4 Penn State wrestlers tabbed No. 1 for the NCAA Championships in Kansas City
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2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships
For the first time since 2013, Penn State had all 10 of its wrestlers in the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Kansas City, Missouri. Read all of our coverage here.
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The last competition of the year is here for Penn State’s wrestling team, with the 2024 NCAA Championships kicking off next Thursday in Kansas City, Mo.
The Nittany Lions had four tabbed No. 1 after all 330 qualified wrestlers’ seeds were announced Wednesday evening on the NCAA’s website. They also had two others collect a No. 2 seed.
Braeden Davis (125 pounds), Levi Haines (157), Aaron Brooks (197) and Greg Kerkvliet (285) were those grapplers earning the No. 1 next to their names.
Beau Bartlett (141) and Mitchell Mesenbrink (165) will come from the bottom part of the bracket as No. 2 seeds.
After not competing in the Big Ten Championships, Carter Starocci was listed as the No. 9 seed at 174 pounds.
“For me, I want to earn my spot. Watching the team go to work and them earn (their spots), I just felt like I was sitting back while those guys are going to war, so that kind of didn’t sit well with me,” Starocci said on Wednesday. “The at-large bid I guess it was put in place for a situation like this, which is I guess is cool.”
“I don’t care what they seed me,” he added. “Don’t even have me seeded; just have me wrestle every single kid in the bracket one by one. And I’ll take them all out inside three days. ... I think it’s more enjoyable this way.”
Bernie Truax (184), Tyler Kasak (149) and Aaron Nagao (133) were seeded sixth, seventh and 10th, respectively, to have all 10 of Penn State’s wrestlers ranked in the top 10 of their respective weights.
Here are the other No. 1 seeds: Oklahoma State’s Daton Fix (133), Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez (141), Nebraska’s Ridge Lovett (149), Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole (165), Virginia Tech’s Mehki Lewis (174) and Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen (184).
Centre County’s trio of wrestlers in Cole Urbas, Jude Swisher and Malachi DuVall also learned their seeds.
Urbas, who is a State College graduate, is highest ranked at No. 24 and competes for Penn. Urbas’ teammate in Swisher, who is a Bellefonte graduate, and DuVall, who is a Penns Valley graduate and competes for George Mason, were each seeded at No. 30.
This story was originally published March 13, 2024 at 8:53 PM.
