Penn State senior Aaron Brooks wins Hodge Trophy, the Heisman of college wrestling
Penn State star Aaron Brooks is going out on top. The senior+ standout from Hagerstown, Md., is the winner of the 2023-2024 Hodge Trophy, beating out UNI’s Parker Keckeisen plus teammates Carter Starocci, Levi Haines, and Greg Kerkvliet. Considered the Heisman Trophy of college wrestling, it is awarded annually to the nation’s best wrestler by WIN Magazine. Brooks is the seventh from Penn State to win the honor since it was first given out in 1995. He is the first since Bo Nickal claimed it back in 2019. Brooks also was named the NCAA’s most dominant wrestler of the year.
“Winning the Hodge Trophy is a blessing,” Brooks told WIN Magazine. “It is like the Heisman Trophy in football, so to know the hard work and dedication I’ve put in is being rewarded with such a historic award is really cool.”
Brooks won his fourth NCAA title when he beat N.C. State’s Trent Hidlay 6-1 in the 197-pound finals at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. It was his first championship in that weight class after securing his first three at 184 pounds. In this year’s tournament, the Penn State wrestler reached the final by first beating Northwestern’s Evan Bates by technical fall, 22-0, in 5:25. In round 2, he pinned Wyoming’s Joseph Novak at the 2:20 mark of the first period. He then pinned Oklahoma’s Stephen Buchanan at the 2:45 mark of the first period in the quarters. Following a 22-0 technical fall win over No. 12 Rocky Elam of Missouri in the semifinals, Brooks took out Hidlay for the fourth time in his college career to finish first again.
It was a fitting way for a dominating career to end. Brooks was, and is, the best of college wrestling in 2023-2024.
Penn State sets team scoring record
Head coach Cael Sanderson’s team crowned four national champions, had two second place finishers, one who finished third, another who finished fifth, and 10 scoring competitors overall to finish with 172.5 team points. It broke the previous record of 170 points, which Iowa scored in 1997 and beat this year’s runner-up, Cornell, by exactly 100 points.
Sanderson’s team won the team title, of course, for the third consecutive year. And, the record was broken by Aaron Brooks in his final match as a Lion. He won the 197-pound title to push the Lions over the edge and become the seventh four-time NCAA champion ever after teammate Carter Starocci became the sixth two bouts earlier at 174 pounds. Senior Greg Kerkvliet also won a title at heavyweight as did sophomore Levi Haines at 157 pounds. Senior Beau Bartlett finished second at 141 and Mitchell Mesenbrink is the 165-pound runner-up. Freshman Tyler Kasak was third at 149. Graduate senior Bernie Truax was fifth at 184. And, freshman Braeden Davis and redshirt sophomore Aaron Nagao did not place.
Eight of the Nittany Lions’ 10th participants scored double-digit points in the team race and were All-Americans. Five of them put up at least 20 points themselves. This culminates in one of the most impressive tournament performances in the sport’s storied histories and makes this team one of, if not the greatest, ever. Based on its perfect dual meet record and Big Ten tournament performance before nationals, we’ll side with the latter.
