College Sports
TWELVE NAMED TO IUP ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
IUP has named its 30th class of inductees into the IUP Athletic Hall of Fame. The class of ’25 will include: Allyson Mitidieri; swimming, 2014 Denise Raymond Erb; gymnastics, 1984 Kerri McIntyre Joyce; cross country/track & field, 1999 Zachary Kempa; men’s golf, 2014 Robbie Zinsmeister; baseball, 2013 Jim Welker; men’s tennis, 1989 Bob Johnston; baseball, […]

IUP has named its 30th class of inductees into the IUP Athletic Hall of Fame. The class of ’25 will include:
- Allyson Mitidieri; swimming, 2014
- Denise Raymond Erb; gymnastics, 1984
- Kerri McIntyre Joyce; cross country/track & field, 1999
- Zachary Kempa; men’s golf, 2014
- Robbie Zinsmeister; baseball, 2013
- Jim Welker; men’s tennis, 1989
- Bob Johnston; baseball, 1972
- Erik Shafer; cross country/track & field, 1991
- John “Harp” Vaughan; football, 1933
- Team: 1974 Women’s Tennis
- Coach/Administrator: Frank Condino; 1984-2015
- Honorary Bell Ringers: Dennis Stover (1976) & Regina Stover (1975)
The formal induction will be on Saturday, September 13th prior to the IUP football game against Lock Haven.
The new inductees bring the total to 341 former student-athletes, coaches, administrators and teams in the IUP Athletics Hall of Fame.
HERE ARE THE BIOS OF THIS YEAR’S IUP ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES:
Allyson Mitidieri
Swimming
2010-2014
14x All-American Honors, IUP Athlete of the Year (2014), 2013-14 PSAC Champion in the 400 IM… 2011-12 PSAC Champion in the 400 IM, 200 Breaststroke, 200 IM
Denise Raymond Erb
Gymnastics
1980-1984
All-American Honors for fifth place finish on uneven bars at nationals… First All-American Gymnast in IUP history… Apart of the 1984 team that won IUP’s first PSAC Gymnastics Championships
Kerri McIntyre Joyce
Cross Country/Track & Field
1996-1999
XC All-American 1998… PSAC 800m Champion 1998, 1999, 6th in the Nation (1st from the East Region), Division II National Cross Country Championships 1998, 11th in the Nation, 800 M, Division II National Championship Track Meet 1999… Academic All-American multiple times… Academic All-conference multiple times… IUP 4×400 PSAC Champion and IUP record holder
Zachary Kempa
Men’s Golf
2010-2014
2013-14; 73.36 scoring average, PSAC Golfer of the Year, PING Atlantic All-Region Team, PING All-American, IUP Male Athlete of the Year, 2nd place finish at PSAC Championship, 3rd place finish at NCAA Regional Championship, t-19th at NCAA National Championship… 2012-13; 72.44 scoring average, PING Atlantic All-Region Team, PING Second Team All-American, PSAC Golfer of the Year, three first place finishes, first place finish at the PSAC Championship – lowest score in PSAC history (-4), 1st place at NCAA Regional Championship, T-11th at NCAA National Championship… 2011-12; 73.30 scoring average, PING Atlantic All-Region Team, PING Second Team All-American, two 1st place finishes, T-5th at PSAC Championship, T-2nd at NCAA Regional Championship, T-5th at NCAA National Championship… 2010-11; 75.75 scoring average, PING Atlantic All-Region Team, 3rd place finish at PSAC Championship, T-12th at NCAA Regional Championship, T-100th at NCAA National Championship
Robbie Zinsmeister
Baseball
2010-2013
All-Atlantic Region (2012)… First team Daktronics… Second team ABCA./NCBWA… 2012 Capital One Academic All American… 2x All-PSAC West First Team (2012,2013)… Ranks first in GP/GS (100), 2nd in runs (193), hits (231), doubles (47), TB (317), SB (75), 4th in RBI (124), 7th in HR (17)
Jim Welker
Men’s Tennis
1986-1989
4-year letterman… played #2 singles first three years and #1 singles senior year… played #1 doubles for three years… Named PSAC Scholar Athlete (junior & senior)… DII Academic All-American – Volvo Tennis Scholar Athlete (senior year – 1of 5 recipients)… Most wins in IUP tennis history (singles; 60-9, doubles; 56-12, overall; 116-21)… went 16-0 in both singles and doubles junior season
Bob Johnston
Baseball
1972
Led IUP Baseball to the NAIA District 18 plays three consecutive years and won two championships… ranked 23rd in season pitching appearances (37)… 6th in career wins (17)… 12th in career innings pitched (172.1)… 5th in career strikeouts (200)… 5th in season strikeouts (76)… 2nd career ERA pre 1974 (1.41)… drafted to Pittsburgh Pirates for three years
Erik Shafer
Cross Country/Track & Field
1987-1991
XC All-American in 1990 and 1991… ECAC Champion, 4th place finish at NCAA East Region in 1991… Track PSAC runner-up in 10k in 1991, 3rd place finish at PSAC Championship in 5k in 1991
John “Harp” Vaughan
Football
1933
First IUP player to suit up in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their first two seasons as a franchise in 1933 and 1934… Was a quarterback, also played defense and returned kicks… Vaughan filled a variety of roles after wrapping up his playing career.
Team Category
1974 Women’s Tennis
First undefeated season in history under head coach Mary Louise Eltz (12-0)… Were 35-1 in singles and 24-0 in doubles and surrendered only six of 124 sets played.
Coach/Administrator Category
Frank Condino
1984-2015
He began as an assistant football coach in 1984… helped IUP to 53 wins and two PSAC titles in six seasons… Transitioned off the field as the assistant athletic director in 1990 and was named the athletic director in July of 1999… Oversaw the athletic facilities, game management, internal operations… and spent time with Hearts for the Hungry, Meeting God in Missions, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Honorary Bell Ringers
Dennis Stover ’76 & Regina Stover ’75
Dennis ’75 and Regina Stover ’76 have been long time supporters and partners of IUP. The Stover’s have established multiple endowed scholarships within then Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Eberly College of Business over the years. The Stover’s have served in many capacities on behalf of the university including Regina being the past president of the IUP Foundation, current Chair of the Athletics Advancement Council, and a Member of the National Campaign Committee for Indiana University of Pennsylvania Advancement Office. Dennis is currently the Chair of the Eberly College of Business Advancement Council. Both Dennis and Regina strongly believe that their commitment to life-long learning has contributed significantly to their success and happiness. They are pleased to be able to help others achieve success.
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College Sports
Adrian College Officially Opens the Sweebe Family Indoor Athletic Center as Football Holds First Practice
Story Links ADRIAN, Mich. – Thursday, August 14, 2025, marked a major milestone for Adrian College athletics as the football team held its first official practice inside the new Sweebe Family Indoor Athletic Facility. The brand-new facility, nicknamed “The Dome,” opened its doors to student-athletes as the Bulldogs kicked off the 2025 season. […]

ADRIAN, Mich. – Thursday, August 14, 2025, marked a major milestone for Adrian College athletics as the football team held its first official practice inside the new Sweebe Family Indoor Athletic Facility.
The brand-new facility, nicknamed “The Dome,” opened its doors to student-athletes as the Bulldogs kicked off the 2025 season.
“We are very excited to have the Dome open for our student-athletes,” said Athletic Director Craig Rainey. “This state-of-the-art facility ensures our teams can continue practicing without interruption, regardless of weather. We’re incredibly grateful to the donors who made this possible and look forward to the impact this will have on our athletic success.”
The centerpiece of the facility is a 131,000-square-foot air-supported dome that includes a full-size turf field and a four-lane track. Standing 90 feet tall, the Dome is a striking new landmark visible from across campus.
Attached to the Dome is a 5,000-square-foot lobby featuring two changing rooms, an athletic training room, and an office space to support team operations.
The $11 million facility is designed to serve multiple sports, including football, soccer, rugby, track & field, baseball, softball, and lacrosse. It’s fully equipped with a portable sound system, scoreboards, and shot/play clocks making it suitable for hosting indoor competitions during inclement weather.
The Sweebe Family Indoor Athletic Center is located on the site formerly known as the “Back-40,” nestled between Nicolay Field and the Adrian College Track & Field Complex. In addition to enhancing year-round training opportunities, the project also expands parking options for surrounding athletic venues.
College Sports
Gadowsky picked as head coach for U.S. Collegiate Select Team | News, Sports, Jobs
DAVOS, Switzerland – Penn State’s Guy Gadowsky has been tabbed the head coach for the United States Collegiate Select Team ahead of the 2025 Spengler Cup as announced by College Hockey Inc. earlier Thursday morning. Along with Gadowsky, fellow NCAA bench bosses Mike Souza (UNH) and Jason Lammers (Niagara) will serve as assistants. For the […]

DAVOS, Switzerland – Penn State’s Guy Gadowsky has been tabbed the head coach for the United States Collegiate Select Team ahead of the 2025 Spengler Cup as announced by College Hockey Inc. earlier Thursday morning. Along with Gadowsky, fellow NCAA bench bosses Mike Souza (UNH) and Jason Lammers (Niagara) will serve as assistants.
For the first time in the 102-year history of the tournament, which dates back to 1923 making it the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world, a team of top NCAA collegiate players will compete, led by Gadowsky.
Held annually in Davos, Switzerland from December 26-31, 2025, the Spengler Cup is hosted by the Swiss professional team HC Davos with the 2025 rendition marking the 97th all-time tournament. HC Fribourg-Gotteron defeated the Straubing Tigers, 7-2, in last year’s tournament capturing their first Spengler Cup in the process. The hosts, HC Davos, along with Team Canada have each won 16 Spengler Cups, tying for the most by a single club all-time.
“It’s an honor to be on the inaugural staff of the US Collegiate Selects and to be competing in such a prestigious tournament,” commented Gadowsky. “The Spengler Cup will provide an incredible experience for the players selected and will be great for the continued exposure of college hockey outside of the United States.”
The U.S. Collegiate Select team will be made up of 25 student-athletes, named at a later date, from across NCAA division I men’s ice hockey, with each conference being represented. Along with the Selects, host HC Davos, Team Canada, HC Fribourg-Gotteron, Sparta Praha and IFK Helsinki will be taking part in the 2025 edition, with the six participating teams playing a minimum of two contests.
College Sports
Hockey, prep school and a mystery drive Pittsburgh native’s new novel
Anna Bruno’s second novel, “Fine Young People” (Algonquin), is a whodunit: After one of their classmates dies by suicide, two senior girls at a Sewickley prep school work to unravel the mystery of an earlier, seemingly related death — that of another of the school’s student ice hockey stars two decades earlier. But in addition […]

Anna Bruno’s second novel, “Fine Young People” (Algonquin), is a whodunit: After one of their classmates dies by suicide, two senior girls at a Sewickley prep school work to unravel the mystery of an earlier, seemingly related death — that of another of the school’s student ice hockey stars two decades earlier.
But in addition to being a page-turner, “Fine Young People” is also a critique of the culture of money, ambition and, yes, even sports obsession that enfolds most everyone in the orbit of the fictional St. Ignatius high school.
‘Secular gods’
Bruno grew up in Upper St. Clair and got her own high school diploma from Shady Side Academy. She also grew up Catholic, and she said the social criticism in “Fine Young People” targets the way worldly idols have taken the place of spiritual values.

The nominally Catholic St. Ignatius, she said, “has come to worship secular gods like the endowment and the hockey team and Ivy League admissions.”
The book’s protagonist, Frankie Northrup, is a high achiever with a single mom who tackles the closed-case murder mystery as a class project with her best friend, Shivani. St. Ignatius hockey legend Woolf Whiting, it’s said, was bound for the NHL; his death, too, was ruled a suicide, but the girls don’t buy it, and their sleuthing touches on everything from schoolboy athletes on painkillers to family politics and shady business deals.
The book toggles between third-person accounts of past events and Frankie’s own soul-searching but witty present-day narration. The high school senior, specially tuned to differences in social class, characterizes her sort-of boyfriend thus: “Ingo squinted at me with the earnest cluelessness of a boy who’d never had to make his own sandwich.”
But it’s perhaps ice hockey, complete with hometown references to the Pittsburgh Penguins, that the story revolves around most. “Everyone in a way loses [themselves] in this sport, which they care so much about,” Bruno said. “The book is questioning, ‘Well, why do we care so much about it? Or why do we care so much about it that we’re willing to give up everything else for it?’”
‘A soulless place’
Bruno played soccer in high school (her brother was the hockey player), and her writing draws on her campus experiences. She set the novel in Sewickley rather than Fox Chapel — home to Shady Side — because it offers a business district in which characters can convene.
And like her young characters — one of whom is an 18-year-old who has apparently begun planning for retirement — Bruno was an ambitious kid. She graduated from Stanford University and worked in PR and marketing for tech and financial-services companies in Silicon Valley.
“So I was living in California for about 10 years and I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing, and I was supposed to be making money and being successful as sort of classically defined,” she said. She even earned an MBA from Cornell.
Not surprisingly, she enjoyed spending her 20s in San Francisco. But something, as they say, was missing. A lot, actually.
“I think Silicon Valley is a bit of a soulless place,” Bruno said. “That sounds harsh coming out of my mouth right now, but there is such a focus there on the tech industry and venture capital and just extreme wealth and a lot of the other stuff that makes a life, whether it’s the arts or other parts of the culture, … sort of get pushed to the side.”
“I realized that I wanted to be a writer,” she said. “That I was more interested in the spiritual — my inner life, I guess my ambitions were directed more towards that.”
Bruno has now spent 10 years in Iowa City, where she earned an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives with her husband and two sons and teaches at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival.
Her choice seems to be paying off. Like her debut novel, 2020’s “Ordinary Hazards,” “Fine Young People” is drawing strong reviews.
“Bruno uses the framework of a whodunit to drive at deeper questions of faith and family,” wrote Publisher’s Weekly. “Bruno pulls it off, thanks to her keen sense of what’s at stake for her teenage characters and Frankie’s indelible voice. It’s a winner.”
College Sports
New details on how MLB might split expiring ESPN package
The saga of ESPN’s expiring MLB rights package involves four contenders — and perhaps more — vying for different pieces of the pie. MLB is in active negotiations with ESPN, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, Apple and Netflix on the expiring ESPN rights package, and it is possible that other platforms could enter the mix, Andrew Marchand of […]

The saga of ESPN’s expiring MLB rights package involves four contenders — and perhaps more — vying for different pieces of the pie.
MLB is in active negotiations with ESPN, Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, Apple and Netflix on the expiring ESPN rights package, and it is possible that other platforms could enter the mix, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Thursday. Though Marchand did not state as much, the details of the report leave open the possibility that MLB could reach deals with all four companies.
The expiring $550 million/year package, which includes “Sunday Night Baseball,” the Wild Card round, Home Run Derby and a handful of weekday games (including Opening Day), has been on the market since ESPN opted out of the final three years of its deal in February. Any deals MLB eventually reaches will be for those remaining seasons only, bringing the expiration in line with those of the league’s deals with Fox and TNT Sports.
According to Marchand, Apple and NBCUniversal are believed to be “the final contenders” for “Sunday Night Baseball” and the Wild Card round. Netflix, as reported by Bloomberg last week, is eyeing the Home Run Derby. While the loss of those three properties would seem to leave incumbent ESPN with nothing, Marchand reported Thursday that ESPN is “after a new set of rights” that would include weekday and local games.
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro has repeatedly stated his network’s interest in local MLB rights, including in a podcast interview with Bryan Curtis of The Ringer three days ago. According to Marchand, ESPN is interested in MLB.tv, which the league was reported earlier this year to be willing to include in negotiations.
Depending on the size of a potential weekday package, ESPN could for all intents and purposes exit the national MLB business. “Sunday Night Baseball” has for nearly 40 years been a cornerstone of the network’s lineup and this season is averaging its largest audience since 2017. A move to NBCU would create a year-round run of Sunday night programming with “Sunday Night Football” in the fall, “Sunday Night Basketball” in the spring and “Sunday Night Baseball” in the summer.
For Apple, the acquisition of “Sunday Night Baseball” would presumably give the streamer two weekend nights of exclusive game inventory to go along with the company’s Friday night games.
According to Marchand, it is possible that MLB could split Sunday Night Baseball and the Wild Card games. In that scenario, one imagines NBC would get the Sunday night games; it would defy logic for NBC to acquire the three-day Wild Card round with no other MLB inventory. An Apple package that includes Friday night games and the Wild Card round also seems more in line with the streamer’s strategy than one that includes three games and two nights a week all season long.
In the event that MLB sells Sunday Night Baseball to NBCU, the Wild Card playoffs to Apple, the Home Run Derby to Netflix, and a new package of weeknight and local games to ESPN, the league would seem to have at least some chance of cobbling together a combined rights fee that approaches what ESPN is currently paying.
It would also give the league a whopping seven national rights partners entering the expiration of its media rights deals in 2028.
College Sports
MacBean, Herr earn college soccer honors
LONG BEACH, Calif. – The Penn State women’s soccer program garnered a wide array of national attention from TopDrawerSoccer.com in its preseason releases, with the Nittany Lions landing the No. 6 overall team ranking while securing one Best XI Team selection and a pair of preseason top-100 players in the organization’s releases Tuesday. Penn State […]


LONG BEACH, Calif. – The Penn State women’s soccer program garnered a wide array of national attention from TopDrawerSoccer.com in its preseason releases, with the Nittany Lions landing the No. 6 overall team ranking while securing one Best XI Team selection and a pair of preseason top-100 players in the organization’s releases Tuesday.
Penn State picked up the No. 6 national ranking according to TopDrawerSoccer’s preseason release, the highest rated program in the Big Ten Conference and the highest ranked team in the nation outside of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Nittany Lions are one of eight Big Ten programs in the national preseason top 25, with PSU joining UCLA (No. 8), Ohio State (No. 9), Michigan State (No. 11), Wisconsin (No. 13), Minnesota (No. 14), Iowa (No. 17) and USC (No. 21). In total PSU, will challenge a trio of teams who are ranked in the national preseason top 25 by the organization, including Duke (No. 5), Ohio State and Wisconsin.
On an individual basis, graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean secured a pair of preseason accolades, earning an appearance on the TopDrawerSoccer Preseason Best XI Second Team, the only forward from the Big Ten Conference recognized by the TDS Best XI teams. MacBean also secured the second-highest ranking of any B1G athlete in the organization’s Preseason Top 100 Player Rankings, landing the No. 18 position nationally. On the back line, redshirt junior defender Kayleigh Herr picked up the No. 80 individual ranking to round out PSU’s list of preseason accolades from TopDrawerSoccer.
MacBean, a native of Excelsior, Minnesota, published a 2024 season in the Blue & White that was by far her most statistically significant since joining the Penn State program as a true freshman in 2020. Her single-season career-best 34-point outburst a year ago marked the highest scoring individual season by a Nittany Lion since Maya Hayes turned in an astounding 70-point campaign in 2013. MacBean also managed to muster the third-longest goal scoring streak in Penn State history in a span from the 2023 and 2024 seasons. The veteran attacking player started all 25 fixtures for PSU in the team’s run to the NCAA Tournament National Quarterfinals last season, helping anchor the Nittany Lions with the third-most points in the B1G and 15th-most nationally while scoring 16 goals and adding two assists. MacBean was the highest-ranked forward in the league according to TDS and picked up the second-highest overall ranking in the Big Ten behind Ohio State midfielder Amanda Schlueter.
Herr, a native of Cary, North Carolina, made an instant impact on the Nittany Lion back line as an everyday starter in her first season in Happy Valley in 2024. She shattered career highs in multiple statistics, highlighted by a career-best 25 appearances paired with 25 starts in her inaugural season with the Blue & White. Herr finished second on the Penn State roster and was one of just three PSU student-athletes to surpass the 2,000-minute threshold, with the then-redshirt sophomore tallying 2,076 minutes of action on the pitch. She logged one assist and point on the offensive end of the pitch, adding five total shots with three on-target attempts. Overall, Herr helped power the Nittany Lion defense to 11 shutouts in the 2024 season with a 0.88 goals-against average, one of the strongest marks in the nation.
Last season, the Nittany Lions advanced to the National Quarterfinals for the second year in a row, extended the nation’s longest streak of consecutive Sweet 16 appearances to eight-straight, secured the program’s 30th consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and booked the program’s 31st consecutive season with at least 10 victories, the second-longest stretch of that nature in women’s college soccer. The Blue & White return six starters from last year’s Elite Eight run, including goalkeeper Mackenzie Gress, defenders Herr and Bella Ayscue, midfielder Molly Martin, and forwards MacBean and Amelia White. Penn State additionally boasts the nation’s fifth-ranked recruiting class and strongest signing group in the Big Ten Conference per TopDrawerSoccer’s July release. With MacBean and Herr leading the charge, the United Soccer Coaches 11th-ranked Nittany Lions will open their 2025 season in two days’ time, with a 7 p.m. (ET) kickoff scheduled against the fourth-ranked Duke Blue Devils on Thursday, August 14, from Koskinen Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
College Sports
Lindsey Phibbs ’02 (2025) – Skidmore College Athletics Hall of Fame
Lindsey Phibbs was a once-in-a-generation equestrian talent whose poise, precision, and grace were instrumental in propelling the women’s riding team to national prominence. As captain in her sophomore year, she led her team to national team championships in both the Open Fences and Open Flat divisions. In the same season, she captured the coveted Cacchione […]

Lindsey Phibbs was a once-in-a-generation equestrian talent whose poise, precision, and grace were instrumental in propelling the women’s riding team to national prominence.
As captain in her sophomore year, she led her team to national team championships in both the Open Fences and Open Flat divisions. In the same season, she captured the coveted Cacchione Cup, the highest honor for extraordinary individual performance. The 1999 riding team was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.
Phibbs was celebrated not only for her results but also for her quiet determination and leadership. She was known for having a tremendous feel for the horse and a remarkable eye from the moment she stepped into the ring — instincts that elevated her to the top tier of collegiate riders.
Phibbs was already a rising star in the equestrian world before she came to Skidmore College. In 1997, she was named National Junior Equestrian of the Year by the US Equestrian Federation. She was also the national junior jumper champion and winner of the Washington International Horse Show Equitation Finals.
After Skidmore, Phibbs pursued a career in medicine, becoming a respected OB/GYN in Toledo, Ohio. She brought the same care, precision, and compassion to her patients that she had shown as a rider and teammate.
Lindsey Phibbs passed away in 2015 after a courageous battle with cancer. She is remembered as an extraordinary athlete and dedicated physician who was deeply loved by her family, friends, and teammates. Her legacy endures in the many lives she touched and inspired.
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