Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1544665
M A Y 2 0 2 6 17 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 0 Players from last year's Lady Lion basketball team who were set to appear on the roster for Year 1 of the Tanisha Wright coaching era. All nine players with remaining eligibility en- tered the transfer portal in April. 9 Penn State men's basketball players who entered the transfer portal in April, a group that included the team's top two scorers from last year in guards Freddie Dilione V (14.0 points per game) and Kayden Mingo (13.7). Throw in the graduation of for- ward Josh Reed, and PSU is losing 63.5 points per game (86.2 percent) of its scoring from the 2025-26 season. 9 .9 6 s e c o n d s Ajani Dwyer's time in the 100-meter dash at the UCF Knights Invite on March 28 in Orlando, Fla. It was the fastest time in the country to that point in the season, and it earned him a Big Ten Men's Track Athlete of the Week nod. Dwyer, a sophomore from Sewell, N.J., followed that performance by taking the 100-meter title the following week at the Florida Relays in Gainesville. Finishing in 10.06 seconds — the second-fastest time nationally — Dwyer topped a field of 49 runners that included reigning ACC out- door 100-meter champion Neo Mosebi of Florida State. 4 4 Individual NCAA champion- ships won by Penn State wres- tlers since 2011, the year the Nittany Li- ons claimed their first national team title under coach Cael Sanderson. The closest team to PSU over that 16-season span is Oklahoma State with 15 individual championships. Cornell is next with 14, while Ohio State has 11 and Iowa eight. 6 1 First-place votes received by Penn State junior Mitchell Mesenbrink in balloting for this year's Hodge Trophy, which goes to the na- tion's top collegiate wrestler. Following a dominant performance at the NCAA Tournament, during which he earned bonus points in four of five bouts en route to his second consecutive 165-pound national title, Mesenbrink handily outdistanced Oklahoma State's Jax Forrest and Penn State's Josh Barr for the award. Forrest received four first-place votes from the Hodge Tro- phy Voting Committee, while Barr, a sophomore 197-pounder, earned one. Mesenbrink also won the fan bal- lot for the Hodge Trophy with 20,046 votes (67.6 percent) to Forrest's 3,689. The winner of the fan poll receives five additional first-place votes, bringing Mesenbrink's total to 66. 9 6 . 0 Kaytron Allen's rushing grade from Pro Foot- ball Focus. It's the best grade ever for a running back taken on Day 3 of the NFL Draft. Allen, who set a Penn State career record with his 4,180 rushing yards, was selected in the sixth round by Washington. 1 , 1 1 5 Attendance for the Penn State women's lacrosse team's match against visiting North- western on April 12. It was the biggest crowd for a PSU women's game in Panzer Stadium history. Those fans witnessed a closely contested first half, but the fourth-ranked Wildcats pulled away in the third quarter and coasted to a 17-12 victory over the No. 18 Nittany Lions. 2 , 509 Career snaps taken by Penn State redshirt senior quarterback ROCCO BECHT. That's the third-most snaps of any returning player in the FBS this year, per CBSSports.com. The only returning players with more career snaps than Becht are a pair of offensive line- men — Virginia's Noah Josey (2,824) and Indiana's Carter Smith (2,628). On the defensive side of the ball, the leader is Wake Forest cornerback Deuce Blades II with 2,269 career snaps. All of Becht's snaps to date have been at Iowa State, where he was a four-year contributor and three-year starter. He played in 42 games and started 39 for the Cyclones, ranking first among active FBS quarterbacks in both categories. By The Numbers PHOTO COURTESY IOWA STATE ATHLETICS