Starocci became the first college wrestler to ever win a fifth NCAA title when he beat Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen in this year’s 184-pound NCAA finals. He is also the 2025 NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Wrestler, the 2025 Big Ten Wrestler of the Year, and a winner of the Penn State male athlete of the year honor for the second time, as he also claimed it in 2023.Penn State has picked its male and female athletes of the year for the 2024-2025 school year. Those selections headline today’s newsstand.
The Nittany Lions athletic department selected star wrestler Carter Starocci as its male athlete of the year. Jess Mruzik, a star of the women’s volleyball team that won the program’s eighth national title this year, earned the female athlete of the year honor.
