The Penn State Wrestling team won their 4th consecutive team title and crowned two individual champions at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia. Penn State has now won 12 of the last 15 NCAA Championships under the guidance of coach Cael Sanderson. Credit: Mark Selders / Penn State. Creative Commons
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Penn State wrestling team clinched the 2025 NCAA national championship at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on March 22.
The Nittany Lions have now won 12 of the last 15 NCAA championships (no event in 2020) and its fourth straight for the third time under head coach Cael Sanderson. Sanderson is now second in all-time NCAA history with 12 head coaching national titles to his credit.
Penn State's Carter Starocci, the No. 1 seed at 184, defeated No. 2 seed Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa 4-3 in the finals at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Starocci ends his historic Penn State wrestling career as the only five-time NCAA Champion in collegiate wrestling history. Penn State won the team title for the 12th time under the guidance of coach Cael Sanderson. Credit: Mark Selders / Penn State. Creative Commons
In addition to the NCAA team title, the Nittany Lions crowned two individual champions in the national finals.
Carter Starocci and Mitchell Mesenbrink both won in the national finals while freshman Josh Barr finished as NCAA runner-up.
Starocci became the first ever five-time national champion with his win. He was named the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championship Outstanding Wrestler at the tournament's end and Mesenbrink was presented with the NCAA's season-long Most Technical Falls Award.
With the titles won by Starocci and Mesenbrink, the Nittany Lions now have 61 NCAA champions, 40 since Sanderson's arrival as head coach.
Penn State secured 10 All-Americans for the first time in school history, becoming only the second team in NCAA history to do so after Minnesota in 2001. All of Penn State's 10 All-Americans placed in the top six. The Nittany Lions now have 264 All-Americans, 101 under Sanderson in 16 seasons.