Japan’s Masanosuke Ono, the reigning world freestyle champion at 61kg, has committed to Penn State wrestling, he announced Monday on FloWrestling Radio Live.
Ono previously trained with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club ahead of his match with former Iowa national champion Spencer Lee earlier this month.
The 21-year-old established himself as one of the best pound-for-pound wrestlers in the world in the last year. After placing second at the Japanese National Championships in 2023 at 65kg, Ono dropped down to 61kg and won the event in 2024 to earn a spot in the freestyle World Championships.
In September, he ran the table at the U20 World Championships, defeating Penn State commit Marcus Blaze along the way to claim the junior world title. Just one month later, Ono dominated the field of much older wrestlers en route to a 2024 Senior World Championship at 61kg, defeating a former Olympic gold medalist and the reigning world champion on his way.
After training for a few months in State College with the NLWC, Ono defeated Lee 3-2 in a FloWrestling: Night in America freestyle competition, improving his record to 20-3. Earlier this week, he was spotted in the Penn State directory as a student.
Ono has competed at 59.5 and 61 kilograms in recent months, which puts him around the 133 pound weight class for collegiate folkstyle. He figures to compete for the starting lineup right away at 133 or 141, with the starting spot at 141 notably being vacated by All-American Beau Bartlett graduating.
