Two more Penn State wrestlers enter the NCAA transfer portal
STATE COLLEGE — Two additional Penn State wrestlers have entered the NCAA transfer portal. A source told Blue-White Illustrated on Tuesday that senior David Evans and redshirt freshman AJ Fricchone are both now looking for new colleges. They join Alex Facundo, Gary Steen, and Marco Vesa as members of the team who have entered the portal since the Lions ended the 2024-2025 season with their fourth straight team title in addition to having two national champions. Head coach Cael Sanderson’s team also set a new team points record in the process, finishing with 177, which broke the record they set last year of 172.5.
Evans came to Penn State after placing twice at the PIAA tournament for Tunkhannock. After wrestling exclusively in open events during his first two years in State College, he made his dual meet debut in 2023-2024 and went 3-0 in those with wins over Michigan and Michigan State during the Big Ten portion of the schedule. He can compete at 141 and 149 but will likely look to wrestle at the latter during his final college season. Evans did not wrestle in any matches this season but is 30-9 at the college level.
Fricchione was a four-time state placer at Bergen Catholic in New Jersey. Indiana, Navy, Oregon State, and Virginia were all in the running for the 197-pound wrestler who picked Penn State back in 2022 and enrolled as part of the 2023.
More: Japanese superstar wrestler Masanosuke Ono commits to Penn State
“Penn State has been my dream school growing up as a kid, my father and I would always watch all the great wrestlers who came through Penn State,” Fricchione told BWI in 2022.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Xavier hires Pitino
Richard Pitino joins dad in Big East
- 2Hot
Gunner Stockton
Sly parting shot at Carson Beck
- 3Trending
Bedlam in Spring?
Mike Gundy pitches rivalry as spring game
- 4
Troy Taylor
Stanford, Andrew Luck fire head coach
- 5
Paul Finebaum
Calipari success a disaster for Kentucky
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
“I always thought to myself I hope that can be me one day. When I visited Penn State something really stood out to me, and it was that every single person in that wrestling room had a smile on there face. Everyone who is there loves to wrestle, those are the guys I want to surround myself around.”
He will now look for a new school along with his four other teammates. And, other Penn State wrestlers could still decide to move on. The portal window opened before the NCAA Championships at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and does not close until May.
Want breaking news like this delivered straight to your inbox for FREE? Sign up today for the BWI breaking newsletter! You’ll also get daily updates with the top headlines of the day five times a week. Click here to sign-up!
