Penn State Wrestling: Can the Nittany Lions do anything surprising anymore?

NWCA All-Star Classic Recap

Following a four year absence from the national spotlight, the National Wrestling Coaches Association made it’s long awaiting comeback to Austin, Texas this past Tuesday evening. The event, sponsored by the United States Marine Corps and presented by Cliff Kleen, featured a star-studded field of men and women wrestlers for the 15 highly anticipated matches.

This also includes the fact that every single wrestler in action was a returning All-American from the prior season.

Another item to note regarding this event is that it’s an exhibition. Which means the results will not factor into any of the wrestler’s NCAA stats and they will not factor into rankings or RPI.

Greg Kerkvliet (PSU) dec. over Tony Cassioppi (IOWA) 8-5

The first Nittany Lion to hit the mat was Greg Kerkvliet in the fifth match of the evening. And his opponent? None other than his biggest nemesis from last year, Iowa’s Tony Cassioppi.

Kerk lost only three matches last season and two of them came at the hands of Cassioppi.

I’m detecting a hint of revenge in the air.

The balance of the match was hanging in the air deep into the third period as Kerkvliet was clinging to a 5-4 lead of Cass. As with both of their matches from the prior season this seemed like a broken record. All of them were close coming down to the wire and in all of them Cassioppi was able to take control with a takedown to secure the match.

Cassioppi snagged a single and it looked like he was going to continue the same script into this season. But this time Kerk was ready and went into full defense mode to work out of the jam. Greg then used the momentum and got the final takedown with a go behind to win the match 8-5 and completely crush Tony Cassioppi’s soul.

Aaron Brooks (PSU) dec. over Parker Keckeisen (NI) 12-8

The eighth match of the night pitted Aaron Brooks against a familiar foe in Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen. These titans of the Resilite have squared off two times prior.

Once in the semifinals of the 2021 NCAA Championships (Brooks 6-4 decision) and once early in the 2022-2023 season in Penn State’s dual against Northern Iowa (Brooks 3-2 decision). Even though Aaron owned a 2-0 record against Parker, the matches were about as close as you can get.

But in this match things looked a lot more one sided than in the past. Brooks looked masterful in his attack against Keckeisen which led to five takedowns through the first two and a half periods. Following Aaron’s final takedown and cut loose, Parker stayed on the attack to catch Brooks sleeping and snag his only takedown of the match. When the clock hit triple zeros, Aaron Brooks was victorious once again, this time in a high scoring 12-8 decision.

Yes, the final score was close, but this match was more sided than the score indicated. Brooks appeared to get a takedown pretty much anytime he wanted one and the match was basically a “takedown then cut loose” fest.

Carter Starocci (PSU) dec. over Mekhi Lewis (VT) 2-0

And here we are. The 15th and final match of the All-Star evening, for obvious reasons.

It was a mere 248 days prior to this match that these two highly competitive wrestlers took to the mat in the 174 finals of the 2022 NCAA Championships in Detroit. Broken hand and all, Starocci prevailed back in March with an action packed 6-5 win in TB-1.

While this match wasn’t as high scoring as their contest last season, it was just as exciting.

Following some brief action in the first period, the match went to the second tied at 0-0. Starocci began the period in the bottom position, and he was able to easily escape to take a 1-0 lead. At this point Carter started to really put pressure on Mekhi.

Which paid off as Lewis picked up a stall warning late in the second period as he wasn’t about to get anywhere close to Starocci.

Starocci was on top to start the third period and it looked like this match was going to be headed to another overtime if Lewis could get an early escape. But time and time again as Mekhi got to his feet, Carter brought him right back to the mat.

The third period ended just like it started, with Starocci on control in the top position. His full third period ride out ignited the crowd, gave him the riding time point, and won him the match with a 2-0 decision.

It was a great night of wrestling, and it capped off Penn State’s continued dominance in the world of collegiate wrestling.