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Athletic Success

Athletic Excellence

Boasting one of the largest intercollegiate athletic programs in the nation, Penn State fields teams in 15 men’s and 14 women’s sports. All 29 programs are funded at 100 percent scholarship levels. The breadth of the University’s athletic offerings has been matched by a generous harvest of national, regional and conference titles. Penn State has won 66 national championships in all sports, with eight NCAA titles since March 2007.

Athletic Excellence

Penn State has won 19 NCAA Championships since 1993-94, its first full year in the Big Ten Conference, more than double the total of the next highest Big Ten schools.

Penn State was No. 11 in the Learfield Sports/NACDA Directors’ Cup standings, marking its 12th Top 15 finish in the 17-year history of the Directors’ Cup. The Lions have placed in the Top 25 every year of the survey, with eight Top 10 finishes. Penn State is one of just 10 schools ranked in the Top 25 of all 17 Directors’ Cup surveys.
The Nittany Lions had 44 All-Americans and 40 first-team All-Big Ten selections (48 total first-team all-conference honorees).
The Penn State women’s volleyball team won an unprecedented third consecutive NCAA Championship and the fencing team won its third national title in four years, giving the Nittany Lions eight NCAA team titles overall since March 2007, and an all-time total of 66 national titles.
Penn State won five Big Ten Championships, as women’s cross country, women’s soccer, women’s indoor track and field, women’s outdoor track and field and women’s volleyball captured conference titles. Penn State has won 65 Big Ten Championships all-time, with 24 titles since the fall of 2005, second-highest in the conference.
Volleyball standout Megan Hodge was co-winner of the 2009-10 Honda-Broderick Cup as the nation’s Collegiate Woman Athlete-of-the-Year. She was named Penn State’s sixth winner of the Suzy Favor Award as the Big Ten’s Female Athlete-of-the-Year and was nominated for an ESPY Award as the nation’s Best Female College Athlete. Hodge also was her sport’s Academic All-American-of-the-Year.
The fencing team captured its nation’s-best 12th NCAA Championship since 1990 under Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov and third in four years. Freshman Margherita Guzzi Vincenti was the national champion in women’s epee.
The women’s track and field team earned the conference’s “triple crown” for 2009-10, becoming just the third school to do so. Penn State won its third consecutive Big Ten Outdoor Championship. Beth Alford-Sullivan swept all three Big Ten Coach-of-the-Year accolades in 2009-10. The team was fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Champion-ships, tying its best finish in program history, with nine All-Americans. Senior Bridget Franek won the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
The football team compiled its second consecutive 11-2 campaign with a Capital One Bowl victory over LSU on New Year’s Day. Penn State won its fourth bowl game in the last five years, improving its record to 51-13 since 2005. Penn State’s football team has captured a pair of national championships (1982 & 1986) and three Big Ten titles (1994, 2005 & 2008) and consistently is ranked in the nation’s Top 10.
The women’s soccer team continued its sustained excellence with its 12th straight Big Ten Championship.
The men’s volleyball team captured its 12th consecutive EIVA Championship and 22nd overall, advancing to the national semifinals for the 12th straight year.
Senior women’s gymnast Brandi Personett was second in the floor exercise at the NCAA Championships and was selected Big Ten Gymnast-of-the-Year for a second time.