Blue White Illustrated

June-July 2022

Penn State Sports Magazine

Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1467458

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 45 of 67

4 6 J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M In seven of Penn State's 17 dual-meet victories this past season, wres- tlers at the bottom of the lineup had to win to ensure that the Nittany Lions would come out on top. Wrestling typically is overshadowed by the NCAA Men's Basketball Tour- nament in March, but the way Nittany Lion upperweights Carter Starocci, Aaron Brooks, Max Dean and Greg Kerkvliet thrive under pressure gives Penn State its own version of the Final Four. Starocci will be a junior 174-pounder next season, Brooks a senior 184-pounder, Dean a super senior 197-pounder and Kerkvliet a junior heavyweight. That foursome went 89-5 overall this past season with 52 bonus-point wins. Starocci is 37-2 in two seasons with two NCAA titles, while Brooks is 50-2 over three years at 184 with a pair of gold medals. Dean went 57-12 at Cornell and placed second in the NCAAs in 2019 at 184; he was 23-1 at 197 for Penn State this past season en route to his first championship. And Kerkvliet placed seventh as a freshman and fourth as a sophomore at 285 while winning 32 of 39 bouts. Combined, they have five gold medals and 10 All-America certificates in their careers, and all are expected to bring those lofty credentials back next season to help the Nittany Lions defend their 2022 NCAA title. Starocci is the most flamboyant among the four, not afraid to proclaim greatness and perfectly able to support the claim. He broke his hand in January but missed only two matches. Starocci's combined Big Ten/NCAA postseason consisted of six relatively easy wins until the NCAA finals when his 15-second riding time advantage was just enough for a tiebreaker vic- tory over 2019 champion Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech. "World title is next. Anyone and everyone are getting taken out. World title is next, then get back to folkstyle, keep getting better and improving," Starocci said after the NCAA finals. Brooks' soft-spoken eloquence off the mat is a stark contrast to his on-the- mat power and near-perfect technique. His conference and national tourna- ments were mirror opposites in the sense that he lost to Michigan's Myles Amine 6-4 in sudden victory in the conference finals but dominated Amine 5-3 in the NCAA title bout. Brooks had a 3:36 advantage in riding time, yield- ing a late takedown that made the score infinitely closer than the bout itself. Brooks had thoughts similar to Starocci's, admitting that "I want to be Olympic and world champ." Dean is the newbie in the Lions' lineup and quickly became a fan favorite with his ability to end matches prior to the seven-minute mark as well as find a way to win close bouts with well-timed attacks. He won six of eight postseason bouts by four points or fewer, including a late takedown against Iowa's Jacob Warner that netted Dean his NCAA crown. Kerkvliet is unassuming, the type of young man who along with Brooks prayed with a homeless man in Detroit after the NCAA finals and gave him money. On the mat, his physical strength and agility are unlike most heavy- weights, especially at 240 pounds. He hasn't wrestled that many matches because of the 2020-21 COVID season, and he medically defaulted his NCAA third-place bout because of a minor arm injury, but with three seasons remaining, counting a free COVID year, the conference and national titles that have been projected for Kerkv- liet could become reality. — Jim Carlson Upperweight Wrestlers Have Lions Thinking Big Carter Starocci is 37-2 with a pair of NCAA titles at 174 pounds the past two seasons. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Blue White Illustrated - June-July 2022