WE ARE!

• There are more than 800 Penn State student-athletes, participating in 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's), tied for the fourth-highest number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution.
• The Nittany Lions ranked No. 16 in the Learfield Directors’ Cup standings during the 2024-25 athletics campaign, while finishing with two National Championships, seven conference championships and 18 teams making appearances in their respective NCAA Championships or College Football Playoff.
• A total of 19 teams were ranked during their season for the 2024-25 athletic year.
• Penn State was one of two programs in the country to have a first-round draft pick in the 2025 NFL (Abdul Carter, Tyler Warren), NBA (Yanic Konan Niederhauser) and NHL (Jackson Smith) Drafts.

2 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
IN 2024-25

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

• Penn State Women’s Volleyball won its eighth National Championship in program history and first under head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who became the first female head coach to win an NCAA Division I women’s volleyball title.
• Penn State Wrestling under head coach Cael Sanderson continued its reign by winning its 12^th NCAA Championship under Sanderson and 13^th overall in historic fashion with a record-breaking 177 points.
• Mitchell Mesenbrink and Carter Starocci both won individual NCAA Wrestling titles. Starocci became the first five-time NCAA Champion in NCAA history, while all 10 Nittany Lions earned All-American status. 

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS

• Women’s volleyball won its 18^th Big Ten Championship and first since 2017. 
• Wrestling claimed the Big Ten Dual Meet Championship and Big Ten Tournament crown. The Nittany Lions had five individual champions at the Big Ten Tournament for the second year in a row – Luke Lilledahl, Tyler Kasak, Mesenbrink, Levi Haines, Starocci.
• Women’s hockey, led by Jeff Kampersal, won their fourth-straight conference regular-season title and second-straight AHA Tournament crown with an impressive 31-6-1 overall record and 19-1 AHA record to break the AHA record for conference wins in a season.
• Randy Jepson guided men’s gymnastics to their first Big Ten regular-season crown.
• Men’s volleyball, led by Mark Pavlik, won the EIVA Tournament title for the 35th time.
• Oliver Desmeules earned the 600-meter Big Ten men’s indoor track & field title for the second individual conference crown of his career after winning the 800-meter rin 2023.
• For the men’s outdoor track & field team, Allon Clay won the Big Ten 800-meter championship.
• Men’s gymnast Josh Karnes won the Big Ten Championship Parallel Bar title for the second time in his career.

FALL HIGHLIGHTS

• In a historical football season, Penn State hosted its first College Football Playoff game in front of an amazing crowd and dominated SMU before heading to the Fiesta Bowl where the Nittany Lions 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 NACDA Good Works Team.
• Defensive end Abdul Carter (No. 3) and Warren (No. 14) were both selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, marking the 11^th time in program history Penn State has had multiple first round picks.
• Women’s soccer, led by Erica Dambach, 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.
• Highlighting the accomplishments of the women’s volleyball team were Izzy Starck, who won AVCA National Freshman of the Year, and Jess Mruzik, who earned NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player honors.
• Coach Schumacher-Cawley inspired so many by sharing her story and was honored at the 2025 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.
• 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.
• Brian DiCola earned a spot in the NCAA Men’s Cross Country Championships to become the program’s first qualifier since 2017.
• Field hockey’s Phia Gladieuex wrapped up a tremendous 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.

WINTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Women’s hockey advanced to the NCAA Tournament and finished the season ranked eighth.
• Tessa Janecke was a Patty Kazmaier Finalist, second-team All-American and AHA Player and Forward of the Year. She led Team USA to the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championships title, including the gold medal-clinching goal. She is in position to play for Team USA in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
• Men’s hockey 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.
• Men’s hockey’s Dylan Lugris was named to the 2025 Allstate NACDA Good Works Winter Team for his role in the State College sled hockey community.
• Men’s hockey signee Jackson Smith was selected with the 14^th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
• The fencing team finished seventh at the NCAA Championships, led by Mohamed Yasseen who earned All-American honors.
• Men’s gymnastics’ 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.
• Sarah Brown and the women’s gymnastics team reached NCAA Regionals for the third-straight year.
• Men’s basketball forward Yanic Konan Niederhauser became the program’s first first-round NBA Draft pick, going 30^th overall to the LA Clippers.

SPRING HIGHLIGHTS

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Allon Clay claimed the 800-meter title at the Big Ten Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships, while the men’s 4x400 relay team earned All-America honors at NCAA Outdoors.
• 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.
• Women’s golf senior Jami Morris was named the captain of the 20-person inaugural Allstate NACDA Good Works Team for her ‘Hit Fore Hope’ fundraiser she established after her mother’s lymphoma diagnosis.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

• Penn State student-athletes earned a record-tying 93% NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and 11 programs earned perfect 100% ratings in the 2023 report. This is the eighth consecutive year the Nittany Lions have posted a record or record-tying performance in the classroom.
• Penn State is one of only eight schools that have won at least 10 NCAA Championships since 2013 and earned at least a 90 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in the 2024 NCAA report (California, Florida, North Carolina, Stanford, USC, UCLA, Virginia).
• Penn State had a three College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-Americans –women’s soccer’s Jordan Fusco, wrestling’s Mitchell Mesenbrink and women’s track and field’s Florence Caron.
• In the classroom, Penn State student-athletes had an outstanding fall semester with a 3.32 GPA across all 31 sports. Seventy-five students recorded a perfect 4.0 semester GPA with a record 636 student-athletes earning a 3.0 or better semester GPA and a record 328 claiming Dean’s List accolades.
• In the spring, 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.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

• Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft was selected as a finalist for the Sports Business Journal’s Athletic Director of the Year award.
• Athletics secured four of the five-largest gifts in department history in 2024-25, including a transformational gift from the Werzyn Family to name the field at Beaver Stadium, West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium.
• The Nittany Lion Club had a record-breaking fundraising year with 19,863 donors giving $164.9 million dollars to support the world class experience for the more than 800 Penn State student-athletes, as well as facility projects and an increased number of scholarships with the new NCAA regulations in place.
• The Beaver Stadium Revitalization project inspired four of the top five gifts in Penn State Athletics history. Additionally, the Nittany Lion Club secured 100 gifts of $100,000 or more, highlighted by 13 commitments of seven or eight figures this past year.
• The Beaver Stadium Revitalization made progress with the demolition of the press box and upper deck of the West side in January 2025. The phased work has commenced for the revitalized West side that will feature the Lubert Family Welcome Center, the PAM Health Misitano Family Tower, the Marzano Club, Schuyler Family Club and upgraded amenities and concourses for all fans.
• In addition to the Beaver Stadium Revitalization, several construction projects - the Performance Dining and Student Wellness Center at the Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex, the Jeffrey Field Soccer Performance Center and the Indoor Practice Bubble - are closing in on completion before the end of the 2025 calendar year.
• Penn State student-athletes gave back to the community to the tune of more than 4,300 hours of service and more than 8,100 hours of student-engagement.

as of 8/1/25