Biglerville's Levi Haines wins NCAA individual wrestling title for Penn State

Levi Haines put the finishing touches on perfection Saturday night.

The Penn State sophomore and Biglerville High School graduate captured the NCAA individual wrestling championship at 157 pounds in Kansas City, capping a 23-0 season and reaching the mountaintop after a national runner-up finish a year ago.

Haines, the Big Ten champion and top national seed in his class, defeated No. 2-seed Jacori Teemer of Arizona State by a 5-0 decision in the final on Saturday to secure the title.

Penn State clinched the national title on Friday night when it sent a record-tying six wrestlers to the finals. The Nittany Lions finished with four individual national champions, headlined by Carter Starocci (174) and Aaron Brooks (197) each claiming their fourth title. Senior Greg Kerkvliet opened Saturday's evening session by claiming the heavyweight crown. Beau Bartlett and Mitchell Mesenbrink settled for silver at 141 and 165 pounds, respectively.

The Nittany Lions finished the weekend with 172.5 points, surpassing the record of 170 set by Iowa in 1997 and topping second-place Cornell by a full 100 points. The program has won 11 NCAA team championships since Cael Sanderson took over as head coach in 2010, bringing its all-time total to 12. Penn State has won three straight titles, adding to a pair of four-peats from 2011-14 and 2016-19.

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Haines is now 50-2 in his collegiate career. He burst through the door as a true freshman, performing so well in early-season meets that Sanderson had no choice but to burn his redshirt. Haines won a surprise Big Ten title in 2023 and reached the 157-pound NCAA final. North Carolina’s Austin O’Connor — an undefeated sixth-year senior — bested him for the championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

There was hardly any drama to be found in 2023-24, as Haines entered nationals 18-0 with 11 wins by either pin, technical fall or major decision. He added a pair of wins by tech fall in Thursday’s opening rounds, then defeated Nebraska’s Peyton Robb in an 8-0 major decision on Friday. Haines trailed for much of his Friday evening semifinal match against No. 12-seed Bryce Andonian of Virginia Tech, but the sophomore scored a dramatic pin at the 6:49 mark to reach the final against Teemer.

After a scoreless first period in the first-ever meeting between the two grapplers, Haines tallied an escape in the second period and a takedown in the third to seize control of the match.

Haines was considered a top national recruit after posting a 100-5 record in just three years at Biglerville, where his father Ken served as head coach. Levi Haines was 40-1 as a freshman and 30-4 as a sophomore, finishing as the PIAA Class 2A runner-up in both seasons. He then went 30-0 as a junior and captured the state championship at 145 pounds. Rather than wrestle for the Canners as a senior, however, Haines competed in open collegiate events to better prepare him for what he’d face at Penn State.

There’s no question now that it’s all paid off.

With two years of eligibility remaining, Haines will have plenty of opportunities to climb through the ranks of Penn State’s all-time greats. While no future national titles can be guaranteed, especially if Haines moves up a weight class as an upperclassman, he’ll certainly be an All-American contender as long as he’s in college.

And he’ll continue to have plenty of superstars around him.