CAREER AT A GLANCE
· Rizzo enters his fourth season on Penn State’s staff, his second as the program’s full-time sprints/hurdles coach. He served as a volunteer assistant coach in his first season with Penn State before being brought on full time in the fall of 2022.
· In 2024, Rizzo earned Mid-Atlantic Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year honors for his work with graduate transfer Cheickna Traore and Penn State’s men’s sprint squad during the outdoor season, the first coaching accolade of his career. Rizzo mentored Traore, a former Division III superstar, to the Division I outdoor 200-meter NCAA title and the 2024 200-meter Olympic standard. Traore’s championship run was the culmination of one of the greatest sprint seasons in Penn State history, as he earned three First Team All-America honors, three Big Ten titles, and set four school records under Rizzo’s coaching.
· In his career, Rizzo has coached an NCAA champion, four All-American efforts, three Big Ten champions, and has seen six school records broken.
AT PENN STATE
· Rizzo brought Division III superstar Cheickna Traore to his Nittany Lion sprint squad in 2024, a move that re-wrote the Penn State history books. Traore’s 2024 campaign under Rizzo will go down as one of the best single seasons in Penn State history—a year that resulted in a 200-meter NCAA title for the Ivory Coast product. Led by Traore’s megastar talent, Rizzo’s 2023-24 group booked eight top-ten program marks in the sprint events through the indoor and outdoor seasons, including four school records by Traore.
· Traore exploded onto the Division I scene during the 2023-24 indoor season, clocking a 46.50 PR in the indoor 400-meter dash in his very first meet as a Nittany Lion, the third-fastest time in school history. Traore then settled into his short sprint events, taking down the Penn State record in the 60 and 200-meter dashes in his next meet. Rizzo’s coaching pushed Traore to improve through the postseason, as the Ivory Coast product collected a whopping three Big Ten titles (60m, 200m, 4x400m) at the conference meet, an effort that won him Big Ten Men’s Track Athlete of the Championship honors. Rizzo then guided Traore to a pair of First Team All-American finishes at the 2024 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships, including a runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash and a seventh-place result in the 60-meters. Under Rizzo’s tutelage, Traore became the first male athlete in Penn State history to earn two First Team All-America citations in individual events at a single championship meet. Traore’s two scoring events helped the Penn State men to a No. 21 final standing, the group’s best placement at the indoor national meet since 2018.
· Additionally, on the women’s side during the indoor season, Zoey Goldstein ran the 400-meter leg on the top three DMR teams in school history. Goldstein helped Penn State’s women’s squad run a 10:49.05 in the event, the seventh-best mark in NCAA history.
· Rizzo maintained his group’s success during the outdoor season, as Traore proceeded to set school records in the 100 and 200-meter dash events in his first meet of the outdoor campaign. Traore snagged a silver medal in the 200-meters at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships before moving on to NCAA competition. His Herculean effort on day three of the NCAA East Region Preliminaries was one of the best sprint competitions in school history. In chronological order, Traore broke his own 100-meter school record with a 10.15, he achieved the Olympic standard in the 200-meter dash with an absurd 19.93, and clocked a 44.00 as the anchor leg of the men’s 4x400 squad that ran a 3:03.15, the second-fastest time in school history. Rizzo’s 4x400-meter relay group qualified to the NCAA Championships for the third year in a row thanks to Traore’s run. At the NCAA Championships, Traore cruised through to the finals and stormed to the win, as the only runner in the field to go sub-20 in the race, with a 19.95.
· Goldstein continued her solid 2024 season for the Penn State women, as she recorded a trio of top-ten outdoor marks in school history with Rizzo’s coaching. The senior set the eighth-fastest 400-meter dash time and the ninth-fastest 200-meter dash time in Penn State history during her 2024 outdoor season. Goldstein and fellow sprinter Jermecia Brown also contributed to Penn State’s school record-setting SMR at the Penn Relays.
· In 2023, Rizzo mentored the Nittany Lions’ men’s 4x400 relay group to its second consecutive NCAA Outdoor Championships appearance. He coached the group of Austin Gallant, Savion Hebron, Callum Dodds, and James Onwuka to a 20th place finish at the NCAA meet in Austin, Texas. Rizzo’s group ran the then-fifth-fastest 4x400 meter time in school history at the Penn Relays with a 3:06.17 and earned bronze at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships for its third-place finish.
· Before his first full-time season, Rizzo coached James Onwuka as he represented Nigeria in the 4x400 relay at the 2022 U20 World Athletics Championships.
· As a volunteer assistant in 2022, Rizzo helped Penn State’s 4x400 group make the NCAA Championships in his first season with the Nittany Lions. He also helped guide Korbin Martino as he hit the eighth-fastest 400 time in school history, a 46.68 effort.
· Rizzo assisted sprinter Yasmin Brooks to Big Ten Championships in the indoor 60-meter hurdles and the outdoor 100-meter hurdles in 2022.
BEFORE PENN STATE
· From 2018-21, Rizzo served as a volunteer track & field coach at Passaic Valley Regional High School, helping the Fighting Hornets win their first Outdoor Boys County Title in school history. He went on to guide a N.J. Meet of Champions qualifier, five NJSIAA State qualifiers, and eight Big North League Champions.
· As a student-athlete himself, he competed collegiately at Montclair State and Marist…He was an IC4A qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles and a four-time New Jersey Athletic Conference champion, where he set conference, meet, and school records in the 500-meters.
COACHING HONORS
· 2024 USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year (Outdoor)
PROMINENT ATHLETES COACHED
· Cheickna Traore (2024 at Penn State)
o 2024 NCAA Outdoor Champion (200m)
o 2024 NCAA Indoor Runner-Up (200m)
o 3x First Team All-American (’24 indoor 60, i/o 200)
o 3x Big Ten Champion (’24 indoor 60, 200, 4x400)
o 1x Second Team All-Big Ten (’24 outdoor 200)
o 2x Big Ten Men’s Track Athlete of the Year (‘24 i/o)
o 2x Mid-Atlantic Region Men’s Track Athlete of the Year (’24 i/o)
o 1x Big Ten Men’s Track Athlete of the Championships (’24 indoor)
o 4x Penn State school record holder
§ Indoor 60 (6.54)
§ Indoor 200 (20.30 – NCAA No. 20 all-time)
§ Outdoor 100 (10.15)
§ Outdoor 200 (19.93 – NCAA No. 18 all-time)
o 2x Ivory Coast national record holder
§ Indoor 200m (20.30)
§ Outdoor 200m (19.93)
o Achieved the 2024 200-meter Olympic standard under Rizzo’s guidance
· Zoey Goldstein (Penn State)
o 1x First Team All-American (’24 indoor DMR)
o 1x Big Ten Bronze Medalist (’24 indoor DMR)
o 2x Penn State school record holder
§ DMR (indoor) – 400m leg (10:49.05 – NCAA No. 7 all-time)
§ SMR (outdoor) – 400m leg (3:44.66 – NCAA No. 18 all-time)
o No. 8 400-meter dash in Penn State history
o No. 9 200-meter dash in Penn State history
· Jermecia Brown (Penn State)
o Penn State school record holder
§ SMR (outdoor) – 200m leg (3:44.66 – NCAA No. 18 all-time)
o 6th-fastest women’s 100m in Penn State history
THE RIZZO FILE
Personal
Year at Penn State: Fourth (Third as Assistant Coach)
Hometown: Roxbury, N.J.
Education: Montclair State, B.S. in Exercise Science – 2019; Marist, M.A. in Integrated Mktg. Comm. – 2021
Coaching Career
2021-Present – Penn State
· 22-Present – Assistant Coach – Sprints/Hurdles
· 21-22 – Volunteer Assistant Coach
2018-21 – Passaic Valley Regional High School (Volunteer Assistant Coach)