A Year in Review Looking back at THE 2016-17 ACADEMIC YEAR in penn state athletics

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

A school record 24 Penn State teams delivered a combined GPA of 3.0 or higher during the 2016 fall semester, with another record falling in the 2017 spring semester with Nittany Lion student-athletes posting an overall grade-point average of 3.14.

A school record 114 Penn State student-athletes graduated in May, bringing the 2016-17 total to 142, with more students on track to cross the stage through August. Penn State also revealed its 89 percent NCAA Graduation Success Rate this year, which stands just one point below its all-time program mark.
Seniors David Goodwin and Abby Smucker earned Penn State’s prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor, on of the conference's most exclusive awards.

Nittany Lions in the Community

Approximately 80 Penn State coaches and staff volunteered more than 100 hours of community service in several engagement activities for yet another successful Penn State #GivingTuesday.
Continuing tradition, Penn State also participated in the United Way Day of Caring in Centre County.
Men's basketball served breakfast to the nearly 1,500 volunteers set to begin their community service projects.
Women's basketball spent time at The Arboretum at Penn State.
Student-athletes and staff from the Nittany Lion softball, men's soccer and women's soccer teams joined local volunteers for extensive landscaping and maintenance at the Centre Furnace Mansion.

COMPETITIVE SUCCESS

Penn State saw eight different programs earn Big Ten titles (tournament or regular season) during the 2016-17 season.
A perfect ending for Nittany Lion national champions

Wrestling saw all five of its NCAA finalists earn individual titles in addition to its sixth national championship in the last seven years.

Top-seeded Zain Retherford earned his second consecutive NCAA title
No. 1 seed Jason Nolf rolled to his first career NCAA title.
Mark Hall earned his first NCAA title to become the second freshman NCAA national champion, joining Vincenzo Joseph, who pinned Illinois' top-seeded two-time NCAA champion Isaiah Martinez.
Bo Nickal closed out the dominant Nittany Lion showdown in the finals with a close victory to secure his first career NCAA title.

making History

Football made its first appearance at the Big Ten Championship Game, with men's hockey also earning its first Big Ten Tournament title in program history.
"It's been our script all season long." - James Franklin
Penn State engineered a thrilling 21-point comeback to defeat No. 6 Wisconsin, 38-31, to win the Big Ten Championship, leading up to its fourth Rose Bowl Game appearance in program history.
Men's hockey won three games in three days as freshman Liam Folkes' game-winner in double OT clinched a 2-1 win against Wisconsin for a Big Ten title, securing the first NCAA Tournament bid in program history.

LACROSSE ON THE NATIONAL STAGE

Penn State men's and women's lacrosse both earned spots in the 2017 NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013.
Women's lacrosse topped Princeton in the NCAA quarterfinals to advance to a second consecutive appearance in the NCAA national semifinals at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

historic giving

Ken Panzer, a 1982 Penn State graduate (former men's lacrosse co-captain), and his long-time business partner at Douglas Emmett, Jordan Kaplan, committed a gift of $3.55 million to transform the current lacrosse field into a world-class stadium.

ONE FOR THE AGES

Grant Haley returned a 60-yard game-winning touchdown off a blocked field goal by Marcus Allen to clinch a 24-21 win against No. 2 Ohio State in front of a Penn State white out crowd of more than 107,000 in Beaver Stadium.

FACILITIES MASTER PLAN

Penn State unveiled its 20-year Facilities Master Plan, a strategy designed as a road map to meeting needs that will deliver a combination of new and renovated venues.

Among highlights, the Facilities Master Plan identifies five priority projects during the initial five years - falling in the next five-year capital plan - the first four of which are new construction.

  • Center of Excellence
  • Indoor practice facility
  • 10-lane, 50-meter Natatorium
  • 10-court Indoor Tennis Facility
  • Renovation and upgrades to Jeffrey Field (men's and women's soccer facility)

#PSURio

Penn State student-athletes delivered a record-setting performance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with eight Nittany Lions earning medals in five competitions to break the school mark set in 1924.
Penn State sent a school record contingent of 25 to Rio, which included 18 competitors (16 student-athletes), three coaches and four alternates, representing the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Japan and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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