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PJ Duke and Rocco Welsh's training center recently made history after multiple wrestlers from the KD Training Center, in New York State, earned spots on every U.S. Freestyle World Team in the same year. The wrestlers earned the spots in multiple categories, including U17, U20, U23, and Senior.
Welsh earned the spot to compete at the U23 World Championships in the 86kg freestyle category, which is scheduled from October 20 to 26, 2025, in Serbia. He did so by competing at the U23 Nationals in Geneva, Ohio, after transferring to Penn State wrestling from Ohio. His fellow clubmate, PJ Duke, also earned the spot to represent the national team in three 70kg freestyle categories - U20, U23, and senior. The U20, U23, and Senior events will be taking place in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Croatia, respectively.
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Duke clinched the spot for his Senior World Team appearance at the Final X after defeating 2022 World silver medalist Yianni Diakomihalis in a best-of-three series. He qualified for the U20 World Championships (to be held in August) by winning the U20 World Team Trials in Ohio. Their training club took pride in creating history and made a post on their Instagram account, writing:
"For the first time in USA Wrestling history, a single club has placed athletes on every U.S. Freestyle World Team in the same year: U17, U20, U23, and Senior. To make it even more special, our athletes swept every 70kg World Team spot across all age groups. Jayden, PJ, and Rocco earned this achievement through relentless dedication, and we couldn’t be prouder of their commitment."
James of KD Training Center also earned the spot to compete in the 71kg freestyle event at the U17 World Championships in Athens, Greece, after dominating the 2025 U.S. Open.
Rocco Welsh makes his feelings known on transferring to Penn State Wrestling
Rocco Welsh recently transferred to Penn State wrestling for the 2025-26 season to fill in Carter Starocci's place after the former lost to the latter in the finals of the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Before transferring to Penn State, Rocco Welsh competed for Ohio State and became an NCAA finalist in his freshman year. After his move to the Nittany Lions, Welsh stated his excitement about competing alongside successful wrestlers.
"Just being in the room with all those really good partners and the coaches obviously. They accomplish all the stuff, that I want to accomplish there and I think it's going to be just really like a confidence thing. There's other guys in the program that are doing the stuff that you want to accomplish so it's like, it can be done there and I'm really, that's just really what I'm excited about." (11:36 onwards)
Rocco Welsh will compete in the 184 lbs category for the Nittany Lions.
