Penn State’s Aaron Brooks on Monday won the Dan Hodge Trophy, marking the seventh time a Nittany Lion has won the award for the nation’s best collegiate wrestler.
Brooks went 22-0 this past season and won the 197 pound title at the NCAA Championships in March, becoming just the seventh four-time national champion in NCAA history. A four-time Big Ten champion and five-time All-American, he earned bonus points in all but two bouts in 2023-24, recording six pins, 11 technical falls and three major decisions.
“Winning the Hodge Trophy is a blessing,” Brooks said in a news release. “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.”
The North Hagerstown, Maryland native won 48 of 58 first-place votes for the award and claimed 13,416 out of the 26,928 fan votes cast online last week. Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen was second with eight first-place votes. Penn State’s Carter Starocci, who also became a four-time national champion March, placed third with two first-place votes, followed by fellow Nittany Lion Greg Kerkvliet with one. Penn State’s Levi Haines was also one of the five finalists.
Brooks joins former Nittany Lions Kerry McCoy (1997), David Taylor (2012, 2014), Zain Retherford (2017, 2018) and Bo Nickal (2019) as a winner of the Hodge Trophy. Penn State’s seven winners are the most of any program.
“I am really happy for Aaron,” Penn State coach Cael Sanderson, a three-time Hodge winner, said in a release. “He worked hard, kept improving in all of his positions and had a dominating season.
“I never heard Aaron talk about winning the Hodge, but one of his many strengths is his faith and knowing he is going to go out and give a tremendous effort and everything else will work itself out.”
The Hodge Trophy has been presented annually since 1995 by WIN Magazine and Culture House and is named in honor of Dan Hodge, an undefeated three-time NCAA champion for Oklahoma and the only wrestler to ever appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Criteria include record, bonus-point percentage, quality of competition and sportsmanship.
Brooks will receive the Hodge Trophy at the Penn State wrestling banquet on Sunday.
