Penn State Wrestling: Carter Starocci makes history
Penn State Wrestling adds something new to its record book as Carter Starocci takes home his fifth NCAA title.
In the history of D1 collegiate wrestling, there have been a total of 95 NCAA Championships. During that span from 1928 to 2025, amid the thousands of matches that unfolded, something happened tonight that had never happened before.
And based on the circumstances around it, I don’t know that we’ll ever see it again.
But that is the fact the packed crowd inside the Wells Fargo Center witnessed the first D1 five-time NCAA Champion.
Starocci has cemented himself on the Nittany Lion Mount Rushmore of wrestling following his 4-3 win against UNI’s Parker Keckeisen.
The match was the standard masterpiece for Starocci.
He used his blend of strength, quickness, and mat awareness to wear down Keckeisen.
For Parker’s career he only had a total of seven losses. And four of them came at the hands of Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks.
To further link this pair …
Prior to last year, no other Nittany Lion great had ever won more than three NCAA titles. But that all changed when both Carter and Aaron Brooks blasted through the field to each snag their fourth individual titles.
But the Natty Daddy now stands alone as he’s coming back to Happy Valley with number five!
Starocci finishes his Penn State Wrestling career with a record of 103-4 (two of those losses were last year and two were in his freshman year), he won three Big Ten titles, and he is “1 of 1” in the NCAA record books.
For his accomplishments, Carter Starocci will forever be remembered by Penn State Wrestling fans and collegiate fans across the country.
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Education: Penn State University
Location: State College, PA
Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network.
And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long.
Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.