‘A blessing.’ Aaron Brooks earns 7th Hodge Trophy in Penn State wrestling history

For the seventh time in program history, a Penn State Nittany Lion has won the Hodge Trophy.

Aaron Brooks was announced as the 2024 winner of the award — which goes to the nation’s top college wrestler — Monday afternoon. Brooks joins Kerry McCoy, David Taylor, Zain Retherford and Bo Nickal as winners. Taylor and Retherford each won the award twice. Penn State is the only program in the country with more than four trophies.

The newest Nittany Lion winner was joined by Carter Starocci and Greg Kerkvliet in earning first place votes. Starocci had two, while Kerkvliet had one and both won NCAA titles at their weight classes. Brooks had 48 of the 59 first-place votes, with the remaining eight going to second place finisher Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa.

Brooks went 22-0 this season at 197 pounds, earning bonus points in 20 of his matches while winning his fourth national title — becoming the seventh wrestler to do so.

“Winning the Hodge Trophy is a blessing,” Brooks told WIN Magazine. “It is like the Heisman Trophy in football, so to know the hard work and dedication I’ve put in is being rewarded with such a historic award is really cool.”

His Penn State career came to a close with him only suffering three losses in his 92 matches.