UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State Nittany Lion wrestling program and the Penn State Olympic RTC will be well represented next week at the Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, as well as the U23 World Championships later in October in Pontevedra, Spain. Seven former Lions and members of the Penn State Olympic RTC will compete at Senior Worlds next week while current Nittany Lion Carter Starocci (Erie, Pa.) will battle for the U23 World Championship on Oct. 17-23.
The 2022 UWW World Championships begin on Saturday, Sept. 9, in Belgrade and run through Sept. 18. Former Nittany Lion legends Zain Retherford (70kg) and David Taylor (86kg) will compete for the Penn State Olympic RTC/Nittany Lion Wrestling Club as will five other OTC residents. Thomas Gilman (57kg) and Kyle Snyder (92kg) will join Retherford and Taylor on Team USA while Franklin Gomez (74kg) and Jane Valencia (57kg) will both represent Puerto Rico. Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (74kg) will represent Uzbekistan).
Greco-Roman wrestling will dominate the event's first two days before women's freestyle begins on Sept. 12. Men's freestyle wrestling begins on Sept. 15. Valencia will be first up for the Penn State ORTC, beginning on Wed., Sept. 14. Retherford (70kg) and Taylor (86kg) begin competing on Thursday, Sept. 15; Gilman (57kg), Gomez (74kg), Abdurakhmonov (74kg) and Snyder (92kg) begin action on Thursday, Sept. 16.
Current Nittany Lion junior Starocci will compete at the U23 World Championships on Oct. 17-23 in Pontevedra. Starocci will battle for the 79kg U23 World Championship title. The full schedule for U23s will be announced at a later date.
The Nittany Lion wrestling team returns five All-Americans, four national champions and a handful of other NCAA qualifiers for the 2023 season. Penn State is coming off winning its ninth NCAA team championship in the last 11 tournaments.
The 2022-23 Penn State Wrestling season is presented by the Family Clothesline. Penn State Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State wrestling via twitter at @pennstateWREST, on Penn State Wrestling's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatewrestling and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pennstatewrest. This is PENN STATE. WRESTLING lives here.
