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Penn State wrestler Carter Starocci is one of the school's 2 athletes of the year: Newsstand

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•06/24/25•

GregPickel

NCAA Wrestling: DI Wrestling
(Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images)

Penn State has picked its male and female athletes of the year for the 2024-2025 school year. Those selections headline today’s newsstand.

The Nittany Lions athletic department selected star wrestler Carter Starocci as its male athlete of the year. Jess Mruzik, a star of the women’s volleyball team that won the program’s eighth national title this year, earned the female athlete of the year honor.

Starocci became the first college wrestler to ever win a fifth NCAA title when he beat Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen in this year’s 184-pound NCAA finals. He is also the 2025 NCAA Championships Most Outstanding Wrestler, the 2025 Big Ten Wrestler of the Year, and a winner of the Penn State male athlete of the year honor for the second time, as he also claimed it in 2023.

Penn State writes on Mruzik that:

“Mruzik was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship after leading Penn State to its eighth national title overall and first since 2014. The graduate outside hitter turned in one of the best performances in NCAA Championship history, hitting .308 while averaging 6.11 kills, 2.89 digs, and 0.67 blocks per set in wins over No. 3 Nebraska and No. 4 Louisville.

“[Mruzik] earned first-team All-America recognition after leading the Nittany Lions to Big Ten and Regional titles. Her efforts helped the team finish the season 35-2.”

Starocci and Mruzik are now both up for the Big Ten male and female athletes of the year honors. Those will be announced at a later date.

Headlines of the day

How Adam Breneman Wants to Change College Football, at Penn State and Beyond: Wogenrich, SI

PSU White Out Camp Recap: We get our first look at several defensive commits: Carr, BWI

Exclusive: ‘No time to wait’ as Knowles sets urgent tone for the PSU defense: Pickel, BWI

PSU welcomes freshman running back Jabree Wallace to campus: Fitz, BWI

Penn State summer roster updates: Offense | Defense

Quote of the day

I think the biggest thing that’s changed recently is just, clearly, there’s been a commitment to do whatever it takes to win at the highest level at Penn State. And I don’t think that Penn State had that for a while. I feel like for a long time, Penn State, for a lot of good reasons, had a certain way of doing things. It was, Penn State was different than everybody else. It was maybe more old-school at times. And you have all these pieces that were a little bit outdated, like the facilities and things like that. But if you recruit the right kind of people, those things didn’t matter at Penn State.”

PSU alum Adam Breneman to SI on what’s changed at PSU since his playing days.

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