The Penn State Altoona men’s basketball team was predicted by Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference coaches to finish in third place this season, as the league released the results of its 2025-26 preseason coaches’ poll on Tuesday.

Pitt-Greensburg placed first in the poll, while Penn State Behrend came in second. Defending AMCC champion Pitt-Bradford took fourth place.

Head coach David McGreal enters his ninth season with the Penn State Altoona men’s basketball program, and the Lions are coming off of a strong 2024-25 campaign in which they went 18-10 overall, 12-4 in the AMCC, and reached the conference championship game.

Named in the preseason poll as Players to Watch for Penn State Altoona this season were senior guard Kaden Claar and junior forward Nehemiah Frye.

On the ladies side, the AMCC released the preseason poll with the Penn State Altoona being voted fourth by league coaches.

Penn State Behrend, which won the conference’s regular season title last year, finished first in the poll. Mount Aloysius came in second, and defending AMCC champion La Roche was third.

The PSU women went 13-14 overall last season, including a 9-7 mark in the AMCC that put the Lions in fourth place in the conference standings. Head coach Halee Hutchinson enters her sixth season at the helm of the program, which features 11 returning players from last year.

Named in the preseason poll as “Players to Watch” for the Lions this season were senior forward Avana Sayles and senior guard/forward Jaidyn McCracken.

Lady Lion soccer honored

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State women’s soccer team continued its historic run of success as a leading member of the Big Ten Conference following the announcement of the league’s postseason awards.

Penn State landed five student-athletes on All-Big Ten teams in addition to one student-athlete appearing as a Big Ten Sportsmanship Honoree.

The Nittany Lions saw graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean land first-team accolades for the second year in a row. Senior forward Amelia White made her first appearance on a league postseason award list since landing all-freshman selection in 2022, garnering second-team all-conference laurels. A trio of Lady Lions landed on the third team, namely sophomore defender Bella Ayscue, redshirt senior midfielder Riley Gleason and sophomore forward Aubrey Kulpa. Redshirt senior midfielder and team captain Julia Raich rounded out the postseason laurels for sportsmanship honors.

Hockey star handed out

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State sophomore J.J. Wiebusch was named the Big Ten Hockey Second Star of the Week for his performances in a series sweep last week at then-No. 17 Ohio State.

This marks the second career weekly accolade for Wiebusch and his second this season after being named the Big Ten First Star of the Week back on Oct. 14. This also marks the fifth-straight week a Nittany Lion has been represented in the three stars after Charlie Cerrato (Oct. 7) and Matt DiMarsico (Oct. 21) joined Wiebusch as First Stars of the Week and freshman Gavin McKenna was named Third Star last week .

Swimmers recognized

Penn State Altoona picked up both of this week’s State University of New York/Allegheny Conference Swimmer of the Week awards, when Lady Lion freshman Victoria Oldford was named the conference’s Women’s Swimmer of the Week, and senior Caden Traggiai was tabbed as the Men’s Swimmer of the Week.

Oldford and Traggiai helped lead their teams to dual-meet wins over visiting non-conference opponent McDaniel College this past Saturday, Nov. 1.