Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks have an opportunity to create wrestling history for Penn State in Kansas City, Missouri.
At the NCAA championships on Friday night, the two Nittany Lions passed their semifinal tests, giving them a chance to become four-time winners on Saturday night.
The Lions have already secured a third consecutive team championship with 148 points, while Michigan is a distant second with 64.5 points.
Starocci beat Michigan’s Shane Griffith at 174 pounds with an escape and riding time in the third period, and Brooks defeated Missouri’s Rocky Elam at 197 to set up his long-awaited showdown with North Carolina State’s Trent Hidlay.
Starocci expressed that envisioning making history every day feels surreal, and when it becomes a reality, the experience feels even more surreal.
Only five wrestlers have won four NCAA titles, including current Nittany Lions coach Cael Sanderson and Yianni Diakomihalis of Cornell. However, no pair of teammates has achieved this feat, let alone on the same night.
Starocci expressed his love for what they do and how being where they are is the best place in the world for him.
There may be a pair of four-time champs on Saturday night, but there won’t be a three-time winner at 165 pounds.
Keegan O’Toole from Missouri, who was a two-time defending champ, scored a takedown of David Carr to take the lead late in the third period of their match. But the No. 3 seed from Iowa State, who lost to the top-seeded O’Toole in the final a year ago and again at the Big 12 championships, scored a takedown of his own with 10 seconds remaining for an 8-6 victory and a spot in the final.
Carr, reflecting on his match against O'Toole, stated that it held significant meaning for him.
Carr will face Mitchell Mesenbrink, the Nittany Lions’ redshirt freshman, who comfortably defeated Iowa’s Mike Caliendo in the semifinals.
It was a big night for Penn State, as Beau Bartlett, Levi Haines, and unbeaten Greg Kerkvliet also secured their spots in the finals at 141, 157, and 285 pounds respectively.
Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa continued a dominant run at 184 with a victory over Trey Munoz of Oregon State and will face No. 3 seed Dustin Plott of Oklahoma State on Saturday night.
Drake Ayala extended Iowa’s impressive streak of at least one finalist to 34 years by defeating Eric Barnett of Wisconsin and will face Richard Figueroa of Arizona State in the final.
At 133 pounds, there was controversy as Oklahoma State’s Daton Fix was tied 1-all with Michigan’s Dylan Ragusin through overtime when he was called for a second stalling. However, the officials reviewed the sequence and took the point away.
Ragusin was then penalized for grasping his hands together, and Fix avoided the semifinals with his second consecutive tiebreaker win.
Next in line: Vito Arujau of Cornell, the recently declared world champion, who defeated Fix a year ago on the road to the final.
“Clearly the previous encounter did not go my way, and I have been contemplating it for a whole year now in order to reclaim that match,” said Fix, who was jeered by many inside T-Mobile Center. “What better opportunity to do so than on a Saturday night?”
There was no such tension at 141 pounds, where No. 1 seed Jesse Mendez of Ohio State and the second-seeded Bartlett advanced to their highly anticipated third match. The two had an even split this season but Mendez emerged victorious in the final of the Big Ten championships.
The anticipated outcome at 141 pounds was followed by the unexpected at 149, where fourth-seeded Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech narrowly secured a 1-0 victory over No. 1 seed Ridge Lovett of Nebraska, and sixth-seeded Austin Gomez of Michigan defeated No. 2 seed Kyle Parco of Arizona State.
Lovett was aiming to become the Huskers’ first NCAA champion since 2011, when Jordan Burroughs clinched the second of his titles.
Bryce Andonian nearly executed an even more surprising win when the No. 12 seed at 157 pounds was leading the No. 1-seeded Haines late in the third period. But the undefeated Penn State standout made a comeback to force overtime, where he pinned Andonian.
It was a convincing end for Haines, who narrowly lost in the championship match to Austin O’Connor a year ago.
“I have never had the opportunity to wrestle Jacori Teemer before, so I am looking forward to it,” Haines said. “He’s a formidable opponent, and it doesn't matter if it's the national finals or we were wrestling at some unknown location on some random day. I just really enjoy competing and I’m thrilled to be able to do so.”
