A Letter from Pat Kraft: Reflecting on 2024-25

Nittany Nation!

As we close out the 2024-25 academic and athletics season, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you! Your energy, loyalty and passion continue to make Penn State one of the greatest athletics environments in the country. Whether you were in one of our amazing venues, supporting us on the road or cheering from home, you made a difference! And let’s be honest, we had a lot to cheer about this year.

We had two team National Championships, seven conference championships, three national semifinal appearances, two individual National Champions, 18 teams make appearances in their respective NCAA Championships or CFP, 19 teams were ranked during their season, 12 conference player of the year selections, eight Big Ten individual champions, 43 All-Americans and 84 all-conference honorees. Academically, we had one CSC Academic All-American (with baseball, at-large and track & field teams still to be announced), three Allstate Good Works Team members with two earning Team Captain honors, a 3.30 departmental grade point average (GPA) for the academic year, 203 student-athlete graduates, 423 Academic All-Big Ten selections and 150 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars (3.7 GPA during academic year). We were also one of two programs in the country to have a first-round draft pick in the NFL, NBA and NHL Drafts!

Here are a few of our accomplishments from this year.

• We finished ranked 16^th in the Directors’ Cup standings.
• Wrestling continued its reign by winning its 12^th NCAA Championship under Cael Sanderson and 13^th overall in historic fashion with a record-breaking 177 points. Two Nittany Lion wrestlers won individual NCAA titles and all 10 Nittany Lions earned All-America honors last year! In addition, the Nittany Lions claimed the Big Ten Dual Meet Championship and Big Ten Tournament crown with an impressive five individual champions for the second-straight year.
• Katie Schumacher-Cawley and the women’s volleyball team had a season to remember as they claimed the eighth National Championship in program history. The team persevered as they faced challenges on and off the court, including an unbelievable fifth set comeback in the National Semifinals! Izzy Starck won AVCA National Freshman of the Year and Jess Mruzik earned NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player honors.
• Katie not only became the first female head coach to win a Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship, but she inspired so many with her story. We are so excited to have her be honored at this year’s ESPY Awards with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, which is presented to a member of the sports community who demonstrated exceptional resilience and determination in overcoming significant obstacles.
• It was a historical football season as we hosted our first College Football Playoff game in front of an amazing crowd and dominated SMU before heading to the Fiesta Bowl where we cruised past No. 3 seed Boise State to earn a spot in the National Semifinals at the Orange Bowl. Tyler Warren dominated to become the first Penn Stater to win the Mackey Award for the nation’s top tight end. Nick Dawkins was honored for his public service with the Wuerffel Trophy and captaincy of the Allstate Good Works Team.
• Motivated by our women’s volleyball program, our men’s hockey program showed grit and determination to earn their first Frozen Four bid in program history. Well on the outside of the NCAA Tournament field as the No. 33 team in the Pairwise rankings and 0-8-1 in Big Ten play in early January, Guy Gadowsky’s squad went 13-4-4 with three shootout wins to propel themselves into the NCAA Tournament where they took down No. 3 overall seed Maine and UConn to get to the Frozen Four. Sophomore Aiden Fink was one of the top players in the nation becoming Penn State’s first Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalist and the third All-American in program history.
• Jeff Tambroni guided the men’s lacrosse team to their second National Semifinal in the last three years with impressive wins over Colgate and Notre Dame before falling to eventual champion Cornell. Matt Traynor was the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, while Hunter Aquino earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year accolades.
• Women’s hockey, led by Jeff Kampersal, won their fourth-straight conference regular-season title and third-straight conference tournament crown with a 31-6-1 record. The team advanced to the NCAA Tournament and finished the season ranked eighth. Tessa Janecke, a Patty Kazmaier Finalist, second-team All-American and AHA Player and Forward of the Year, has her sights set on playing in the 2026 Winter Olympics for Team USA after leading the squad to the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championships.
• Men’s gymnastics program won their first Big Ten regular-season title this year, and Josh Karnes won the Big Ten individual championship on the parallel bars. Randy Jepson won the Collegiate Gymnastics Association Central Region Head Coach of the Year, while Tony Beck and Carlos Vazquez were Central Region Assistant Coaches of the Year.
• Speaking of men’s gymnastics, how can anyone forget the amazing Olympics Stephen Nedoroscik had last August! And of course, his fourth-place finish in Dancing with the Stars!
• Mark Pavlik guided the men’s volleyball team to their 37^th EIVA Tournament title and a spot in the National Collegiate Championships where they advanced to the quarterfinals.
• Erica Dambach and women’s soccer reached the NCAA Quarterfinals for the second year in a row and finished ranked eighth in the polls. Kaitlyn MacBean earned All-America accolades, while Jordan Fusco was selected a CSC Academic All-American.
• The fencing team finished seventh at the NCAA Championships, led by Mohamed Yasseen who earned All-American honors.
• John Gondak led the women’s cross country program to a 15^th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the highest since 2012. Florence Caron became Penn State’s first cross country All-American since 2016 with a 19^th-place finish.
• Sarah Brown and the women’s gymnastics team reached NCAA Regionals for the third-straight year. This year’s NCAA Regionals were in historic Rec Hall and welcomed some of the best programs in the country.
• Oliver Desmeules won the 600-meters at the Big Ten Indoor Track & Field Championships, and the program had six indoor All-Americans.
• Allon Clay claimed the 800-meter title at the Big Ten Outdoor Track & Field Championships, while the men’s 4x400 relay team earned All-America honors at NCAA Outdoors.
• The women’s track & field team had six All-American performances on the year with three All-Americans each in the indoor and outdoor season.
• In Mike Gambino’s second season, the baseball team racked up 33 wins, the second-most in program history, and made their second-straight appearance in the Big Ten semifinals. This marked the program’s first 30-win season since 2011.
• Brian DiCola earned a spot in the NCAA Cross Country Championships to become the program’s first qualifier since 2017.
• Phia Gladieuex wrapped up a tremendous field hockey career at Penn State with an appearance in the Paris Olympics for Team USA, Mideast Region Player of the Year and first-team All-America honors.
• Women’s tennis sent the junior tandem of Olivia Dorner and Maiko Uchijima to the NCAA Doubles Championship, marking the first time since 2012 the program had an NCAA Qualifier. Head coach Alexandra McIntyre was named the ITA Northeast Regional Coach of the Year, while assistant coach Michael Mucci was selected as the ITA Northeast Regional Assistant Coach of the Year for a program that climbed as high as 33^rd in the rankings.
• Men’s basketball forward Yanic Konan Niederhauser became the program’s first first-round NBA Draft pick, going with the 30^th overall pick to the LA Clippers.
• The Beaver Stadium Revitalization is well under way, and we are making great progress as we head into the heart of the summer. If you have not had a chance to see it, the steel is up, the cement is poured, the stairs are being installed, and before you know it, the temporary seating will be up and ready to go for the 2025 football season! To stay up to date on the construction progress, click here, and to check out the new seating options coming in 2027, visit com.
• In addition to the Beaver Stadium Revitalization, we have several construction projects rolling along with scheduled completion coming late summer and this fall. The Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex will house our Performance Dining and Student Wellness Center and will be open in August, while the Jeffrey Field Soccer Performance Center and Indoor Practice Bubble will open later this fall.
• In the classroom, our students had an outstanding fall semester with a 3.32 GPA across all 31 sports. We had 75 students with a perfect 4.0 semester GPA. In addition, a record 636 of our student-athletes had a 3.0 or better semester GPA with a record 328 of them earning Dean’s List accolades.
• In the spring, our student-athletes had a 3.28 GPA across all 31 sports with 578 student-athletes earning a 3.0 or better, 291 on Dean’s List and 62 with a 4.0 GPA, including 16 with a cumulative 4.0 GPA.
• We also announced this fall a record-tying 93% graduation success rate.
• Our student-athletes have also given back to our community to the tune of more than 4,300 hours of service and more than 8,100 hours of student-engagement. I couldn’t be prouder of them!

This place is special and that’s because of you! We don’t take your support for granted. Every cheer, every roar, every “We Are” makes a difference. You are part of our team and we are just getting started!

Enjoy your summer and get ready for an even better and more exciting year in 2025-26!

We Are…

Pat