© Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen/USA TODAY NETWORK
The greatest dynasty in modern sports — one that you may well have never even heard of — got even stronger on Monday with the addition of world champion. The Penn State wrestling team has won 12 of the last 14 NCAA national championships under the guidance of head coach Cael Sanderson. This season, the Nittany Lions set an national record with 177 points at the national tournament. That eclipsed the old mark of 172.5 points set by, you guessed, Penn State just last year.
But that’s not all. Penn State also crowned all 10 of its starters as All-Americans, joining the 2001 Minnesota Golden Gophers as the only programs in NCAA history to do so. Meanwhile, senior Carter Starocci became the first and likely only wrestler to win five individual national titles.
Oh, and in case you thought they might be slowing down anytime soon, the Nittany Lions reaffirmed their standing as the preeminent power in college wrestling on Monday with the addition of Masanosuke Ono.
Ono is a 21-year-old Japanese superstar who burst onto the scene in 2024 when he won both a U20 world championship and senior world championship in freestyle. En route to his senior level world championship, he dominated reigning world champion and two-time NCAA champion Vito Arujau, 12-0 in the world semifinals. Arujau wrestled for Cornell in college and claimed NCAA titles in both 2023 and 2024, defeated Penn State star Roman Bravo-Young in the finals of the former.
Ono initially came to Penn State in order to train for an exhibition match with Olympic silver medalist and three-time NCAA champion Spencer Lee of Iowa. Ono won that match 2-0, and shortly after rumors began to swirl that he might remain in the United States to train or even potentially wrestle at the college level. On Monday, Ono made it official when he announced his intent to attend Penn State and pursue a college wrestling career.
Masa Ono announces his commitment to Penn State on @FloWrestling Radio pic.twitter.com/CYlyTj2Wkt
— Evan Smith (@EvanRGSmith) March 24, 2025
Now, there is a slight catch. Ono is a world champion in freestyle, but he has never wrestled under the American folkstyle rule set. The two styles are very similar, but there are notable differences which he will need to adapt to. That being said, he’s shown the ability to learn quick, and that just might be a bad sign for the rest of the college wrestling world.