Carter Starocci, four more District 10 alumni to wrestle at NCAA Division I championships
One of them has hogged national headlines as of late.
Carter Starocci is just one of five District 10 alumni, however, who will compete at the 2024 NCAA Division I national wrestling championships at Kansas City.
Starocci, a 2019 graduate of Cathedral Prep who wrestles for Penn State, will be joined by Rambler alumni Jacob Van Dee of Nebraska and Dorian Crosby of Bucknell at the tournament Thursday through Saturday. McDowell’s Jeffrey Boyd, now with The Citadel, and Reynolds’ Cole Matthews, now with Pittsburgh, will also compete.
Starocci’s health has been college wrestling’s hottest topic since the 174-pounder injured his right knee during Penn State’s Feb. 25 dual meet against Edinboro. The attention only heightened when Starocci medically forfeited out of the Big 10 conference championships and was subsequently seeded ninth at the NCAA tournament.
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The two-time PIAA champion made it clear to reporters last week, however, that he’s ready to go. The confidence with which he spoke was no surprise to his high school coach.
“(Starocci) has always been very confident. Not cocky, but confident,” Prep head coach Mike Hahsey told the Times-News Monday. “He’s always been a very hard worker and I think always tried to seek out the best competition.”
Prep’s Starocci seeks rare fourth title
Starocci will seek to become just the sixth wrestler to win four NCAA Division I championships. Penn State teammate Aaron Brooks will try for the same at 197 pounds.
Starocci was 12-0 this season before his two losses by forfeit at the Big 10 meet and had not previously lost since March 7, 2021. That’s why the three-time defending champion at 174 pounds will be seeded ninth instead of first, and why matchups with former national champions Mehki Lewis of Virginia Tech and Shane Griffith of Michigan potentially loom in the quarter and semifinals.
If his recent comments are any indication, Starocci is undeterred by circumstance. “I don’t care what they seed me at,” Starocci said as reported by the York Daily Record. “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 on in three days.”
Erie wrestling fans may recognize that approach. It helped power Starocci to a 172-10 record in a Cathedral Prep singlet.
“(Starocci) got really good on his feet toward the end of his high school career and he’s always been good on top,” Hahsey said. “If you watch him now, when he gets a takedown, he can ride anybody and turn them over. Similar style but it’s much more polished.”
Starocci will open against Minnesota’s Andrew Sparks, the 24th seed. He and Penn State are heavy favorites to win the team championship for the third consecutive year and 11th time since 2011.
McDowell grad Boyd qualifies at 149 pounds
Boyd is the first McDowell alumnus to qualify for Division I nationals since Mike Swift placed eighth for California (Pa.) in 1993.
A 2019 McDowell grad and 2018 PIAA champion with the Trojans, Boyd transferred to The Citadel after four seasons at West Virginia. He’s 17-11 this season and seeded 32nd at 149 pounds.
“This is an opportunity that I would have liked to have earlier in my career. I was always close, and I guess sometimes things happen later rather than sooner,” Boyd told the Times-News. “It’s just a cool experience to finally get there and compete. I’m excited because there are 33 guys in the bracket, and anyone can come out on top or find a way to the podium.”
Boyd was the 149-pound Southern Conference runner-up, punching his first ticket to the NCAA tournament. His loss in the finals snapped a nine-match winning streak, the longest of his collegiate career.
Switching programs was a challenge at first, Boyd said, but he saw improvements in his offensive arsenal as this year progressed. A 57-51 career collegiate wrestler, those changes have helped Boyd wrestle more freely as of late.
“(My family) has always been super supportive. My mom has flown out to countless tournaments this year,” said Boyd, whose father, Tom, is head wrestling coach at Gannon University. “I’m just really blessed and I’m glad to be able to do this.”
Three Ramblers at nationals
Cathedral Prep sent three wrestling alumni to the 2023 national tournament, the only PIAA member program to do so. Three more Ramblers will compete this year.
It takes a village of coaches to produce even one wrestler of this caliber, Hahsey said, and a special type of athlete to become one.
“I know they all accomplished a lot in high school, but at the end of the day, what’s high school wrestling going to do with your life?” Hahsey said. “These guys are all going to get college degrees, they’re all going to have great jobs, and they all accomplished things at the highest possible level there is. It’s super rewarding and I’m super proud of all three of them.”
At 133 pounds, Van Dee seeks to put an exclamation point on what has been a breakout redshirt freshman season. The 2022 Prep grad carries a 22-8 record and is seeded 14th at the NCAAs, pitting him against Northern Iowa’s Julian Farber in the first round.
Van Dee was 6-1 for Nebraska in Big 10 dual meets this season and ranked as high as 12th nationally. A 2021 state champion and three-time PIAA medalist with Prep, Thursday will mark his NCAA tournament debut.
“(Van Dee) has always been a very hard worker and he’s super talented,” Hahsey said. “He comes from a totally different background than (Starocci) but he has the same type of mentality — he’s super confident, he tries to wrestle the best kids and he put a lot of time into the offseason.”
Crosby returns to NCAAs at heavyweight after an 0-2 finish last year. Now a senior, the 2020 PIAA champion and Prep graduate is 23-9 and seeded 19th at 285 pounds.
Crosby was the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association runner-up at 285 pounds, capping another breakout-type campaign after he was 18-14 as a junior and missed his entire sophomore season due to injury.
“(Crosby) has always been a great leader,” Hahsey said. “He sets a good example by working out, by his diet and by being a role model. I think all those positive things in his life have added up to a really good season.”
Reynolds’ Matthews makes fifth NCAA appearance
Matthews, a 2018 Reynolds graduate, seeks his first NCAA medal in what will be his fifth NCAA tournament with Pitt.
The redshirt senior is seeded 18th at 149 pounds and will open with 15th-seeded Mitch Moore of Rutgers. Matthews was the third seed at 141 last season and eventually lost in the blood round.
This will mark the end of a long, celebrated Pitt career for Matthews. He’s amassed a 100-37 record across six seasons and has six times been named Atlantic Coast Conference Wrestler of the Week.
A two-time PIAA champion with Reynolds, he’s a two-time ACC champion with the Panthers.
Wrestling starts Thursday
The NCAA championships begin with preliminary and first round action at noon Thursday with the second championship round scheduled for 7 p.m. Quarterfinals will start at noon Friday and semifinals at 8 p.m.
Placement matches begin at 11 a.m. Saturday and championship finals at 7 p.m. The entire tournament will be either broadcast or streamed on ESPN networks and ESPN+.
Contact Jeff Uveino at juveino@timesnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @realjuveino.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: NCAA wrestling: Starocci, 3 more from Erie County reach D-I nationals
