Both of this year’s Penn State wrestling national champions have a shot to win the sport’s greatest honor, and they talked about it after their title wins.
Mitchell Mesenbrink, the national champ at 165 pounds, finished the season 27-0 with almost 89% of his wins being by the bonus point variety.
Then, of course, there’s Carter Starocci.
Starocci was named the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler and was one of the best stories.
Who Else?: Penn State Wrestling Star Carter Starocci Named Most Outstanding Wrestler
After all, winning five DI national titles is something that never happened before and probably will never happen again due to to “COVID era” of eligibility about to be a thing of the past. Of course, Starocci (26-0, bonus point percentage just under 85) is a contender, too.
Initially, it looked like the great Gable Steveson would be Mesenbrink and Starocci’s biggest competition.
Instead, in maybe the biggest upset in NCAA history, the Olympic Gold Medalist lost 5-4 to Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson in the championship bout.
285 NCAA Final 🏆: Wyatt Hendrickson (OSU) defeats Olympic Champion Gable Steveson (Minnesota) to win the national title!!!! Biggest Upset in NCAA History!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Q2HTNJ8d4Z
— Saturday Night Lights (@WrestlingSNL) March 23, 2025
The official Hodge Trophy finalists haven’t been announced yet, but those seem to be the top three.
Here’s what Mesenbrink and Starocci said about the possibility of winning wrestling’s greatest individual honor.
WHAT MESENBRINK SAID
Photo by Penn State Wrestling: Mitchell Mesenbrink
For Mesenbrink, the Hodge Trophy would be wonderful to have.
But, at the end of the day, it’s a subjective award that is judged by others.
“Yeah, it’d be sweet,” he said following his championship win. “I think we have to realize a lot of this… the sweet thing about wrestling is its not… what I’ve tried to do in my wrestling career is take it out of the judgement of others, right? So, like, you can watch, and it’s like, you don’t have to be a master referee to score my matches. You could score them off of, ok, that’s a takedown. That’s blatantly stalling, right? Stuff like that.
I asked Penn State wrestling national champion Mitchell Mesenbrink what it would mean to win the Dan Hodge Trophy, which he’s built a pretty solid case for.
His answer was an interesting one. pic.twitter.com/ZDNtSLlxtk
— Joe Smeltzer (@joesmeltzer775) March 23, 2025
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“But what is the Hodge Trophy, right? It’s a judgement award off people that get to vote and stuff.”
Interestingly enough, last year’s Hodge winner helped Mesenbrink with this mindset.
“There’s a bunch of different criteria for people that devote in that,” he said, “and I think another thing that Aaron Brooks has helped me with a lot too is not being of this world.”
“This is a very temporary existence for an eternal one. So, I’m not going to let myself be swayed by judgement of however many, (the) mass of people it is.
Make no mistake, Mesenbrink would still love to have the award.
It caught his eye years ago at the Askern Wrestling Academy, where he trained growing up in Wisconsin.
“Obviously, it’d be freaking sweet,” he said. “Walking into AWA, there’s two Dan Hodge Trophies sitting on the table there, and I’ve done that. I’ve seen that since 2011. So, yeah, it’d be really freaking sweet to get that. But, at the end of the day, it’s not everything.”
WHAT STAROCCI SAID
Carter Starocci improves Penn State’s winning margin 26-5 with his convincing win over Iowa’s Angelo Ferrari.
Starocci, usually a man of many words, was subdued in his response to Nittany Sports Now about the Hodge Trophy.
“I’m glad to have another title with my team, experience this and, obviously, just being a part of this program,” Starocci said. “So that’s what matters most.”
Earlier in his press conference, Starocci did say he felt the winner of his 184-pound title match with Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen should be the Hodge winner.
So we’ll see what happens.
