Roman Bravo-Young added another line to an already decorated career on the world stage, giving Penn State wrestling another reason to celebrate.
Competing for Mexico, Bravo-Young stormed into the championship round before running into USA star Spencer Lee, the Iowa legend and reigning Olympic silver medalist. Lee closed the match fast, winning gold with a 10-0 tech fall in 25 seconds.
Bravo-Young’s path to the final included a strong start and a pair of tight wins when the bracket tightened up. He opened with a 5-2 victory over Kazakhstan’s Meirambek Kartbay, then rolled past Mauritius’ John Leopold 10-0 in 2:14.
The next two bouts were much closer. He edged Munkh Batkhuyag of Mongolia, 4-3, and followed that with a 4-1 win over North Korea’s Chong Song Han to secure his place in the finals.
The silver medal adds to a freestyle run that has already taken Bravo-Young far beyond his Penn State days. After college, he made the 2024 Olympic Team for Mexico.
He later left Nittany Lion Wrestling Club for Oklahoma State’s Cowboy RTC, where Penn State wrestling great David Taylor is now leading the charge. Bravo-Young then returned to NLWC last November and opened a training facility in his new town.
A Tucson native, Bravo-Young arrived at Penn State in the fall of 2018 and wasted no time becoming a factor. He was an All-American as a true freshman and went on to do it three more times. Along the way, he won two national titles and reached the championship match once more.
Since moving into the freestyle ranks, Bravo-Young has continued to pile up results for Mexico. He has won four gold medals at the Mexican Grand Prix and captured a Pan American Championship in Monterrey in 2025, all at 57 KG.
He wasn’t the only Nittany Lion Wrestling Club member to leave Worlds with hardware, either. All six NLWC members who competed at the event won medals.
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