With the Olympics breathing down on the world, the USA’s wrestlers are looking to hop over the last hurdle to Paris this weekend at the Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State will play host to the Olympic Team Trials and things are getting intense. Among all the bigshots who will be making an appearance on April 19 and 20, the six-time World Championships gold medalist Jordan Burroughs is undoubtedly a major attraction, especially with him training hard to get back to his former weight class. And now, a latest development is set to ease his 2024 goals a little more.

Penn State’s Carter Starocci has earned himself a commendable reputation thanks to his impeccable display of skills on the mat throughout his collegiate career. While an injury pushed Starocci to the sideline for quite some time, only last month the four-time NCAA champ announced his intentions to return to action. However, for those who were looking forward to seeing the young American locking horns with Jordan Burroughs, things are not to be.

Jordan Burroughs brushes away the threat from Starocci

With the team trials just four days away, the brackets for the men’s freestyle events are unveiled. The revelation shocked fans, as Starocci can be seen in the 86kg weight class instead of 74kg, which is his otherwise go to category to compete in. While Burroughs was also gearing up to face one of the country’s top collegiate stars, he didn’t waste the chance to take a dig at Starocci’s hopes of overtaking the Olympic gold medalist with his latest decision. “Starocci, who originally planned on wrestling at 74kg, is now entered at 86kg for the 2024 Olympic Team Trials“, announced a recent Instagram post by FloWrestling and Burroughs had a response of his own on the matter.

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“Gonna be hard to end my career up there champ.“, wrote Jordan in the comment section of the post, in his own inimitable style. Burroughs’ comment comes as a reaction to Starocci’s social media post made a month ago, where he took a cue from Penn State’s UFC star Bo Nickal and dissed Jordan, vowing to “end his career“. However, it seems like Burroughs isn’t under any threat of losing his high pedestal just yet.

With Starocci now entered in a different category, both the 86kg and 74kg classes will be subjected to tectonic shifts that can certainly disrupt the existing balances significantly.

Steep climb ahead for both wrestlers

Starocci is expected to lock horns against Stanford’s Pat Downey for his first match this weekend on home soil. If he wins the bout, Carter will be facing the four-time All-American wrestler Trent Hidlay of NC State. On the other hand, Burroughs is currently the no. 1 seed in the 74kg weight class and he will face either Levi Haines or Alex Facundo for his first bout in the team trials. While Starocci looks to fry bigger fishes ahead of the Olympics, his NLWC teammates Haines and Facundo might be the ones who can carry out the hefty task instead of the three-time All-American.

Furthermore, more NLWC/Penn State athletes like Mitchell Mesenbrink and Jason Nolf will also stand on Jordan’s way to Paris. While Starocci missed out on a major opportunity to show his mettle against one of the country’s most decorated wrestlers of all time, he can rest assured that his teammates won’t give Burroughs a free ride either.