First came David Taylor and Ed Ruth, the duo that led Penn State to its first set of titles under head coach Cael Sanderson.
Then came Bo Nickal and Jason Nolf, two of the funkiest, most dominant wrestlers in program history.
But neither of those duos, despite their credentials, their legacies and their dominance, did what Penn State’s latest duo of Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks just did.
On Saturday night, in front of a packed T-Mobile Arena, Starocci and Brooks became the first four-time national champions for the Penn State Nittany Lions and just the sixth and seventh athletes ever in the sport to achieve this feat nationally.
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Starocci’s win came first, as he took down a scrappy Rocco Welsh of Ohio State in the national finals 2-0. Despite coming into the tournament as the No. 9 seed because of two injury defaults at Big Tens due to injury, Starocci knocked off one elite opponent after the next, notably topping 2019 NCAA champion Mekhi Lewis in the quarterfinals and then outscoring 2021 NCAA champion Shane Griffith in the semifinals. The win against Welsh for the title wasn't pretty, but Starocci held off the Buckeye, scored the points he needed to and finished the night a champion.
Brooks then put an exclamation mark on the stellar night for the Nittany Lions with his 6-1 win over NC State’s Trent Hidlay, a victory that puts Brooks near the top of the list, if not at the top of the list, of Hodge Trophy candidates and helped him win Most Outstanding Wrestler honors of the 2024 tournament.
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In addition to Brooks and Starocci, the Nittany Lions captured a team title with six other All-Americans, but it’s Starocci and Brooks’ legacy that defined this tournament for the Blue and White.
Their success is a culmination of so many factors built over the years in State College, and it all starts back in 2019.
The origin story
Brooks remembers when he first met Starocci their freshman years at Penn State. The connection was immediate.
“When we first came in at 2019 we both saw that we kind of had the same goals and aspirations,” Brooks said in the pre-tournament press conference. “I think over the years, regardless of...different training schedules, at least for me, looking over and seeing him, I know he's in the same mindset when it comes to being the best wrestler you can be.”
The success came quickly too.
Brooks made his varsity dual debut for the Blue and White on December 6, 2019, and picked up a solid 10-5 win over Chris Weiler of Lehigh. He would then go on to win his next three matches before dropping his first (and only) bout of that season to Taylor Venz of Nebraska. He avenged that loss in the Big Ten tournament, capturing Big Ten freshman of the year honors. He was the No. 3 seed at the national tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed his first shot at a title.
Starocci, meanwhile, took a redshirt but posted a 16-0 record during that unattached season and won the Southern Scuffle. He was quickly considered someone who could win a title.
Flash forward to 2021, a bizarre national finals with no fans in the stands, and Starocci and Brooks took the national stage together for the first time.
Starocci cruised through his first round with bonus and then beat Hayden Hastings of Wyoming 8-2. He became an All-American for the first time with a 6-3 win over Andrew McNally of Kent State. He earned a spot in the national finals after a win over Demetrius Romero 6-0, and then he faced Michael Kemerer of Iowa. Kemerer had beaten him in the Big Ten finals, but Starocci was ready for him at NCAAs. He took down the Hawkeye in overtime and became a freshman national champ.
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Brooks had a similar experience, as he met a former foe in Taylor Venz of Nebraska (his lone loss from 2020) in the quarterfinals that year. Brooks beat Venz 9-4 to become an All-American, and he then stopped Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen in the semifinals before facing off against NC State’s Trent Hidlay, his same finals opponent in 2024, for the title. Brooks beat Hidlay 3-2 in 2021 and was a national champion as well.
Thus began the quest for four titles each.
Starocci picked up his second title in 2022 against 2019 NCAA champion Mekhi Lewis in overtime again and next secured title No. 3 last year by fall against Mikey Labriola. In between that first title against Michael Kemerer, and his fourth title over Welsh on Saturday night, Carter Starocci did not take one loss besides his injury forfeits at Big Tens this year. Injuries, illness, exhaustion — nothing stopped him.
Brooks has been equally dominant, though he did take a loss in the 2022 Big Ten finals to Myles Amine of Michigan and then suffered a loss to Iowa State's Marcus Coleman at the Collegiate Duals in December 2022. But those losses didn't impact his performance in March. Brooks avenged his loss to Amine in the 2022 national finals for title No. 2 and then beat Keckeisen last year for his third championship. He ends his career with an 89-3 record and is a frontrunner for the Hodge Trophy.
That's what these upperweights at Penn State do.
The fourth title
The expectations for Starocci and Brooks were high coming in this weekend, even with Starocci's injury. The pair were asked about their title quest at the opening press conference — to which Starocci said "I approach it the same. I think the next title is always the more fun one" — and they were asked about it after their semifinal wins. It's been the storyline.
Brooks and Starocci did not invite these questions or these comments. But they answered them, emphasizing that the titles were not on their minds too much.
"I think you just don't really think about it," Brooks said in his press conference. "You don't let things consume you. Like the world want to consume you; labels, titles, accomplishments. When you're not defined by that stuff and you're not chasing that, it sets you free once again."
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With every match though, the intensity around this storyline grew. This was primed to be a historical moment.
The fact that the finals started at heavyweight and ended with Brooks only added to the emotion. After Starocci topped Welsh and became the first four-time Penn State champ, the only thing left was for Brooks to follow.
His match presented some early challenges, as Hidlay is a stingy, smart athlete, but, in the end, just as he has done every year, Aaron Brooks became a national champion.
The future
Starocci and Brooks are in elite company now, but they're not done. Both will have the chance to move forward to Olympic Trials and attempt to qualify for the 2024 Games in Paris. Starocci has been public about intending to compete at 74kg, nearly 11 pounds less than his 174 pound collegiate weight class. Brooks, meanwhile is expected to go 86kg, a weight where he was the runner-up at Final X for the 2023 Senior World Team spot. The problem for both these athletes is that two Nittany Lion Wrestling Club athletes could stand in their way.
The current Olympic champ at 86kg is Brooks' Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate, David Taylor. As a Penn State wrestler from 2009-2014, Taylor won two titles and two Hodge Trophies and helped launch the program into the era that it's in today. He's become a defining alum for the Cael Sanderson team, and his presence is State College as a wrestling club coach, a professional athlete and a small business owner is hard to ignore. David Taylor is Penn State.
But Taylor isn't coming off the momentum of four national titles. Brooks is. He's still young and will have a tough uphill climb to meet the Nittany Lion who will be waiting for him in the Olympic Trials finals if Brooks can get there, but Brooks showed tonight that he's capable of making history.
Starocci is in a similar situation with 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Kyle Dake, not to mention 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs from the Penn Regional Training Center, at his weight. Starocci is fearless, but he does have a potential knee injury that didn't slow him down this weekend but could be a problem against Dake or Burroughs.
He and Brooks have Olympic aspirations, but, as as of tonight, they are also college wrestling champions yet again, two athletes who did something no one from their university has ever done. Their victories will be part of history forever.
