What Penn State Wrestling Said After Completing a 5th Straight Undefeated Season

Coach Cael Sanderson said the Nittany Lions are "happy and healthy" as they begin preparing for the NCAA wrestling postseason.

Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson hugs Nittany Lions wrestler Carter Starocci after Starocci won the 2023 NCAA title. | Brett Rojo-Imagn Images

Penn State wrestling coach Cael Sanderson said the Nittany Lions are "happy and healthy" for the postseason after completing their fifth consecutive undefeated campaign Friday night. Top-ranked Penn State finished the regular season 15-0 with a 50-3 win over American University that featured five pins and four technical falls.

Beau Bartlett, Carter Starocci and Greg Kerkvliet, all national-championship contenders, wrestled for the last time at Penn State's Rec Hall, where the Nittany Lions have sold out 76 consecutive matches. Afterward, Sanderson and his wrestlers discussed the match and the future. Penn State will spend the next two weeks preparing for the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, scheduled for March 8-9 at Northwestern.

❤️ Thank You Seniors!
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— Penn State WRESTLING (@pennstateWREST) February 22, 2025

Penn State Coach Cael Sanderson

On the 15-0 season: I think the team’s in good position and good shape. We’re happy and healthy and excited for the postseason. Remember a year ago, we had an injury [to Carter Starocci] in this last match, and that was not a good thing. We’re happy and healthy and excited for what's coming up.

On Braeden Davis' absence and Tyler Kasak's return: With Braeden, it's just precautionary. With Kasak, any kind of injury like that, they go through the trainers and the doctors. They have a protocol and procedure they follow, he followed it and was cleared and ready to roll and looked pretty dang good.

On unbeaten heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet: Greg's done great. He’s very consistent. It’s nice when you have a heavyweight and look up in the stands and nobody’s leaving. He’s been awesome for us. He wrestled well tonight. We're obviously excited for the opportunity in the postseason but definitely going to miss that guy. He’s a hammer.

On Carter Starocci pursuing his fifth NCAA title: All that’s stuff special, but our focus is just being ourselves, and for Carter just to be himself and wrestle to score points as he has since he was a little kid. Nothing really changes. We're just going to have fun with it.

Carter Starocci

On last year's injury on Senior Night: I really don’t think about the thing that happened last year. I try to take coach Cael’s philosophy and focus on now and what’s ahead and just keep getting better. That stuff always takes care of the rest.

On maintaining weight at 197: For me as an athlete, it’s my job to make sure that I’m ready to go. Whatever weight class that is, I always make sure that I've got to do what it takes to be ready to win. That's the thing about winning. It’s not loyal to you, so you've got to make sure you’re on the right course.

RELATED: Beau Bartlett named Big Ten wrestler of the week

Beau Bartlett

On his last match at Rec Hall: It's a really special place. You’re surrounded by a lot of motivated people, motivated fans, motivated families, and it's really easy to come in here every day and just train, live the life you want to live and be professional about it because it’s what everyone else is doing.

The seniors on how they will prepare for the Big Ten Championships

Starocci: Just smash whoever's there.

Greg Kerkvliet: Sounds about right.

Bartlett: Whatever the coaches say. Everyone has mindsets that work for them. At the end of the day, you've got to be ready to present your best self when it's time, whatever that takes. You've got to be really happy, really angry, drink three cups of coffee. Whatever you need to present your best self, we're all going to be doing that.