Penn State cruises to 2nd straight NCAA wrestling title

Sun, Mar 19, 2023
Other News (AP)

TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Penn State's Aaron Brooks and Carter Starocci each won their third consecutive individual titles to help the Nittany Lions to back-to-back team crowns, and Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis won his fourth title Saturday at the NCAA wrestling championships.

Brooks beat Northern Iowa's Parker Keckeisen 7-2 in the 184-pound finals and Starocci pinned Mikey Labriola of Nebraska in the first round at 174.

Diakomihalis beat Ohio State's Sammy Sasso 4-2 to win the 149-pound crown and become the second four-time wrestling champion at Carnell and just the fifth in NCAA history.

Pat Glory of Princeton won the 125-pound title with a 4-1 decision over Purdue's Matt Ramos, breaking the Tigers' string of consecutive seasons without a wrestling national championship at 72.

Levi Haines, Greg Kerkvliet and Roman Bravo-Young also reached the finals Penn State. Haines lost 6-2 against North Carolina's Austin O'Connor at 157 pounds, Kerkvliet dropped a 5-1 decision to Mason Parris of Michigan at heavyweight and Cornell's Vito Arujau beat Bravo-Young 10-4 to win the 133-pound title.

Penn State finished with 137.5 points - 55 more than second-place Iowa - to run away with its 10th team title since coach Cael Sanderson took over in the 2009-2010 season. Cornell finished third with 76.5, Ohio State was fourth with 70.5, six ahead of fifth-place Missouri.

Nino Bonaccorsi of Pittsburgh won the 197-pound crown with a 5-3 victory over South Dakota State's Tanner Sloan and Northern Colorado's Andrew Alirez beat Real Woods - the second-place Hawkeyes' lone finalist - 6-4 to take home the title at 141.

Missouri's Keegan O'Toole beat David Carr of Iowa State in the 165-pound finals. Carr, who went into championship undefeated this season, had beaten O'Toole twice this season, 7-2 when the Missouri beat the Cyclones in a February dual meet, then by fall in overtime in the Big 12 finals two weeks ago.

___

More AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25