Carter Starocci makes history with fifth individual NCAA title

Carter Starocci is now the most accomplished wrestler in NCAA Division I history. The star 184-pounder capped his legacy in his final dual with the Penn State wrestling program on Saturday night, winning his fifth individual national title.

It didn’t take long for Starocci to reach the milestone-setting win, defeating Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen 4-3 in the opening bout of the NCAA Finals. The sixth wrestler to win four individual titles last March, Starocci is now the sole competitor to win five championships at the Division I level. 

A historic NCAA Championships for the sixth-year senior, Starocci earned his 100th career victory in Thursday’s afternoon opening session. Later in the day, he passed Penn State wrestling legend Ed Ruth to become the program’s all-time winningest wrestler in the NCAA Tournament. The five-time All-American ends his career with a perfect 25-0 record at the national tournament. 

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“For me, it’s never really about the tournament or just year after year; for me, I just really love dominating,” Starocci said. “And for me, that’s kind of a big reason why I chose to come back this year was obviously last year, dealing with the injury and things like that. And it wasn’t the way I wanted to finish up. So now I’m looking to finish this thing off the way I intended to, healthy and stuff and dominant.”

Penn State wrestling clinched the team national title earlier in the day on Saturday. Starocci’s win also gave the Nittany Lions the record for the most points scored in the NCAA Tournament, surpassing the 172.5-point mark set by last year’s team.

The Nittany Lions will have two more NCAA Finalists compete for titles on Saturday, with Mitchell Mesenbrink (165) and Josh Barr (197) wrestling later in the evening. You can follow both of those matchups on our live blog of the final round.

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