period, James faced no real threat from Nasritdinov, taking him down at 3:42 and again at 5:20 to build up an insurmountable lead, ultimately winning this bout, 8-0, to advance to the quarterfinals.

Moldova’s Ion Marcu would face him next in the quarterfinals to close out the opening session.

Marcu struck first 90 seconds in on a scramble at the edge of the mat that briefly exposed James’s back, but the Nittany Lion countered and got what seemed like a takedown; it was ruled merely a step-out point, cutting the deficit to 2-1.

The two wrestlers spent much of the first period on their feet, with no other scoring until the second.

A scramble early in the second went Marcu’s way, as he finished a takedown before being reversed to make it 4-2. The Moldovan held his lead past the four-minute mark, but James finally finished a takedown at 4:17 after circling the mat to tie the match.

After the restart, James countered Marcu’s double-leg attempt and put him on his back for a quick two-pointer at 4:40 to go up 6-4.

In the final 20 seconds, Marcu hit a single leg that James had tried to fight off a few times earlier in the matchup. The two scrambled for the last 15 seconds, and the buzzer sounded with no takedown given. The Moldovan corner challenged out of desperation but failed, giving James a 7-4 victory.

After three victories in the Friday afternoon session, James took on Iran’s 2024 U20 bronze medalist Ali Manouchehr Karampour in the semifinals on Friday night.

A quick shot in the first 30 seconds led to a long scramble that James eventually won for the opening takedown. Off the restart, the Nittany Lion scooped up a single-leg and exposed Karampour’s back to take another two points for a 4-0 early lead.

The Iranian successfully reattacked another shot from James and scored a takedown of his own, but made a fatal flaw when he attempted to gut-wrench the American. Somehow, James stalled Karampour’s momentum mid-attempt and stuck him on his back in an impressive sequence.

The maneuver earned him four points and nearly a fall, but the two went out of bounds as the whistle saved Karampour, trailing 8-2 at 2:17.

It took James just 32 seconds off the restart to finish the job, though. The Nittany Lion once again stuck Karampour on his back, and no boundary saved the Iranian as James secured his spot in the gold medal match.

On the mat to battle James for gold on Saturday night was Russia’s former U20 European Champion Magomed Baitukaev.

Neither wrestler put together much offense in the first 90 seconds, so the referee put Baitukaev on the shot clock. He wouldn’t score in the ensuing 30 seconds, giving James the opening point at the two-minute mark.

After fighting off a subsequent shot from the Russian, James converted a high-crotch attempt for the opening takedown at 2:37 and took a 3-0 lead into the second period.

Baitukaev came out aggressive in the second, taking down James to cut the deficit to 3-2 at 3:57. He tried to twist him for a gut-wrench, but James held strong and forced a stoppage, returning to neutral with the lead intact.

The Nittany Lion stayed aggressive, taking shots on the boundary and putting Baitukaev on the edge, but he couldn’t out-scramble the Russian and ultimately gave up a back-breaking step-out point in the final minute, which gave his opponent the lead on criteria.

Needing to score to win, James kept shooting, but was ultimately countered and taken down to lose the match and the gold, 5-3.

He’s now led deep into the second period in both the U20 and U23 finals, but has lost both in heartbreaking fashion to take a pair of silvers.

Joe Sealey

As a last-minute replacement for Matty Singleton at 79 kilograms, former U17 World Champion Joe Sealey also had to start in the qualification round against Chandermohan Chandermohan of India.

The first two minutes saw not much action until Sealey was put on the shot clock. He didn’t score in the 30 seconds and conceded two step-out points, falling behind 3-0 in the first.

Chandermohan’s takedown in the final seconds of the period put him down 5-0 halfway through.

A much more aggressive Sealey tired himself out trying to fire shots in the first minute of the second period, but was ultimately worn down enough by the Indian to concede a takedown, get stuck in a leg lace, and concede the final six points in quick succession to lose 11-0 via technical superiority.

He would not be pulled into repechage, as Chandermohan lost to Mahdi Yousefihajivar in the semifinals.

What’s Next?

The offseason freestyle circuit reaches its zenith in two weeks, as the Senior World Championships take place October 24 to November 1 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Five Penn State-affiliated wrestlers will compete: Marcus Blaze, Zain Retherford, Levi Haines, Kyle Dake, and Kyle Snyder.