Penn State may not have a clean answer yet at 174 pounds, but Cael Sanderson isn’t sounding worried.
Even with Levi Haines’ return looking less likely, Sanderson has choices for the Nittany Lions’ lineup. The most intriguing one is Jayden James, a true freshman who is now one win away from becoming an U20 World Champion.
And if Sanderson’s words from Slovakia are any indication, James isn’t being viewed as a long-term project.
“He’s extremely unique,” Sanderson said from Slovakia, where he is with James as he competes for a world title. “The way he wrestles and his feel.
He’s unique in that he’s just come and relaxed, changing speeds. Can change directions, obviously strong… he’s very unique, and even if you feel like you are getting the best of him and a scramble or maybe you score an exposure point, it always comes out as worse for you.
You end up in a worse position than you were before, and he just has an uncanny position to kind of make whatever situation he’s in even worse for his opponents. He’s still young and just going to keep getting better.
These tournaments are obviously, you want to come here and win, but I always just thinking about more of the big picture and just trending in the right direction, make your opponents never want to wrestle you again and kind of build your reputation, all those kinds of things. But, yeah, he’s ready right now to compete with anybody in the world.”
The resume backs that up. James was the 2026 Dave Schultz High School excellence award winner for New Jersey and finished high school as the No. 2 pound-for-pound wrestler in the country in his class, according to FloWrestling. USA Wrestling says the award “recognizes the nation’s most outstanding high school senior male wrestlers.”
He also closed out his prep career with a second state title and 74 straight wins.
The only real question now is where he fits in. James’ freestyle weight translates to almost 165 pounds, but Penn State already has Mitchell Mesenbrink at 165 and one of PJ Duke or Tyler Kasak at 157. That makes 174 the most likely landing spot if James is going to step in right away.
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