Blue White Illustrated

n his Twitter feed, in very large letters, David Taylor called it "an unreal jour- ney." He was referring to one of the more significant mileposts he's passed along the way, an honor that only one Penn State male athlete before him had ever been accorded. In June, the two-time national champion was named the Jesse Owens Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year. He became the second Penn Stater to receive the award, joining gymnast Luis Vargas, who won it in 2005. Taylor is the eighth wrestler to win the award, which was first handed out in 1982. Six Penn State women have been named Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year, the most recent being volleyball stand- out Megan Hodge in 2010. During the spring, Taylor had become the second consecutive member of coach Cael Sanderson's squad to be named Penn State Male Athlete of the Year – teammate Ed Ruth won last year's honor – putting him on the ballot for the Owens Award. Taylor recently wrapped up one of collegiate wrestling's most historic careers. He won the 2014 Hodge Trophy as the nation's top wrestler and was Big Ten Wrestler of the Year for the third time. He be- came Penn State's first four-time NCAA final- ist and won his second NCAA individual title at 165 pounds, leading the Nittany Lions to their fourth consecutive NCAA title. A classroom standout as well, Taylor was named Academic All-Big Ten and made the National Wrestling Coaches Association's first-team All-Academic squad, claiming the dual honors for the fourth time in his career. He was also a Capital One first-team Academic All- American. Taylor leaves Penn State as a member of four NCAA championship teams and four Big Ten championships teams. He went 34-0 as a senior to end the year as the nation's lone unbeaten Division I wrestler and closed out his career with a 134-3 record. His 97.8 career win percentage included 53 pins, a figure that tied the school record. He also finished with 42 technical falls and 30 majors, meaning 125 of his 137 career matches were won by a major or better. Taylor never lost in a dual meet and was 56-0 all-time against Big Ten competition. In addition to the Big Ten laurels, Tay- lor was recently named one of five contenders for the ESPYs' Best Male College Athlete award, joining Florida State's Jameis Winston, Creighton's Doug Mc- Dermott, Albany's Lyle Thompson and Boston College's Johnny Gaudreau. The ESPY ceremony took place July 16. This year's Big Ten Fe- male Athlete of the Year was Purdue's Dani Bunch, a field athlete who fin- ished as a first-team All- American in both the in- door and outdoor shot put and the weight throw. ■ Taylor saluted by Big Ten O W R E S T L I N G Mark Selders ATHLETICS PSU finishes fifth in Directors' Cup Thanks to three NCAA champi- onships and a school-record-tying eight Big Ten titles, Penn State earned its first top-five finish in the in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup stand- ings in 11 years, amassing a school- record point total for the second con- secutive year. The Lions compiled 1,113 points to finish No. 5 in the final Directors' Cup standings, surpassing last year's record total of 1,100 points. Penn State was the only Big Ten school to place in the top 10. It tied for the national lead by winning three NCAA championships this past year: fencing, women's volleyball and wrestling. Connecticut and Oregon also won three NCAA titles. Before this year, the Lions' most re- cent top-five finish in the Directors' Cup standings was in 2002-03. Penn State earned consecutive top- 10 finishes in the Directors' Cup standings for the first time since 1998- 99 and 1999-2000 after placing No. 6 last year. The Lions were No. 2 in the 2013-14 final winter Directors' Cup standings and No. 6 after the fall standings. For the second consecutive year, 21 of 31 Penn State teams participated in their respective NCAA championship. Stanford won the Directors' Cup with 1,482.00 points. Florida (1216.50), Notre Dame (1128.25), Vir- ginia (1118.50) and Penn State (1113.00) rounded out the top five, followed by Texas (1093.00), UCLA (1078.50), USC (1063.75), Duke (1051.00) and Texas A&M (1022.00). The Lions are one of only eight pro- grams nationwide to finish in the top 25 in all 21 years of the comprehensive Directors' Cup competition.

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