Norwin’s Landon Sidun ready to bounce back from injury

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, August 2, 2025 | 12:01 AM

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When Landon Sidun takes the mat for his next large-scale wrestling competition — likely at the Super 32 Tournament in October in North Carolina — he will let his instincts take the wheel.

The gifted 121-pounder cannot wait to pin somebody again. It has been a while.

“I have been doing this all my life,” he said. “I know I am going to be very prepared. I have had a lot of training time.”

That he has. Sidun, the rising senior standout at Norwin, missed the WPIAL postseason last year with a broken right hand, but he has returned to form.

Norwin’s own personal Beast of the East is ready to compete again.

“He didn’t have surgery, so (doctors) had him take the let-it-heal approach,” Norwin coach Kyle Martin said. “They put a soft cast on him. He started coming to practice and training with guys. Pretty soon, we had to put him in a hard cast. That’s the kind of kid he is. He wants to compete and be the best.”

Sidun, who won a PIAA title as a freshman and is 72-2 in his career — 30-0 last year — was injured in the WPIAL 3A team third-place match but still wrestled his next match and helped Norwin defeat Thomas Jefferson, 36-30.

“He got a takedown, and he said, ‘Coach, I broke my hand,’ ” Martin said. “Then he goes, ‘Well, if I pin this kid, it will help us win.’ ”

Talk about lending a hand. He did, and Norwin advanced to the PIAA playoffs. But that was his last competitive match.

Sidun rested several weeks, allowing his spiral fracture to heal, before resuming his grueling training regimen.

“I had wrestled in a lot of great events (last year), so I was all right with not wrestling,” Sidun said. “I didn’t feel like I was losing out. Plus, I didn’t want to do any more damage and be out longer.”

The timing of his injury cost him a shot at the world team trials, so he couldn’t qualify for the national championships in Fargo, N.D.

In lieu of that big event, which saw him win a title at 113 pounds in 2023, Sidun eased back into training, lifting weights and working out with his father’s Hutchy Hammers club.

Sidun still has half of his high-school career left, but he is deeply involved in the recruiting process as one of the nation’s top prospects in the Class of 2027.

Sidun is the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the country in his class and weight, and is No. 2 overall in the nation by FloWrestling.

He has interest from a dozen NCAA Division I programs, including the big dogs in Penn State and Iowa, as well as Pitt, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Oklahoma, Cornell and Buffalo.

“He has handled everything so well and maturely,” Martin said. “Recruiting is so much different from what I know, with the NIL and revenue sharing.”

And the transfer portal.

“Landon is in a unique spot,” Martin said. “He was saying, ‘If (a school) brings in a kid to take my spot, I’ll just beat him. I can’t let that happen.’ He is a killer on the mat.”

Sidun does not have a timetable for his decision. He wants to make several visits before pledging to a program.

“I will know when I know,” he said. “It has been exciting. You grow up watching college wrestling and seeing all of these coaches. Then those coaches call you up, and it’s surreal. Kyle and my dad have really helped me with it all.”

Martin said Sidun is taking a thorough approach to recruiting.

“He is all about relationships,” the coach said.

And raising his hand.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Norwin