Penn State wrestling’s Marcus Blaze will move up to 141 pounds for the 2026-27 season, head coach Cael Sanderson revealed Tuesday.

Sanderson said the coaching staff thought the move would benefit Blaze and the entire team. Sanderson also said the move was partly to plan ahead for the Olympics, where Blaze would likely wrestle at 65 kilograms (143.3 pounds).

During the 2025-26 season, Hayden Cunningham, Braeden Davis, Cael Nasdeo, and Aaron Nagao were listed at 141. Nagao medically retired after the season.

“He’ll be a good size 141-pounder. We’re not worried about his size,” Sanderson said. “He can just continue to focus on getting better and competing hard. We allow [our guys] to make those decisions and what weight they want to go and where they’re going.”

Blaze started his collegiate career at 133 pounds in 2025-26, going 25-3 with four falls, nine technical falls, and seven major decisions.

He was undefeated into March, but lost to Ohio State’s Ben Davino in the Big Ten Championships Final and again in the NCAA Championships semifinal before losing the third-place match to Virginia Tech’s Aaron Seidel.

The reasons for Blaze moving up in weight as he continues to grow are not only about fitting the lineup properly, but also about setting himself up for his freestyle wrestling endeavors.

Sanderson and his staff “possibly” secured Masanosuke Ono’s immediate eligibility, and he will compete at 133 pounds. It’s a more comfortable weight for the 2024 world champion, who wrestles at 61 kilograms (134.5 pounds) in freestyle,

For Blaze, the goal is making the Olympic team.

At 61 kilograms, Blaze is a 2025 U20 world champion and just earned bronze at his first-ever Senior World Championships, but he’ll need to move up to an Olympic weight of 65 kilograms to make it to Los Angeles in 2028.

It’ll be a whole new experience for Blaze on the national level. After spending 2025-26 in a whirlwind of a weight that had freshmen finish in all top-four positions, he’ll look to take advantage of a shallower 141 that will not have Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez or Oklahoma State’s Sergio Vega.

He’ll be challenged right out of the gate, as Penn State travels to Norman, Oklahoma, to take on Oklahoma, with No. 11 Tyler Wells, and to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to take on Lehigh, with No. 1 Luke Stanich, in its first four dates of the season.

If Blaze is eased into the weight, Penn State has Hayden Cunningham, Braeden Davis, Cael Nasdeo, and Kyison Garcia listed at 141.

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