Penn State wrestling notes: More on Carter Starocci, Lions prep for Big Tens, and more
Penn State wrestling has five No. 1 seeds out of a possible total of 10 for this weekend’s Big Ten tournament in College Park, Md. The top-ranked Nittany Lions have nine starters inside of the top five, and all will be ready to roll once the first whistle blows to start the action at 125 pounds on Saturday morning.
With pre-seeds out and Cael Sanderson finished with his first and only media availability of the week, there is little left to say or do but watch the team train while kicking around possible outcomes at this year’s conference event. The most interesting topic in that conversation focuses on three-time NCAA champ Carter Starocci, of course. He was seen walking into the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex with his right knee in a brace after he injured it at the end of his match in the Edinboro meet two Sundays ago.
Sanderson said Thursday that Starocci’s plan is still to “seek and destroy” his competition at 174 pounds. Whether he’ll do that right through the championship match, however, remains to be seen. He could wrestle a couple of matches and then medically default out of the tournament. He could also forfeit one second into his first two matches. Behind door number three, of course, would be the Penn State star being healthy enough to push through the two-day tournament in search of a title and the top seed at NCAAs. Two past Penn State examples of this include Jason Nolf pushing through two matches before medically forfeiting in 2018. In 2017, Nick Suriano medically forfeited at Big Tens to qualify for NCAAs. But, he was ultimately not healthy enough to compete in either tournament.
More: Where is each Penn State wrestler in the Big Ten preseeds?
“We trust our trainer, Dan Monthley, and our doctors and as we’ve said, Carter’s a competitor and he’ll be good to go,” Sanderson said. “I think he’s doing good.
“The first day was tough for him because we didn’t really know where he was and he was in a lot of pain. Usually, that’s a good thing. If you know knees and injuries and stuff, if there’s no pain that’s usually more of a concern because that means something’s no longer there. He’s doing good.”
In other news conference news, Sanderson said he thinks his Penn State team is looking good ahead of tournament time. It always aims to peak in the postseason. Big Tens are the final stop on that road before hopefully doing so at natioansl.
“I think everyone’s looking good,” Sanderson said. “You know, we just have a couple more days of hard training, and then it’s just getting ready to compete and just go do what we do.
“I don’t think anybody’s peaked yet. I think everybody has their eyes set on the bigger events at the end. But yeah, there’s some different things, everyone’s different. Obviously, different levels of experience. And then weight management is different. So that obviously factors into the training of each individual. I think our our guys are excited and at peace and ready to roll.”
