< Previous8 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ATHLETICS SENIOR CLASS ACCOMPLISHMENTS “ Volleyball head coach Dan Fisher and 2024 graduates Cat Flood, Emmy Klika and Julianna Dalton Graduates representing the Track and Field and Cross Country teams. Left to right:Ethan Maher, Jack Miller, Foluke Olujide-Ajibade, Caroline Rusinski, Ilse Steigenga, Taylor Newton, Reagan Flannery, Lanie Bainter, Folake Olujide-Ajibade, Raymond Oriakhi, Luke Henseler 7 ALL-AMERICA SELECTIONS 41 ALL-CONFERENCE HONOREES 43 ACC TITLES 75 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP/ BOWL GAME APPEARANCES 113 ACADEMIC ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTIONS 193 ACC HONOR ROLL RECIPIENTS Graduates from the Dance team. Left to right: Alexis DiNardo, Giavanna Gulino, Kaylea Gallagher, Emma Burglund, Kathryn Perkins, Riley Finnegan, Alison Lambright, Courtney Wells and Abbey Taylor Your time at the University of Pittsburgh is nothing short of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The resources and people that you have in your pocket are some of the best, not necessarily because of their knowledge or success but because of how much they care for you. Leaving the University is scary for me, but the people won’t leave my side and that’s a fact. If I could tell my fellow student-athletes one thing, it would be to take opportunities (big or small) that will allow you to step out of your comfort zone and challenge your vulnerability. That’s where true growth is found and opportunities you never thought were possible are provided. H2P!” – Dylan Reed (BUS '23, '24G)H2P MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 9 JMI Sports is proud to be the corporate sponsorship and multimedia rights partner of Pitt Athletics. Our Pitt Sports Marketing team is ready to work with you to develop mutually beneficial marketing partnerships with Pitt Athletics. For more information, please contact: Mike Meyer, Vice President, Sports Sponsorship Sales m.meyer@jmisports.com10 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ATHLETICS FEATURE The Pitt Bond of Brotherhood Written by Josh Rowntree Matt (A&S ’13) and Tyler (BUS ’15) Wilps are separated by the entire country, divided by time and by lives that have professionally gone in remarkably different directions. ut the two brothers, straight out of Collier Township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, are undeniably woven together through their love of their sport (wrestling), each other and the legacy they built on at the University of Pittsburgh. Matt and Tyler got into the sport thanks to their dad, Jeff (A&S ’82), a Pitt wrestler himself from 1979 to 1982. “I wasn’t really a highly sought-after recruit, but I started hitting my stride my senior year of high school,” recalls Matt, the oldest of four Wilps children and a Chartiers Valley High School graduate. “Pitt called me up, it was close to home and my dad went there. “[My dad] definitely liked Pitt and the thought of [my] staying close to home. He was always a Pitt fan, so that for sure made me want to go there.” Jeff, however, wasn’t overly pushy when it came to sports. He wanted his children to have quality educations first and foremost. But when Matt and Tyler developed into college wrestling material, and Jeff conveniently purchased a house on Iowa Street in Oakland, the path seemed set for the brothers to take their talents on the mat to the Fitzgerald Field House. “The house was a little bit of a walk from the field house, but it wasn’t bad,” says Matt, a two-time All-American with the Panthers from 2008 to 2013. “It was on north campus, so it was pretty easy getting there. I was living with a lot of my teammates, so that was really cool.” For a time, one of those teammates was Tyler. “It was like a generational thing,” adds Tyler, the second of the four Wilps children. “I lived there, and my brother lived there with his friends. We had about eight wrestlers in that house, plus some occasional random folks. We definitely had the ‘wrestling house.’” The two had a brotherly bond, of course, but their strongest connection developed during Tyler’s first-year season. The duo both took a redshirt year in 2010-11 and wrestled on their own in open competitions. “That was a big growth year for me, because I was starting to get good and learning how to win,” says Matt, who graduated from Pitt with a double major in economics and psychology. “For Ty, it was his first year in college. The lineup was pretty strong when he came in, so he took a redshirt [year]. We used that year as a growth year.” For Tyler, a situation that could have left him a bit isolated as a noncompeting wrestler was anything but, in large part thanks to Matt. “I feel so lucky to have that bond and brotherhood,” Tyler says. “To go through that together—it’s good to have someone in your corner. He was basically my coach my freshman year. All of those guys on that team are my brothers in some sense, but to do it with Matt was awesome. It adds another layer to our relationship now.” And that year, without question, benefited both greatly. Tyler finished his career 87-31 on the mat and made a trip to the NCAA championship match, competing at 174 pounds. “It was what I was working for and what it all culminated in,” he says. Tyler still laments losing in the final 10 seconds of the match. But the experience stays with him to this day as an overall positive one. He also remembers fondly the experiences away from the mat, the nights in the Wilps’ “wrestling house” and the road trips with teammates.H2P MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 11 For Matt, those experiences stand out more than his career record of 129-37 and his three trips to the NCAA championships. “It’s got to be just hanging out with the guys, the team,” he says. “The team environment, combined with the support staff, coaches, weight training staff, trainers—I still talk to some of them to this day.” He’s particularly fond of a prepractice ritual the team would go through. “We’d start practice at 3:30 p.m. and everyone, the whole team, would show up an hour early because we’d play dodgeball,” he says. “We’d steal volleyballs from the volleyball team and play dodgeball. We’d be beaning each other with them. It got the energy flowing, got us all warmed up. “When I say that was the highlight, it really was—those little games with the boys.” While the two were tenacious competitors in their wrestling days, they’ve moved on from that life. Each dabbled in coaching at Pitt for a year after college, including a year in which Matt officially coached Tyler as a member of Pitt’s staff. But both decided to move on to much different things. Tyler went to medical school at Temple University, then moved to San Diego, California, for his residency in orthopaedics. He also was married recently to a fellow Chartiers Valley grad, Mallory Mack, with whom he reconnected after college. While he admits that this is the most distant he’s felt from the sport in his life, he still keeps tabs on the Pitt wrestling program and those following in his footsteps. “The distance doesn’t lessen wrestling’s impact or how much I love the sport, but I just got busy doing the next thing,” he says. Matt, meanwhile, is living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and using his athleticism in a relatively obscure line of work. “I’m still changing tires, man,” he jokes. Matt was unsure what to do when his year of coaching was up. That’s when he met Devin Dietrich, who can best be described as a matchmaker between Pitt wrestlers and the automotive racing industry. “He’s the mastermind behind getting all of the Pitt wrestlers down [to Charlotte],” Matt says. “There were at least four Pitt wrestlers he got down there. “The first time I heard about him was my junior year. I heard, ‘There’s this guy who is a big NASCAR fan, and he said you guys can go down and try to be a pit crew.’ Everyone sort of chuckled and was like, ‘Yeah, who wants to do that?’” NASCAR pit crews typically pull in former athletes. Many football players work on the crews as well as some wrestlers, like fellow Pitt All-American Zac Thomusseit (CGS ’13), who was in a similar boat as Matt after college. “We kind of just got sold on the dream,” Matt says. “Me, Zac and [fellow former Pitt wrestler] Donnie Tasser (A&S ’13) all moved down in 2015. “We did a little combine, almost like the NFL stuff. We had to do all these drills, just to test if we were in shape, if we were coachable. They had us hang a couple of tires and do some of the drills for NASCAR. But they don’t expect much. No one else grows up doing this stuff.” Almost a decade later, Matt is still going through the grind that is life in racing. There’s a lot of travel involved, moving from city to city during the season. He’s also worked on teams for various drivers and on different circuits of the sport. That hard work paid off in 2021, when Matt was on the pit crew for driver Michael McDowell when he claimed an unexpected Daytona 500 victory. “Yeah, I got a Daytona 500 win,” Matt says, seemingly still in disbelief. “It was crazy and I totally didn’t expect it. I was going through a positional change. I was going through some adversity. I was put on a different car, and the first race of the year, my first race as a gas man, we win the Daytona 500.” Matt has picked up a few of other victories and is now working with driver Hailie Deegan on the NASCAR Xfinity Series and also working some with Jimmie Johnson. “I wouldn’t have seen this coming for Matt, that’s for sure,” says Tyler with a laugh. “But he’s been doing it for 10 years now. It’s been cool. Every year or two I go to a race and it’s good fun. It fits Matt. He’s always been a hands-on, use-your-body type of guy.” The duality of their experience and training in college is surely a delight of their father. Matt is using the training he acquired through wrestling, while Tyler has gone the more academic route in his profession. Both have found a way to succeed and thrive and to keep the Wilps connection to Pitt strong. And they aren’t alone. Their younger brother, Noah (A&S ’19), wrestled at Pitt for a year, and, their sister, Claire (SHRS ’22), is currently living in the family’s Oakland house and studying to be a pathology technician at Pitt. And now, despite the distance between Matt and Tyler and the busy and different lives they lead, the two share a deeper appreciation for their time together, for their bond with the University that helped to build them and for the connections they made along the way. “It’s unique,” Tyler says. “I’m grateful to have had the experience. When Matt and I were on the team, we basically had four sets of brothers. It was a family affair. It was cool to be a part of that in general. It speaks to what Pitt is: a family.” Matt in the pit at a NASCAR Cup series race Photo by Arthur Pyburn Tyler as a part of @ trekcoalition for serving people in Ecuador 12 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ATHLETICS “ FEATURE Pitt Launches Louis Riddick Collection by Mitchell & Ness When it comes to football broadcasting, no one logs more air time than Louis Riddick. he former Pitt and NFL defensive back is at the top of his industry, both in terms of hours on air and the high credibility he holds as an analyst. Whether it’s the NFL Draft, daily appearances on ESPN’s “Get Up” or doing color work for the weekend’s biggest games, Riddick is seemingly everywhere. Though it’s been more than three decades since he last suited up in a Pitt uniform, he still wears his love of the Panthers on his sleeve—literally. On April 13, he attended the Blue-Gold spring football game to unveil the new Pitt-inspired Louis Riddick Collection by Mitchell & Ness, a company known for its authentic apparel for professional and collegiate teams. When Pitt’s Department of Athletics was looking to expand its line of official branded apparel, Riddick seemed a natural choice to bring on board. He and Mitchell & Ness joined forces to curate a collection that was both Pitt centric and fashion forward. Be on the lookout for a second season drop of the collection to launch this fall. To buy the current collection, go to shoppittpanthers.com . When they came to me about possibly developing a line of clothing that would be very specific to me, really what I identify with, and at the same time having it be a signature University of Pittsburgh line of clothing, that was something that was very intriguing to me. … Mitchell & Ness happen to be the people who could bring this entire project to life in terms of their ability to make some of the best sportswear you know the world over. And I hope we can make history with some of the things we’re trying to get done.” –Louis RiddickH2P MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 1314 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ATHLETICS FEATURE ACC Coach of the Year Kasprzak Leads Groundbreaking Year for Pitt Diving Written by Josh Rowntree atie Kasprzak led the University of Pittsburgh diving team to a successful year, with a two- time ACC champion Cameron Cash, a two- time ACC silver medalist Dylan Reed, 12 NCAA Zone A championship qualifiers and six NCAA championship qualifiers. Kasprzak also was named the ACC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year, becoming the first female to win any of the major ACC swimming and diving coaching awards. Kasprzak isn’t just building champions at Pitt; she also is paving the way for women in the sport. Kasprzak was the only female head diving coach at the 2024 ACC championships and one of just three female diving head coaches with both male and female athletes competing at the 2024 NCAA championships. For the last few years, while serving as a female coach of a Division I men’s diving team, Kasprzak often heard talk about balancing coaching with raising a family. Now in her seventh year of coaching at Pitt, Kasprzak is an example of how you can be both a great coach and a great mother. What’s interesting and important to understand is the path that took Kasprzak to where she currently sits as the top ACC men’s diving coach. A native of Harpenden, England, Kasprzak grew up the daughter of diving coaches and judges. “It’s funny growing up as a kid when your parents are diving coaches,” she says. “It can be a little intense. One thing I knew for sure is that I didn’t want to be a diving coach.” Kasprzak began diving at age 5. Then, at age 17, she was thrown for a loop when a ruptured eardrum abruptly and prematurely ended her diving career. “It was a blessing in disguise,” she says. “At that point, I was a really good junior diver, but I did not have the physical attributes to be a top senior international diver. So, at that time, it forced me to stop diving, and I didn’t have to make the decision to retire myself. It made that decision a lot easier.”H2P MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 15 She rerouted, starting a path toward becoming a strength and conditioning coach. She graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in sports science and physiology. But diving kept calling her, and the call got too loud to ignore. She worked as a talent scout in England, as a mentor for young divers and coaches and as the technical operations manager for the London 2012 Summer Olympics. “That was a phenomenal experience,” she says. “I spent about a year and a half preparing just for that one meet.” When the contract ended, she capitalized on an opportunity and was hired to work under Drew Johansen, coach of the U.S. diving team for the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, who was then coaching at Duke University. “He sponsored my visa, and I came out to coach club [diving] for him,” Kasprzak says. “I got to experience collegiate sport. I knew it was big, and I wanted to see what it was like. Until I actually got here, I had no idea how big it really was.” Kasprzak soon was hooked. She ran the club diving program at Duke for nearly five years, leading divers to 10 national titles at youth levels while producing some of the nation’s top diving recruits. In 2017, she came to Pitt, bringing with her a leadership model centered on total development and a focus on the individual needs of her student-athletes, both at the pool and away from it. “When I sit down and talk with my athletes, no matter how bad the situation is, I always look at what can we control,” she says, a direct callback to the adversity she encountered at 17. “What’s the positive in this?” In 2024, the biggest positive yet of Kasprzak’s career occurred. She was named the ACC Men’s Diving Coach of the Year, becoming the first woman ever to receive the recognition. “Across swimming and diving, there are just not as many women working in the sport, even fewer women working in head coaching roles and even fewer women working with men’s teams,” she says. “For me, it doesn’t necessarily The Pitt men's and women's diving teams pose with Cameron Cash and Dylan Reed after they won the gold and silver medal, respectively, on the 3 meter at the ACC championships. Front row (left to right): Mariana Osorio Mendoza, Jackson Salisbury, Emma Gravgaard, Maggie Foley Back row: Coach Katie Kasprzak, Chase Marafioto, Dylan Reed, Cameron Cash, Jess Vega, Megan Iannon, Rachel Dickerson, Daley Fraser Coach Kasprzak and Cameron Cash at the 2024 ACC Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina16 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ATHLETICS make sense, because there are a lot more female swimmers swimming collegiately than men and because there are a significant number of women’s- only programs. And a lot of them are coached by men. [This award shows] that women can be just as—if not more—successful in the sport.” She’s done it while she and her husband, Alex, raise their two daughters, Elva and Francesca. “Being a female and having a family doesn’t mean that it’s a handicap,” she says. “But right now, it’s harder for us to get those jobs. [There are] more Division II, Division III and club female coaches, but when you get into the Division I level and the NCAA championships, there just aren’t very many of us. “You can be successful in our sport and you can be a great mother. You can also do it while being compassionate and caring. It doesn’t take one personality to become a head coach.” What helped to propel Kasprzak to her award were the performances of Dylan Reed, who won a pair of silver medals at the ACC championships, and Cameron Cash, the ACC Men’s Diver of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-American on the 3 meter. “He knows what he wants to achieve, and he still has a good time,” says Kasprzak of Cash, who also is an excellent biology student with plans to take the Medical College Admission Test. “He’s really good at demonstrating to other student- athletes that to be successful, you need to train and study with intensity. He’s there to support his teammates, and he has large goals [that he’s] going to work toward. He’s very dedicated, motivating and fun to work with.” Kasprzak takes pride in the overall characteristics of her divers. The team is just as strong in the classroom as it is on the diving boards and platforms. It’s her desire to have all-around people come out of her program, and developing terrific divers is an added bonus. “Winning ACC Diving Coach of the Year, what Cam achieved, what Dylan achieved—that was all really exciting,” Kasprzak says. “But the biggest thing I tell my athletes all the time is yes, we want standout performances, but really our focus is what we’re doing every day to make our program better and how we manage our day to day in those successes.” Kasprzak’s achievement this past season is one for the Pitt history books. It’s also one that should serve as a groundbreaking accomplishment that proves a great deal about what anyone with talent and ability can do in sports. “I just think it’s a huge milestone to say that women can do it,” she says. “We can coach men, and I can inspire men to be the best that they can be. It’s really important.” Coach Kasprzak with Mariana Osorio Medoza at the 2024 ACC Championships KATIE KASPRZAK 1 ST FEMALE COACH TO BE NAMED ACC MEN’S DIVING COACH OF THE YEAR 1 OF 3 FEMALE DIVING HEAD COACHES WITH PARTICIPANTS IN BOTH THE MEN’S AND WOMEN’S 2024 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPSH2P MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 17 Varsity Letter Club Salutes Its 2024 Awardees of Distinction T he University of Pittsburgh Varsity Letter Club honored its 2024 Awardees of Distinction on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. Since 1961, the Pitt Varsity Letter Club has honored letter winners who have distinguished themselves in their profession or community and who, by their accomplishments, have enhanced the value of the intercollegiate athletics programs at the University of Pittsburgh. Congratulations to the 2024 Awardees of Distinction: Ken Balkey (ENGR ’72, ’80G), Men’s Track and Field, Cross Country Dave Bucklew (ENGR ’80), Football Suzanne Hershelman (A&S ’78, ’81G), Volleyball Paul Knouse (BUS ’60), Squash and Tennis Jason Matthews (A&S ’91), Men’s Basketball Raymond Olsen (EDUC ’74, ’77G), Football Stuart Swanson (A&S ’81), Swimming and Diving Kimberly Yarnall (A&S ’92), Gymnastics This year, the Pitt Varsity Letter Club also honored two Forever Panthers as the inaugural Pitt Varsity Letter Club Rising Star Award recipients. The Rising Star Award recognizes Forever Panthers who are within 10 years of their final year of competition at Pitt; who have distinguished themselves in their profession or community; and who, by their accomplishments, have enhanced the value of the intercollegiate athletics programs at the University of Pittsburgh. Congratulations to the 2024 Rising Star Award recipients: Jordan Fields (A&S ’20), Women’s Track and Field Andin Fosam (A&S ’18), Women’s Track and Field Pictured from left to right are Paul Knouse, Dave Bucklew, Ken Balkey, Andin Fosam, Heather Lyke, Jordan Fields, Kimberly Yarnall, Stuart Swanson, Ray Olsen and Jason Matthews. Not pictured: Suzanne HershelmanNext >