Decked out in a brown leather jacket, with a shiny dive watch and diamond earrings glistening, Mitchell Mesenbrink took a seat perhaps feeling like a bit of a movie star.
Penn State's head coach, Cael Sanderson had let it slip that his star 174-pounder recently got his first acting job - in a film about wrestling legend Dan Gable - and now all the still cameras, TV rigs and smartphones were leveled on the rookie thespian.
Mesenbrink insisted he's not a big-timer, but all these eyes don't bother him.
But finding himself as the human being on camera with all the trained pros, a roomful of extras, many of them real wrestlers like himself, looking on?
That's something else entirely.
Mesenbrink, who returns to Penn State after an unbeaten NCAA championship season - his second in a row - in which he won the Hodge Trophy, found himself battling some nerves while finding another creative outlet this summer.
He'll play Ben Peterson, a two-time NCAA champion, who was teammates at Iowa State with the film's protagonist, in director Jon Greenhalgh's upcoming biopic Gable.
The film doesn't have a release date, but is currently in post-production, according to IMDB.
"The way I wrestle, too, is very soulfully, and obviously acting and music and creative pursuits are definitely soulful," Mesenbrink said. "So I was really excited to be able to try that out. I've also heard that I kind of like to show my emotions, so emotionality is good when you know what your face looks like when you're making faces and saying lines."
Mesenbrink, who keeps an active social media portfolio of artistic endeavors mostly focused on music, came in contact with the director via the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club.
He had to memorize lines and audition against full-time actors to get the part. When it came time to film, Mesenbrink was called to shooting locations in Champaign, Illinois. Between Aug. 24 and Sept. 20, Mesenbrink was on set working for what he estimated to be "just a little over a week."
He shot scenes with the film's star, English actor Finn Cole, who plays Gable.
Mesenbrink said he had never acted before, but was confident in his ability to do so. His nerves, which he said have never been an issue in the hundreds of matches he's wrestled, finally peaked during one re-shoot.
After the crew had repositioned to get a solo shot on Mesenbrink's performance during a particular scene, the Penn State wrestler realized he was the lone actor on camera.
"One angle had me only," Mesenbrink said. "And everybody on set, which was probably like around 100 people, and it just went silent. And luckily Finn was still reading his lines to me (off camera) and I was like, ‘Holy cow.' That was the only time it was like, ‘Whoa, it's just me and I'm on stage.'"
Mesenbrink quickly learned to embrace it.
He focused on acting and learning as much about that craft as he could rather than offering up technical advice.
The production had plenty of wrestlers for that.
Illinois lent facilities while Illini assistant Austin O'Connor and NC State assistant Zack Esposito served on the film's "fight team" to make the on-screen product look as realistic as possible.
"(Cole) had been there all summer, so watching him try to get a hold on (wrestling technique) - wrestling's not easy, so to jump into it like that is not an easy ask," Mesenbrink said. "So I was trying not to bombard him too much. Wrestling's hard, so I think sometimes people they give so much, that it's like ‘Holy crap, I have no clue how I'm going to do all this at the same time.' I wanted to be more of like a support there for him rather than a - I'm making this sound like I was like this big-timer. I don't know. I tried my best."
Fifth-Year Fiasco
Although Levi Haines is open to returning for what would be a fifth season and Sanderson would love to have the defending NCAA champ back, for now, all Sanderson can do is wish Haines good luck as he tries to win world freestyle gold.
Haines' bid for a fifth year of eligibility appears to be on hold after the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in August stayed a federal court injunction that would give 2026 college graduates who were part of the 2022 recruiting class a fifth year of eligibility as part of the NCAA's five-for-five rule.
The NCAA has enforced its pre-injunction eligibility rules since August. 21, but has made exceptions for athletes from other sports who have sought relief in state courts.
Haines has not yet done so.
"He's preparing just in case he gets that opportunity," Sanderson said. "Just like anybody else, we're waiting to hear the final word. It's been a pretty wild five years of ups and downs and changes and twists and turns, but everyone's in the same boat. Everyone's trying to navigate and figure out what they're doing. So we're preparing, but we don't know any more than anyone else."
Also, Haines is the type to have his priorities in order.
This week, he and four of his Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammates boarded a flight to Kazakhstan for the Senior World Championships. Haines, ranked fourth in the world at 79 kilograms, has been eyeing his second World Championships appearance since taking the silver medal at last year's event in Zagreb, Croatia.
"With Levi, he's been preparing for the World Championships in freestyle," Sanderson said. "If he gets the call back to folkstyle, he's been wrestling folkstyle is whole life so he'll be good to go."
Good To Go
Josh Barr and Tyler Kasak avoided serious injuries in April's U.S. Open, Sanderson said.
Both are expected to be in the team's starting lineup - Kasak after redshirting last season, and Barr, who won the Big Ten and national championship at 197.
"It was tough redshirting Tyler last year because he's a competitor, a big-match guy," Sanderson said. "And he's just a fun guy to have in the lineup. He's fun to watch wrestle. So it's nice to have him back."
While Kasak had to take an injury default at 70 kilograms, a slightly hobbled Barr fell in the semis at 92 kilograms and did not wrestle in the consolation bracket.
"They're both doing fine," Sanderson said. "They were temporary as far as weeks, not months kind of injuries, so they've both been back, competing hard for a while."
Sophomore Star
Joining Haines in Kazakhstan will be NLWC teammates Zain Retherford, Kyle Dake, Kyle Snyder and current Nittany Lion star 133-pounder Marcus Blaze.
It'll be Blaze's first appearance in the Senior Worlds. The 19-year-old won gold at last year's U20 World Championships.
Coming off a 25-3 freshman season that saw him lead Penn State with seven major decisions and finish fourth at NCAAs, he's locked-in as the team's go-to 133-pounder.
"He trains, he does everything right so he's just going to keep getting better," Sanderson said. "He's one of those never-satisfied guys."
Brotherly Contest
Cole Mirasola was effective at heavyweight for Penn State last season and could be even more dangerous this time around with his twin brother pushing him harder.
Mirasola's twin brother Connor, who pushed his teammates in the workout room last season mostly weighing in closer to 197, is up at 285 to begin the brothers' junior campaign.
Sanderson said Connor, who went 3-1 in duals and 6-1 overall at 197 last season, doesn't think of himself as a "depth" piece.
"Those guys, they've got to be pushing each other," Sanderson said. "They're brothers. They may care more about one another than they do probably their own success, which is what brothers do."