The 2024 NWCA All-Star Classic presented by Nike Wrestling will take place on Saturday, November 16, 2024, at 7:00 pm (ET) in Rec Hall on the campus of Penn State. 

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This event can be viewed only on FloWrestling and will feature 10 highly ranked Division 1 folkstyle matchups along with 5 cross-divisional women’s freestyle matches and one men's match between a D2 and D3 athlete.

Simply put, Starocci vs Keckeisen will be a literal clash of the Titans!

You may now be asking, "When you say Starocci vs Keckeisen is literally a clash of Titans, are you suggesting that both wrestlers are actual mythical Greek gods, manifest here on earth in the year 2024?' To answer your question, yes. Yes I am and  that is literally the case. Prove me wrong!

Just How Titanic Of A Matchup Is This?

There are many factors I could point to that would back up the claim that this is a literal clash of titans. More factors than my deadline for filing this preview would allow me to discuss, but I'll do what I can! 

They Are Both Defending NCAA Champs

Starocci won 174lbs at the 2024 NCAA Championships. Keckeisen won 184lbs at the same tournament in Kansas City. 

FloWrestling paid a bunch of money to the NCAA for the right to host the archives of the finals so let's watch both of those finals matches now, why not? 

Here's Starocci beating Ohio State's true freshman phenom Rocco Welsh at 174:

And here is Keckeisen defeating Oklahoma State's three-time All-American and four-time national qualifier Dustin Plott: 

Very impressive work from both wrestlers!

It's very rare that two returning NCAA champs wrestle each other. It necessitates one returning champ changing weights to a division that also has a returning champ in it. In this case its Carter bumping up from 174 to 184. 

That also adds intrigue to the match, as this will be the first time we Starocci up at 184 (PSU's first scheduled event this season is a home dual against Drexel the day after the All-Star Classic). Carter certainly looks big enough to handle the extra lbs, but this is also someone who not long ago was contemplating cutting down to 74kg (162.8lbs) to try and make the Paris Olympic team. 

So even if you don't expect the 10 pound jump to be a problem for Starocci (which, for the record, I don't), it will still be interesting to see how Carter looks against a 184lb national champ. 

They Are Both 2024 Hodge Trophy Finalists

The 2024 Dan Hodge Trophy was awarded to Aaron Brooks, but Starocci and Keckeisen were both finalists. The prerequisite for being a Hodge finalist is usually an undefeated title-winning, which Keickesen accomplished. Starocci technically had two losses on his record but they were both injury defaults at the Big Ten Championships where he took the mat for just a few seconds. That was due to an injury Starocci suffered in the last dual of the season against Edinboro where he still managed to secure a tech fall before limping off the mat. 

Once the undefeated NCAA champs are identified the next step in the Hodge Trophy evaluation process is to look at pins and bonus wins. Then you go to strength of schedule, then intangibles (at least that is the official Hodge criteria). Brooks, with a 91% bonus rate (compared to 90% for Keckeisen and 65% for Starocci) and his becoming a four-time NCAA champ gave him the nod over our two 184 All-Stars (and also Levi Hains and Greg Kerkvliet). 

Before the injury defaults, Starocci's last loss was to Michael Kemerer in the 2021 Big Ten finals. Keckeisen's last loss was to Aaron Brooks in the 2023 NCAA finals. 

Add all that up and you get two Hdge finalists. So not just two returning national champs, but two national champs who had undefeated seasons (aside from injury defaults) AND elite bonus rates. 

Now let's look at some stats from each wrestler to gain more appreciation for this matchup. 

Starocci Stats

• Four-time NCAA champ
• Two-time Big Ten champ
• 16 D1 pinfalls in 2023-24
• 2022 U23 World bronze medalist
• 2021 & 2022 Senior Men's Freestyle National Team member

Keckeisen Stats

• 2024 NCAA Champion

• Four-time NCAA All-American (3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st)
• 102-6 collegiate career (D1 opponents only)
• 20 D1 tech-falls in 2023-24
• 2019 U20 World Team runner-up

Outstanding statistics in my opinion. 

So Best NCAA Matchup Since...?

I'm doing my best to hype these two up to the highest possible level so might be worth it to take a second and ask what other matchups might compare. After all, the NCAA has been able to supply fans with quite a few number of amazing matches over the last couple of decades. 

Let's see, I'm going to forget and leave off a bunch of legendary matchups but recently we've been treated to David Carr vs Keegan O'Toole (multiple times), Valencia vs Hall (multiple times), Nolf vs IMar, Cenzo vs IMar, Spencer vs Suriano, Snyder vs Gwiz, Ruth vs Dean, Steiber vs Retherford and many more (by all means, sound off on who I missed!).

The one that stands out, though, is Dake vs Taylor, which we saw three times during the 2012-13 season. Dake won all three bouts (at the 2012 NWCA All-Star Classic, the 2013 Southern Scuffle, and the 2013 NCAA finals), but that didn't stop each match from producing an avalanche of hype each time they met. If anything, the ASC and the Scuffle matches only served to add to the excitement and anticipation surrounding the NCAA 165lb championship bout!

Which brings me to another important aspect of the Keckeisen vs Starocci bout.

They Both Won Matches At The 2023 All-Star Classic

Further illustrating that these two wrestlers are up for any challenge, they both participated in last year's All-Star Classic, and, importantly for our hype train we are currently riding, they won. 

Let's watch those matches now, why not?

Starocci majored Mekhi Lewis 11-0:

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And Keckeisen defeated four-time All-American Bernie Truax 7-5:

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Prediction

But I don't believe anyone who says they can predict with any amount of certainty what we'll see when these two lock horns. 

We talked about this match a bunch of FRL on Wednesday and came to the conclusion that the key to victory for Carter will be defense in neutral and his riding when he's on top, and for Parker, it's finishing his shots in neutral and escaping from bottom. 

And of course, both wrestlers will want to score more points than their opponent (har har har). 

There's not a lot of overlap in opponents to get a sense of who would win by the transitive property. Starocci lost to Trent Hidlay at the Olympic Team Trials and Keckeisen is 2-1 against Hidlay from matches in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, though of course those respective matches were in different styles. 

My gut says Starocci is stingy enough on defense to eke out a win, but I would not be surprised in the slightest if Keckeisen is able to get a couple of takedowns and hold on for the win. So you can officially mark me down for a Starocci win by a hair, but I would bet zero farms on it.

More confidently I'd predict that this match will do nothing but raise expectations for another showdown at NCAAs, as these two are slated to meet at any other time during the season. All the more reason to tune in Saturday to watch them wrestle!

Go to the 29:50 mark of episode 1,078 of FRL to watch the fellas discuss this titanic matchup!