Penn State’s Carter Starocci Named 2025 NCAA Most Outstanding Wrestler

He is the very first-ever five-time national champion in NCAA history

A Penn State wrestler, the first to win five national titles, has just been named the most outstanding wrestler at the NCAA Championships.

Penn State announced that Carter Starocci, the first-ever five-time national champion in NCAA history, was also named the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championship Outstanding Wrestler after his win this weekend.

The university boasts wrestling titles with Starocci and Mitchell Mesenbrink, with freshman Josh Barr finishing as an NCAA runner-up. The school now has 61 NCAA champions, 40 under head coach Cael Sanderson.

The record-breaking feat took place on March 22 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

According to the NCAA, Starocci has only lost two matches during his collegiate career. In 2021, he lost his first wrestling match and has been on a tear since. He did win his first national title when he avenged his loss to Iowa’s Michael Kemerer that year. He had undefeated seasons for the next two years, 2022 and 2023. He took the title against Virginia Tech’s former national champion Mekhi Lewis in 2022 and bested Nebraska’s Mikey Labriola the next year.

He suffered a knee injury during a regular-season match in 2024 and ended up taking two injury defaults at the Big Ten tournament. Yet, he still won his fourth national title that year when he defeated former national champion Lewis, whom he beat in 2022, and Shane Griffith of Michigan, another former champion in the sport.

The Sacramento Bee reported that although he set a record, Starocci played it so nonchalantly that it didn’t seem like breaking it was that big a deal.

“For me, I’ve been in this moment so many times year after year. You kind of have that experience and understand what to do,” he said. “But honestly, though, I mean I know it’s ‘five-time champ,’ but it’s really just another match.”