TULSA, Okla. — No one will ever mistake Tulsa for New York City, but Penn State coaches and fans may think of the two in the same light.
Like it did in 2016 in Madison Square Garden, Penn State won the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship on Saturday, March 18, at the BOK Center. And like it did in NYC, the Nittany Lions went 2-3 in the finals.
Penn State repeated as champion, winning its 10th title in the past 12 years and 11th in school history. The Nittany Lions secured the title at 10:22 Saturday morning during the medal round.
Penn State crowned two champions and counted three runners-up, as it saw its streak of 10 straight wins in championship finals matches end. The Nittany Lions added two third-place finishers and a seventh-place for eight All-Americans, tying a team mark accomplished in 1987 and 2018.
Carter Starocci (174) and Aaron Brooks (184) became the fifth and sixth three-time NCAA champions in Penn State history. Roman Bravo-Young (133) fell short in his attempt to join that fraternity. Levi Haines (157) and Greg Kerkvliet (285) also lost in the finals.
Beau Bartlett (141) and Shayne Van Ness (149) battled back for third-place finishes, and Max Dean (197) earned a seventh-place finish.
“It’s a tough tournament. The guys wrestled great. We had seven guys in the top three. That’s awesome,” Coach Cael Sanderson said. “There were some tough losses, but we had some great wins, too. We’re happy and proud of the guys. They competed hard and we just keep moving on.”
Penn State amassed 137.5 points to easily outdistance second-place Iowa’s 82.5. The 55-point margin between first and second was another Penn State record. Cornell finished third with 76.5 and Ohio State fourth with 70.5.
Starocci faced Nebraska’s Mikey Labriola in a rematch of the Big Ten final. Starocci scored a takedown midway through the first period. Labriola stood and tried to do a standing roll to get away. Starocci caught him flat on his back and stuck him there at the 2:46 mark for his third title.
Starocci joined Ed Ruth, Zain Retherford, Jason Nolf and Bo Nickal as three-time Penn State NCAA champions.
“I think I just joined some elite company at Penn State. I believed I was that guy from Day 1. I walked in that room and was starting fights with all those guys that were already big dogs,” Starocci said.
Brooks followed Starocci’s match and added his name to the list of Penn State three-time champions, beating Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen, 7-2. Brooks smothered him from the start, taking him down twice in the first period for a 4-1 lead. He added a penalty point, escape and riding time point for the final.
“I’m super blessed to have Coach Cael,” Brooks said.
He then related a story from his early days.
“My dad got this new GMC. It was a car with a movie thing in the back. He bought me this DVD. He said, ‘This is the greatest wrestler of all time.’ He didn’t know anything about wrestling. And it was Coach Cael. I was like 7 years old,” Brooks recounted. “It was just him hitting ankle picks on people. I remember thinking, ‘I want to be like that dude.’ That’s where I learned my ankle pick. And the next thing you know I’m wrestling for him.”
With the wrestling order altered to end with Cornell 149-pounder Yianni Diakomihalis’ quest for a fourth national title, Penn State’s Haines found himself in the leadoff spot.
Haines was thwarted at every turn by 2021 champion Austin O’Connor of North Carolina. The match was scoreless heading into the third period, but O’Connor owned two minutes of riding time.
Seven seconds into the third period, Haines cut O’Connor loose. The wily senior hit two low takedowns on the freshman and never let him get close to a takedown in a 6-2 win.
Kerkvliet faced a rematch with Mason Parris of Michigan, who had defeated him twice earlier in the season. Parris used a first-period counter takedown, two escapes and a point for riding time for a 5-1 win.
Bravo-Young was battling from behind from midway through the first period as Cornell’s Vito Arujau scored two decisive takedowns to lead 4-1 after one. RBY had only given up two takedowns all year and Arujau scored two within a minute. In the second, Arujau reversed Bravo-Young and picked up two back points. RBY escaped but trailed 8-2. RBY scored a reversal but Arujau escaped and blocked Bravo-Young’s takedown attempts. A point for riding time settled the 10-4 decision for Arujau.
Bartlett notched a pair of decisive victories Saturday morning to earn his third-place finish. He started with a 12-3 major decision win over Clay Carlson of South Dakota State and then a 4-1 decision over Lachlan McNeil of North Carolina.
Van Ness capped off a series of dramatic wins with a march to third. He knocked off Virginia Tech’s Caleb Henson 5-3 in the consolation semifinals and then dominated Arizona State’s Kyle Parco in the third-place bout. Van Ness beat the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 seeds, and his only loss was to No. 1 seed and four-time champion Diakomihalis.
Dean closed out his exemplary collegiate career with a 4-2 win over Cornell’s Jacob Cardenas in the seventh-place bout.
After the final match of his NCAA career, Dean, sporting a blackened left eye, spoke through tears as he reflected on his time at Penn State and in the sport.
“I’m truly glad it was Penn State,” Dean, who transferred from Cornell, said. “They’ve really meant a lot to me and my life, even outside of wrestling. It’s pretty cool to be part of two NCAA titles, to get to wrestle for the greatest of all time and his staff.”
