Some university fighters had their American moments on Saturday night.
Only moments after Penn State Carter Starocci fighter made history by becoming the first five times national champion in the history of the NCAA, he approached the seats on the Esterno side in the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia to shake hands with President Donald Trump.
Starocci defeated Parker Keckeisen from northern Iowa, 4-3, to win the 184-pound championship and his fifth title of the NCAA.
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Penn State Carter Starocci during an 184 -pound match in the Male Wrestling Championship of Division I at the Wells Fargo Center on March 21, 2025 in Philadelphia. (Photos of Isaac Wasserman/NCAA through Getty Images)
It is the first and possibly the last time a university fighter achieves such a feat.
The Fantasocici had a fifth year of eligibility after participating in the 2021 season when all athletes received another year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Starocci coach Cael Sanderson also shake hands with the president on Saturday night.
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On Friday, other Penn State fighters talked about Trump who attended the event.
“It’s a great honor for wrestling sport,” Josh Barr de Penn State told journalists. “The wrestling sport is in a place where it needs growth. It needs life and energy behind this, and President Trump brings it.”
Mitchell Mesenbrink told journalists on Friday that, regardless of politics, he believes that Trump’s assistance would help improve the audience.
President Donald Trump talks to Senator Dave McCormick, Republican of PA-PA., While sitting next to Tesla and the CEO of Spacex, Elon Musk and the American representative Jim Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, while they see the wrestling competition of the NCAA in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on March 22, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP through Getty Images)
“We want people to see, right? We want people to see wrestling. We want people to exchange, not only money, but the time of people and attention is money. So, I think it’s great. And I think that if I were conservative or liberal, it would be really great,” Messenbrink said.
“Democrat or Republican, whoever is, is the president of the United States. The leader of the free world in our wrestling event is really great when you think about it.”
Wrestling championships are back at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia for the first time since 2011, when Penn State won everything. That started a dominant career for the Nittany Lions that continues. Now they have won 12 of the last 14 titles, including four in a row, after securing the team championship the earliest Saturday.
Trump met and celebrated with a handful of other fighters after his victories in the championship.
Trump’s presence in the event brought national attention to the sport of university struggle and an electricity to the building.
Trump entered the Wells Fargo Center and was received by a strident crowd that sang “United States! Uu.!” Some fans booed when Trump entered.
Musk; The founder of Outkick, Clay Travis; White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt; Secretary of Education and former WWE Executive, Linda McMahon; President of the Judicial Committee of the House of Representatives Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; Senator Dave McCormick, R-PA.; And several other Trump allies were in the front row to greet the president.
President Donald Trump and Carter Starocci of the Penn State Nittany Lions embrace during the male fighting championships of Division I of the NCAA of 2025 at the Wells Fargo Center Wells on March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (Mitchell Leff/Getty images)
Jordan was a wrestling champion at High School and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he won a male struggle title of Division I of the NCAA twice. Later he was an assistant coach in the fight program of the Ohio State University from 1987 to 1995.
It is the second time in three years that President Donald Trump attended the NCAA struggle championship. He also attended in 2023 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
