How Carter Starocci Beat Parker Keckeisen | NWCA All-Star Classic 2024

So the All Star match happened last night and in the main event Carter Starocci, 4x NCAA Champ, beat Parker Keckeisen, who is also an NCAA champ in super tight fashion. To preface this video, not much scoring happens, but I’ll explain why later.

The first period was spent mostly either at arm’s length both doing fakes here and there (which are never meant to do much at this distance, just provoke minor reactions). Carter gets an underhook, then front headlock, but doesn’t really get much from here, mostly because he doesn’t attempt anything. His left arm is stuck pretty deep because he just came from an underhook, so it’s difficult to be very mobile. One thing you can do here is try to switch sides. Left hand goes to the chin, slam pressure down to the right. Doing so has the possibility of making them fall off of that elbow of the arm that’s dug so deep, allows you to change the side you’re on and then cut a different angle, which may get you around or get you to the leg or it’ll provoke a reaction, make them face you, where you can change direction and attack the other side, maybe outright get behind or give you a chance to catch an arm drag to pull yourself to a single. Either way, getting out of that underhook is key here.

Parker has an overhook, could attempt a fireman’s carry finish, but that could just get him dug even deeper. He could arm spin out, then arm drag and look for a single. If the other side arm is close enough he could grab the wrist, try to use both hands to post that down which will allow his head to pop out and get him back to his stance and then look for something else. They’re just both in a situation where they’re tied too tight together so they might as well go out of bounds.

It’s not like they’re doing nothing, they’re just being careful and not putting themselves in situations where they would give up unnecessary risk, even though they were given the opportunities. This is actually important to understand, too many wrestlers commit to bad shots which get them into bad positions and that’s why they’re not comfortable shooting in general. You don’t have to keep every shot you see or every shot you have an opportunity to attack, another one will likely be available a few seconds later, these two are just waiting for a better opportunity to come by. I mean, you can also sprinkle in mutual respect and fear of the unknown to the equation. Carter does control the inside space which makes a case for a stall call to go to Parker, but Parker circles back in bounds and so the ref doesn’t bite. First period ends 0-0.

Second period, Carter gets choice, chooses bottom. You do this immediately when the score is 0-0 because first person who scores gets choice in overtime and you should be able to escape on bottom. When you’re growing up through the sport you should really try to spend time in the bottom position every single match so you have enough experience to escape from good wrestlers, which is insanely important. If you can always get out from bottom then you have a chance every match, so if my wrestler was up by a lot of points in the second with first choice i would not have them defer, which is a popular choice, i would have them take bottom, because there’s a chance that they’ll finish the match early and i want to make sure they get time on bottom before that happens. You’d be surprised how many good league wrestlers just absolutely fall apart when they give up a takedown because their coach is always picking neutral or top every single time they’re out there on the mat. You need to be good in all 3 positions.

Carter makes his way to a quod pod, then to his feet, separates hands, gets his escape. It’s worth noting here that this works a lot better in college than earlier, because these 2 wrestlers are so strong and so well put together it’s difficult to break them out of that quod pod stance. Whereas in high school and lower, bodies tend to be a lot more doughey and flexibile so it’s much easier to get a break down from the top position using something simple like a tight waist and chop. A lot of physiological changes happen when you go through the end of puberty and reach peak physical form. Your body is a lot more solid, so it’s more difficult to keep a good grip on your opponent, especially when you factor in sweat which makes your hands slip. Leverage becomes more important than grip. Leg riding is nice because it doesn’t require a good grip. Score is 1-0 Carter.

Parker does get in on a shot, an interesting case because he does a penetration step as if he’s going high crotch, but Carter has his right hand controlled with interlocking fingers, which makes it a lot more difficult to get to the leg, but Parker is able to get a piece of it with his left hand anyways and pull himself in. Carter does a crazy good job of staying in good position here. He doesn’t make any real attempt at getting to a sprawl or try to cut the corner, maybe push the shoulder to the right, and jump to a crotch lock or crack down, but he avoids the takedown, and not due to Parker’s lack of trying. Parker tries to go double, fails, stabilizes, goes for the double again, gets a piece of the far hip, even changes direction, circles in like he’s running the pike and then goes double again. He even slips to the ankles as they go out of bounds, but he fails to keep a foot in and fails to keep control of both legs. He did everything right, everything he could do to finish the shot outside of changing to something different. You could go to a low leg, slink back, get your head into the inside of the leg above the knee, push it forward, tripod, catch a low single to a double. You can also pop your head on the inside and convert to a head inside single, though that usually lands you in a shin whizzer if you do that from here. So, I think Parker did everything right, but Carter is just too solid here, it’s honestly impressive.

Not long after Carter gets to his own shot, a single on the right, out of the same interlocking fingers situation. Not much of a setup, just good timing. Parker took a little step with that foot that was already forward and in danger, which put it well within range to be poked at, and sometimes you just catch it really well if you get there soon after they step. It’s difficult to react quickly, hard to pull that foot back fast, weight has to come back off of it first.

Parker goes to the shin whizzer, but doesn’t get a piece of it, notice Carter’s neck is in the leg, not his shoulder, which makes it really tough to get an angle on a shin whizzer. It forces Parker to push the head down, sit his hips on Carter’s shoulders, keep his other leg away, as he spins to the right. He goes to hook the body with his right arm, which is common, you would hook the hip, kick your foot out, and spin behind.. but he doesn’t have enough separation with the shot, his hips aren’t low enough, you really want to get your butt and hips in front of the shoulder and use your free leg to push and apply pressure so you can get some separation which makes your leg slip out easier. Parker isn’t able to do that, notices he’s not in a great position to do this spin behind, and so then starts to kick over the body. Parker forces out the back door position, attacks two ankles, falls off the side, and starts trying to funk or do what’s now known as a leg pass. You would get height, pressure forward, look for a cross face which would secure the takedown. Carter knows that as long as he keeps a good grip on that foot and keeps his own height he’ll be fine, and then the ref calls the match dead for potentially dangerous. Honestly, from Parker’s perspective, I wouldn’t go to the ankles immediately, i would try to lock around the waist, trap an arm, look to pop out to the trap armed side and spin behind, or go winn-dixie. That’s a little more of a consistent defense from out the back door position, and you can always go to funk later if that doesn’t work out. This might just be down to personal preference though.

At this point, Carter should be trying to put pressure with his hips, straighten out the bottom leg, turk, swim your bottom arm out, cross face, but we don’t know how easy that is to do here, it also depends on Parker’s leg and how much pressure is pulling Carter forward and out of that position.

Not much happens for the rest of the period, score is 1-0 Carter.

3rd period, Parker gets choice, chooses bottom, no doubt in an effort to get an escape and tie up the match. Carter is able to get some riding time, but not too much. Parker stays in decent position, separates hands, gets an escape 30 some seconds into the period. Nothing crazy here, and not much happens for the rest of the period. There are some light shot attempts but they’re both very careful and very willing to let the match go into overtime. They both hang out in front of each other with their tie-ups. Wrist control, underhook. You would want to see more of an angle be built up, with some arm drags, russian, over-tie, just things to give a better position instead of attacking so head on.

About 50 seconds left in overtime, interlocking fingers on the left, Carter taps the head and then goes for a semi-random single on the right. The tapping of the head provokes the motion out of Parker and allows him enough time to get to the leg, a super basic setup, but it’s funny how basic setups work pretty damn well sometimes. Carter commits to the shot, pulls it in, displaying just how strong he is. Parker tries to circle over the head, away from the shot, which again is the right thing to do, but Carter comes up, attacks the ankle with his left hand, an insanely good idea because it allows him to bend the knee, pull the ankle in, step over the leg, and turk. Parker needs to keep a good crotch lock here, maybe attack the top arm for a win-dixie finish. Not sure how comfortable he is with that idea in general, he hasn’t tried it this match, or maybe Carter just had too much pressure on the hips which limited Parker’s ability to reach. From Carter’s perspective, that’s what you would want to do. Get the turk as tight as possible, almost hyper extending the knee tight, which limits how much the defensive guy can do because one it hurts and two you can’t reach as far. Parker’s forced to bail and so Carter comes up with the takedown. The ankle grab is the most important thing here, as it changed the position completely and allowed Carter to get the turk. Excellent decision making in the scrambles this match, on both sides really, Carter just happened to come on top with the one in the end.

Even though the match was decided by one takedown in sudden victory, and so the common person could easily write this off as a boring match if you only look at the score, there were a ton of teachable moments and good decisions that led to the outcome. I’m impressed. Carter is crazy good though, good work.