Penn State's Carter Starocci Injured in Regular-Season Finale
Penn State wrestler Carter Starocci, who seeks to become a four-time NCAA champion, sustained an apparent leg injury in the Nittany Lions' last match of the regular season Sunday. Starocci grabbed his right leg and was helped off the mat after finishing a technical fall for his 64th consecutive victory.
The Nittany Lions defeated Edinboro 55-0 to cap their fourth consecutive undefeated season, but Starocci's condition was the afternoon's major. With the major decision Sunday, Starocci extended the nation's longest win streak in NCAA Division I wrestling and turned toward becoming potentially the first Penn State wrestler to win four national championships. But Starocci had to be helped off the mat Sunday at Rec Hall after his victory. Penn State coach Cael Sanderson called Starocci a "very quick healer" following the match.
"We're obviously thinking about Carter right now and getting him over to kind of figure out what's going on," Sanderson told reporters in State College. "But we’re optimistic. Carter’s a tough kid. He’s been to the national tournament with injuries before. ... He was obviously in some pain, and we carried him off the best we could, and he’s just going to go to work and get ready to roll."
Starocci (12-0) is the nation's top-ranked wrestler at 174 and the overwhelming favorite to win a fourth national title. He has won 10 bouts with bonus points, including five technical falls. Starocci scored three takedowns in the first minute of Sunday's bout before finishing a 22-5 technical fall late in the third period against Edinboro's Brody Evans. But the bout ended with Starocci getting his leg caught between Evans' legs while going for the fall.
"He was trying to get the pin and so he kind of put his leg in a compromised position and it just didn’t work out, instead of letting the guy belly out there," Sanderson said. "Thankfully it was at the end of the match and he'd ... gotten the technical fall, so he could get just kind of off the mat and be finished."
Penn State does not wrestle again until the Big Ten Championships, scheduled for March 9-10 at the University of Maryland. According to a Penn State athletics spokesperson, wrestlers must "entered into and compete in their national qualifying tournament" to be eligible for the NCAA Championships.
Starocci already has won a national championship while injured. In 2022, Starocci sustained a hand injury warming up before a January bout against Iowa's Michael Kemerer. Starocci won the bout 2-1 with the injury, which turned out to be a broken hand. He deferred surgery, missed just two matches and returned to win the Big Ten tournament and his and his second NCAA title.
"I could have my leg chopped off and I'm going out there," Starocci told FloWrestling in a 2022 interview.
"We have time," Sanderson said Sunday. "We still have a couple weeks until [the Big Ten championships] and another week-and-a-half before nationals [scheduled for March 21-23 in Kansas City]. Carter's always been a very quick healer. He won a national title a couple years ago with a broken hand. He’ll get in there, he’ll compete hard."
Starocci had missed three matches this season before Sunday, in part because of an illness. Sanderson said before the match against Edinboro that Starocci was prepared to to compete.
"He’s ready to roll now," Sanderson said last week. "He’s going to compete. He’s a tough kid and he’s always been a ferocious competitor. Even when he didn’t wrestle well, maybe he was sick or maybe he just didn’t manage his weight right or sometimes you just aren’t the best that day, he still gives you great effort. He’s a very, very special competitor."
Penn State won its 56th consecutive match Sunday with its third shutout of the season. The Nittany Lions rolled out a full starting lineup in front of a sold-out Senior Day crowd at Rec Hall. Penn State recorded five technical falls and four pins, and none of the bouts reached the third period.
Penn State 55, Edinboro 0
125: No. 8 Braeden Davis tech. fall Caleb Edwards 19-3 in 4:02
133: No. 11 Aaron Nagao tech. fall Eamonn Jimenez 18-3 in 3:33
141: No. 1 Beau Bartlett pin Jacob Brenneman 4:11
149: No. 9 Tyler Kasak pin Colin Roberts 3:20
157: No. 1 Levi Haines pin Gannon Jaquay 4:38
165: No. 6 Mitchell Mesenbrink by forfeit
174: No. 1 Carter Starocci tech. fall Brody Evans 22-5 in 2:45
184: No. 6 Bernie Truax tech. fall Brody Evans 21-3 in 5:00
197: No. 1 Aaron Brooks tech. fall Jack Kilner 19-4 in 3:55
285: No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet pin Nick Lodato 1:27
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