Penn State Wrestling's Next Goal: Ten All-Americans at the NCAA Championships

Penn State has demonstrated all sorts of dominance during its 16-year run under head coach Cael Sanderson. The Nittany Lions have won 11 team titles at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, crowned five individual champs twice and set the tournament scoring record last season.

But one goal has eluded the Nittany Lions at nationals, and they're focused on it this week in Philadelphia. Can every Penn State wrestler earn All-America status at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships?

"It's a stepping stone for one of the things the program hasn't done yet," said Tyler Kasak, Penn State's top-seeded wrestler at 157 pounds.

Only one team in college wrestling history has placed an entire lineup on the podium. In 2001, Minnesota produced 10 All-Americans to win its first team title at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

Yet the Gophers claimed their national title in the most unique way. Not one wrestler made the individual finals. Three wrestlers placed third, three finished fourth, one in fifth, one in sixth and two in eighth place. Minnesota topped Iowa and Oklahoma State without a wrestler winning, or even competing for, a national title.

That won't be Penn State. The Nittany Lions return three NCAA champs and have four wrestlers seeded first in their respective weight classes. Carter Starocci seeks to become the first wrestler in NCAA Division I history to win five national championships.

But Sanderson, who can become just the second coach in NCAA history to win 12 team titles, models his program around consistency. And claiming 10 All-Americans while winning multiple individual titles would underscore the team's consistent dominance.

"Obviously we have a lot of consistency, and there really haven’t been many, if any, exceptions where our guys haven’t been at their best in those big moments," Sanderson said this week. "But it comes down to each individual kid deciding or choosing how they’re going to go into competition, how they’re going to use those seven minutes they have with each match. But I think that they’re prepared, and we’re excited for this."

Ten All-Americans is rare because so few teams qualify a full starting lineup to NCAAs in the first place. This is the fourth season in which Penn State has sent 10 wrestlers to NCAAs. The team's record for All-Americans is eight, which Penn State reached the past two seasons and in 2019. Every time Penn State has qualified 10 wrestlers to NCAAs, it has won the team title.

Kasak said fielding 10 All-Americans would lift Penn State wrestling to another level in the team sports landscape.

"It will put us to another status to where we separate ourselves from wrestling teams and just sports in general," Kasak said. "I think this program is doing things no sports program, regardless of the sport or the level, or that anyone could possibly do. So I think it's special and a real possibility."

Based on the seeds, Kasak is right about this being a real possibility. Every Nittany Lion is seeded among the top 8 at his weight class, the threshold for All-America status. Four Penn State wrestlers are seeded first, and eight are seeded in the top 3.

"It's a really cool experience to be on a team with all these bad dudes," said freshman Luke Lilledahl, the No. 1 seed at 125 pounds. "I think it brings all of our levels up, too, and the team camaraderie and things like that."

Added Starocci, who could wrestle the final bout of the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships, "I’m one of the last guys to wrestle in the upper weights, and so it’s always fun to watch those lower guys handle business. So I think, in a way, it kind of takes the stress off us because we know that, when it’s our time to wrestle [in the finals], we already have the team title locked up. So we can go out and kind of have fun. So it’s a blessing to have a team that’s really good."

The 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships begin Thursday at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.