Penn State wrestling’s standout freshman Carter Starocci was selected as USA Wrestling’s Athlete of the Week Tuesday afternoon.

With thrilling overtime upsets over a pair top-three wrestlers in Michigan’s Logan Massa and Ohio State’s Kaleb Romero recently, Starocci has propelled himself into InterMat’s No. 4 ranking in the 174-pound weight class. The young grappler won both bouts in the tiebreaker periods over the more experienced wrestlers.

Despite being a redshirt freshman, Starocci has announced himself as a contender in the weight class after dropping his first match of the season. He kept up his hot-streak in Penn State’s dual meet against Maryland Monday night when he picked up a 15-6 major decision over Phillip Spadafora to help the Nittany Lions earn a share of the Big Ten Wrestling Dual Meet Championship with Iowa.

Now 6-1 on the year and wrestling at peak performance, Starocci will try to keep the momentum going at the Big Ten Championships that are to be held at the BJC on March 6-7.