“Sicko”: Penn State’s Carter Starocci Leaves Olympic Wrestling Champion Awed After Intense Hawkeyes Showdown

The Nittany Lions Wrestling Club once again bolstered its reputation as the nation’s leading program after Penn State triumphed over the Iowa Hawkeyes at The Pioneer Showdown. With this, Cael Sanderson registered his 200th win and Carter Starocci led from the helm. Starocci’s impeccable performance even managed to awe the Olympic gold medalist David Taylor.

While the Penn State team started off wobbly, the NLWC wrestlers bounced back strongly winning eight of the ten matches. Starocci’s major 13-5 win over Iowa’s No. 7 Patrick Kennedy took the spotlight. Following this, David Taylor expressed his elation as his alma mater once again underscored its dominance in the Big Ten conference this year.

Carter Starocci impresses Olympic gold medalist David Taylor

In his latest post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Taylor nodded his hat toward his college and NLWC junior Carter Starocci after the latter’s resounding victory over his opponent. “That was a sicko Td“, wrote the Olympian in his post as the wrestling community was awed by Starocci’s incredibly dominant performance against his Big Ten foe in Iowa City. As soon as the match started, Starocci came at Kennedy with all the tricks in his bag, determined to retain his winning streak this season.

While the Iowa wrestler fought hard, Starocci’s offense and defense were too good for him to take advantage of the Penn State athlete. With the NCAA championship looming overhead next month, Starocci’s display would propel him as one of the best wrestlers in the country in the 174lb weight class. With the acknowledgment from Taylor, Starocci will now look to chase the celebrity NLWC wrestler’s legacy with renewed enthusiasm.

Starocci has been a three-time NCAA champ and will be eyeing a record fourth national title win come March, and his opponents need to take notes to make sure his impressive D1 records do not become too big of a task for others to conquer. However, from the looks of things, the Penn State senior isn’t showing any signs of slowing down just now. Along with Starocci, his NLWC colleagues are also looking to be in fine form as they proved their mettle once again in last night’s high-stakes game.

Penn State wrestlers exert their superiority

In the 133lb match, Penn State’s Aaron Nagao rose above Iowa’s Cullan Schriever with an 11-0 decision win. The 141lb weight class saw Beau Bartlett of Penn State registering another win over Iowa’s Real Woods, while Levi Haines won the 157lb match against Iowa’s celebrity wrestler Jared Franek.

Read more: Penn State Wrestling’s Aaron Brooks Reveals Lesser-Known Bond With HC Cael Sanderson Way Before His NLWC Move

PSU’s Mitchell Mesenbrink (165) recorded another win over Hawkeyes’ Michael Caliendo while the NLWC athletes won all of the last three heavyweight matches (184, 197, and 285 weight class categories).

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