Jesse Mendez

Jesse Wayne Mendez (born April 28, 2003) is an American freestyle and graduated folkstyle wrestler who competes at 65 kilograms. In freestyle, he claimed a silver medal at the 2023 U20 World Championships.

In folkstyle, Mendez was a two-time NCAA Division I National champion at 141 pounds, as well as a four-time All-American for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Folkstyle career

Ohio State University

Mendez was just the 10th wrestler to win four Indiana wrestling state titles capping off a 157-1 high school career. Mendez also competed for team USA at the 2019 Cadet Worlds and 2021 Junior Worlds.

2022-2023

Mendez started as a true freshman for the Buckeyes at 133 lbs. Mendez had a strong regular season finishing 13–3 with notable losses to Vito Arujau 6-1 and Roman Bravo-Young 8–2. Mendez finished his first Big 10 tournament with a sixth-place finish going 1–3. Mendez kicked off his first NCAA tournament with a 12-4 major decision over Brendan Ferretti of Navy. Mendez was sent to the consolation bracket after a 6–2 loss to Arizona State's Michael McGee. Mendez then rattled off four straight wins including wins over Lucas Byrd of Illinois and avenging a regular season loss against Sam Latona of Virginia Tech to land on the podium. Mendez finished the tournament with back-to-back losses to Michael McGee and Aaron Nagao of Minnesota to cap off a sixth-place finish as a true freshman.

2023-2024

Up at 144 lb Mendez's sophomore campaign started off strong winning Big 10 wrestler of the week after a 5–0 run to winning a CKLV title defeating three Top 15 ranked wrestlers including Brock Hardy of Nebraska, Vince Cornella of Cornell before winning the title match over No. 7 Ryan Jack of NC State by decision, 5–2. Mendez improved to 25–2 on the season by capturing his first Big 10 tournament title by avenging an earlier loss against Penn State's Beau Bartlett in a 4-1 decision. Mendez kicked off the NCAA tournament with bonus wins of Todd Carter of Gardner Webb 19-4 and a fall of Chattanooga's Isaiah Powe. In the quarterfinals Mendez defeated Big 10 foe Brock Hardy by 6-2 decision. In the semifinals Mendez defeated Iowa State's Anthony Echemendia 6–4 to advance to the finals in a rematch of the Big 10 conference tournament. Mendez became an NCAA tournament champion by defeating Bartlett 4–1.

2024-2025

Mendez returned for his junior year to 141 lb as the returning champion at the weight class. Mendez suffered his only regular season loss of the season to rival Beau Bartlett 4–2 in the Penn State-Ohio State dual meet. Mendez finished fourth at the Big 10 conference tournament after falling 9–8 to Nebraska's Brock Hardy. Mendez once again fell to Bartlett 4–2 in the third-place match. Mendez began his third NCAA tournament with bonus wins over Briar Priest of Pittsburgh, Sergio Lemley of Michigan and Vance Vombaur of Minnesota. Mendez revenged two losses during the season by taking out Bartlett 2–1 in tiebreakers to advance to his second straight NCAA final. Mendez captured his second NCAA 141 lb title by revenging a conference tournament loss to Brock Hardy 12–9.

Freestyle record