April 9, 2018 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.ââ'¬" A Top 5 national finish by the men's and women's fencing team and diver Hector Garcia Boissier have helped Penn State Athletics maintain the No. 2 spot in the latest Learfield Directors' Cup standings.
In the second Directors' Cup winter sports compilation, Penn State remained No. 2, where it finished last fall. Penn State has an opportunity to earn its 12th consecutive Top 5 finish in the Learfield Directors' Cup final winter standings.
The Nittany Lion men's and women's fencing team placed fourth at the NCAA Championships, held in Penn State's Multi-Sport Facility, to earn 80 Learfield Directors' Cup points. Freshman Zara Moss was the NCAA runner-up in the women's saber and senior Andrew Mackiewicz advanced to the NCAA semifinals in men's saber to lead the Nittany Lions.
Garcia, a junior, earned honorable-mention All-America honors in one and three-meter diving and also participated in the platform event to help the men's swimming and diving team earn 44 Directors' Cup points.
Earlier this winter, the Penn State wrestling team captured its third consecutive and seventh NCAA title in the past eight years and the men's track and field team finished in a tie for 10th place at the NCAA Championships to boost the Nittany Lions in the Directors' Cup.
Stanford leads the Directors' Cup and is followed by Penn State (753.75 points), Michigan (713.5), North Carolina State (663.5), Ohio State (656), Texas (612.5), Duke (587), Wisconsin (585), USC (580.5) and Notre Dame (538.5).
The final spring Directors' Cup standings will be announced in late April and will include results from the NCAA men's and women's gymnastics and men's hockey championships. Penn State is among only nine institutions nationwide to have finished in the Top 25 in all 24 Learfield Directors' Cup final standings.
In earning the No. 2 Directors' Cup ranking last fall, the Nittany Lions posted their 11th consecutive Top 10 fall finish. Penn State and Stanford are the nation's only institutions to place in the Top 10 in the final fall Directors' Cup standings in each of the past 11 years.
Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive and successful athletic programs, featuring 800 student-athletes across 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's). Penn State student-athletes have an NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 90 percent, which ties the Nittany Lions' all-time high. Nine teams earned a 100 percent GSR in the NCAA's November 2017 report. The Nittany Lions rank No. 4 among all Division I schools with 200 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans all-time, including Emily Ogle (women's soccer) and Haleigh Washington (women's volleyball) during the 2017 fall semester.
Penn State's 50 NCAA Championships all-time (78 national championships overall) rank No. 5 among all NCAA Division I programs and are the highest total of any college or university east of the Mississippi River. Penn State's 31 NCAA titles since 1992-93 lead all Big Ten Conference institutions. The Nittany Lions have won 107 Big Ten championships or tournament titles since capturing their first crown in 1992-93, including conference titles in women's soccer, women's volleyball and wrestling so far in 2017-18.