Former Penn State wrestler Levi Haines cruises to Pan-Am Championships crown
It’s been nearly two months since Levi Haines was on a wrestling mat competitively.
The last time out, he was donning a Penn State singlet and came away with his second NCAA crown. On Sunday in Coralville, Iowa, Haines had a team USA singlet on, and again came away with a title — 2026 Senior Pan-Am Championships crown.
The former Nittany Lions wrestler only had four other wrestlers in his weight class of 79 kilograms, so they had a round-robin type tournament instead of a traditional bracket format.
Haines had a perfect day, and nearly had a perfect mark on the scoreboard as well, giving up just two points the entire competition.
The three-time NCAA finalist opened his tournament by racking up an 11-0 technical superiority in 4:00 on five-time NCAA All-American and former Nebraska wrestler Mikey Labriola, who competed for Puerto Rico. In the second round, Haines needed just 1:06 to dispatch Mexico’s Sergio Espinoza Muniz, 10-0.
The third round of wrestling saw the former Penn State wrestler face Canada’s Patrik Leder, who was the only wrestler to score on Haines. Haines was in on a leg lace and was rolling Leder around for back exposure points. Leder stopped one of Haines’ turns, and came away with exposure points of his own.
Haines got a reversal and then a gut wrench for exposure points in a 13-2 technical superiority in 2:37.
In his final match, the former Nittany Lion took down Colombia’s Jhoan Serna Rodriguez early, locked up a gut wrench for four turns in a 10-0 technical superiority in 1:07.
