The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown is pleased to announce the addition of three new sponsored NCAA Division II sports—Women's Wrestling, Men's Swimming, and Women's Swimming—to strengthen the enrollment of the university and to add to the high level of competitive excellence of our Athletic Department.
 
"We are thrilled by this historic addition of Women's Wrestling and Men's and Women's Swimming to our athletic programs, which already includes several championship teams in our conference.  We are highly confident that these new sports will elevate an already outstanding athletic program, making Pitt-Johnstown an even more compelling destination for prospective students, thereby helping to increase our in-state and out-of-state enrollments," stated Pitt-Johnstown President Jem Spectar.
 
The addition of Women's Wrestling to UPJ Athletics leverages and complements our historic legacy in Men's Wrestling, providing a significant boost to our student recruitment efforts throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.  Women's Wrestling has rapidly gained popularity across the country and especially in western Pennsylvania, with many local high schools and wrestling clubs fielding women's wrestling teams and featuring talented student-athletes. Women's Wrestling was recently approved as the 91st NCAA-sponsored National Championship and is slated to crown its first national champion in the 2025-26 season. Currently, more than 1,200 women wrestlers are competing at 76 NCAA schools across Division I, II, and III, with NCAA projections pointing to an additional 17 programs to be added in the coming years, which was a crucial factor in UPJ's decision to add the sport as it continues to increase efforts to boost its lagging enrollment of female students. With the addition of Women's Wrestling at Pitt-Johnstown, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) will have five universities with Women's Wrestling (Gannon, East Stroudsburg, Lock Haven, West Chester, and Pitt-Johnstown), and would only need one more school to host a Conference Championship.  In addition to the PSAC schools, there are also several other regional institutions that offer women's wrestling and will offer ample opportunity for competition.
 
Swimming, another growing sport in our athletic conference and region, is also a popular choice for high school students looking to continue their athletic career at the collegiate level. The Pitt-Johnstown Admissions Office receives many inquiries each year about the sport of swimming from potential student-athletes, and its addition is already earning praise from potential recruits and the swimming community.  Pitt Johnstown will be joining approximately 100 NCAA Division II schools who sponsor Women's Swimming, and 60 who sponsor Men's Swimming - this includes twelve PSAC institutions who sponsor Women's Swimming and seven that sponsor Men's Swimming. The addition of both swimming programs will open opportunities for more student-athletes to call our campus home.
 
"The addition of Swimming, a very popular sport, also leverages key strengths, including the recently renovated Zamias Aquatic Center and UPJ's history for hosting high school swim meets on our campus," stated Abby Gearhart, Pitt Johnstown's Director of Athletics. "The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference is one of the strongest conferences for swimming which makes it a perfect fit. We also look to grow the sport of swimming by adding various programs for the community to partake in."
 
"These new additions are a momentous milestone for Mountain Cat Athletics! It is especially fitting that we are adding Women's Wrestling, given our competitive preeminence in that arena, thanks to the legacy of the legendary Coach Pecora, who dominated the field for nearly five decades, with his impressive NCAA all-time record of 661 career wins, 2 team national titles, 25 individual titles, and eight conference championships, among many other accolades," stated UPJ president Jem Spectar.
 
Gearhart states, "It's safe to say Pitt-Johnstown is synonymous with wrestling, thanks to Pat Pecora! It's an incredibly exciting time for the sport of wrestling and adding more opportunities for women to compete at a high level. We look forward to not only being a part of this historic time in the sport of wrestling, but also a trailblazer."
 
In addition to adding these new sports, UPJ is pleased to announce the hiring of two new coaches to lead the programs:
Shane Valko, B.A. Communications, UPJ '2010, served as an assistant coach in the UPJ Wrestling Program from 2010 to 2016, and played a key role in helping UPJ earn 48 NCAA All-Americans and four National Championships.  Valko, a three-time All-American wrestler, also won an NCAA National Championship 2009-10 and has extensive experience coaching and developing elite-level competitors at all levels of competition.  
 
Kile Zeller, recently completed his tenure as the assistant Women's Swimming coach at St. Francis University. He was an accomplished Division I swimmer during his collegiate years at Florida State University and will bring over 25 years of experience along with him to the UPJ head coaching position. Kile holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Georgia and is a successful entrepreneur who created his own swim lesson business and has taught over 200 local children the fundamentals of swimming in the past two years alone.   
 
"I am thrilled to welcome these accomplished coaches into our Mountain Cat Athletics Family. I look forward to working with Shane and Kile, as well as my dear friend Abby Gearhart, our Director of Athletics, to make these new programs a tremendous success, to help them compete for championships, and meet our prestigious university's enrollment goals," stated Mike Drahos, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Athletics at Pitt Johnstown.
 
All three of these programs are currently in the process of recruiting and will be looking to field a team for competition as early as Fall 2025.