Some college wrestlers had their All-American moments Saturday night.
Just moments after Penn State wrestler Carter Starocci made history by becoming the first five-time national champion in NCAA history, he walked over to the mat-side seats at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia to shake hands with President Donald Trump.
Starocci defeated Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen, 4-3, to win the 184-pound championship and his fifth NCAA title.
It is the first and possibly last time a college wrestler achieves such a feat.
Starocci had a fifth year of eligibility after taking part in the 2021 season when all athletes were given another year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starocci’s coach, Cael Sanderson, also shook hands with the president Saturday night.
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On Friday, other Penn State wrestlers spoke about Trump attending the event.
“It’s a great honor for the sport of wrestling,” Penn State’s Josh Barr told reporters. “The sport of wrestling is in a place where it needs growth. It needs life and energy behind it, and President Trump brings it.”
Mitchell Mesenbrink told reporters Friday that, regardless of politics, he believes Trump’s attendance would help improve viewership.
“We want to get people to watch, right? We want people to watch wrestling. We want people to funnel, not just money, but people’s time, and attention is money. So, I think that’s cool. And I think if it was conservative or liberal, it would be really really cool,” Messenbrink said.
“Democrat or Republican, whoever it is, it’s the president of the United States. The leader of the free world at our wrestling event is really cool when you think about it that way.”
The wrestling championships are back at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center for the first time since 2011, when Penn State won it all. That kick-started a dominant run by the Nittany Lions that continues. They’ve now won 12 of the last 14 titles, including four in a row, after clinching the team championship earlier Saturday.
Trump met and celebrated with a handful of other wrestlers after their championship victories as well.
Trump’s presence at the event brought a national spotlight to the sport of college wrestling and an electric energy to the building.
Trump walked into the Wells Fargo Center and was greeted by a raucous crowd that chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!” A few fans booed when Trump walked in.
Musk; OutKick founder Clay Travis; White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt; Education Secretary and former WWE executive Linda McMahon; House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa.; and several other Trump allies were in the front row to greet the president.
Jordan was a wrestling champion in high school and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he won an NCAA Division I men’s wrestling title twice. He was later an assistant coach with Ohio State University’s wrestling program from 1987 to 1995.
It is the second time in three years President Donald Trump has attended the NCAA wrestling championships. He also attended in 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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