From IUP Athletics
The IUP Department of Athletics will welcome its 29th class to the Athletics Hall of Fame this Saturday. The class includes nine individual inductees, one team, and one pair. The honorees will start with being recognized at the Hall of Fame Luncheon and then will be recognized on the field at halftime of the football game.
Frank Condino (Administrator)
Frank Condino, who devoted 30 years of his life to IUP athletics, is being honored in the coach/administrator category. He served admirably in both roles during his time on campus.
Condino arrived at IUP in 1984 as an assistant football coach. He stayed in that position for six seasons, a time when the program rose to national prominence under head coach Frank Cignetti. IUP posted 53 victories in that period, won two PSAC championships and made its first three NCAA Division II playoff appearances, highlighted by a run to the national semifinals in 1989.
Condino served as assistant and then associate athletic director from 1990 to 1998, was interim athletic director for a year and then spent more than 15 years—from July of 1999 to January of 2015—as AD. He oversaw the university’s 19 varsity sports teams, its athletic facilities, game management, intramurals, special events, summer camps, fundraising, the sports medicine program and NCAA compliance. During his tenure, IUP constructed the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex and made improvements to several existing campus facilities. He also served as chair of the NCAA Division II Football Committee.
Crimson Hawks teams and athletes excelled on Condino’s watch. IUP teams won 30 conference championships, individuals captured 10 national titles and IUP regularly finished near the top of the Dixon Trophy standings, emblematic of PSAC supremacy. The university’s athletes also distinguished themselves in the classroom. Under Condino, the IUP athletic program produced 10 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 38 PSAC Top 10 Award winners and 11 PSAC Champion Scholars.
Condino earned a degree in health and physical education from Lock Haven in 1972 before serving in the United States Marine Corps for three years. He earned a master’s in health and physical education from East Stroudsburg in 1976 and a doctorate in sports administration from West Virginia in 1987.
He and his wife, Martha, have two adult children, Shane and Jason, and two grandchildren. They reside in Indiana.
Bob Johnston (Baseball | Class of ’72)
Bob Johnston ranks among the stingiest pitchers in IUP history. Only rarely did opponents
score when he was on the mound.
When Johnston wrapped up his career in 1968, he had compiled a 1.41 earned run average, still the program’s—and the PSAC’s—second-lowest figure. What’s more, four of the top 16 single-season ERAs belong to Johnston.
His 0.67 ERA as a freshman in 1965 has been bettered only twice in school history. A year later, Johnston posted a 1.54 ERA as coach Owen Dougherty’s Indians, as they were then known, finished 16-5 to set a program record for most wins.
IUP captured NAIA District 18 championships each of the next two seasons, with Johnston playing an integral role. He compiled a 1.46 ERA for a 16-10 team in 1967 and a 1.65 figure in 1968 for the 16-8 Indians.
Johnston won seven games in 1967—tied for the 10th best single-season total in IUP history—and added five more victories in 1968. He beat Penn State 3-2 that year with a complete-game five-hitter and later handcuffed Shippensburg 1-0 on a one-hitter two days after tossing a two-hitter in a win over Point Park.
The Indians went 62-32 in Johnston’s four seasons in uniform. Despite the limited schedules IUP teams played back then, his 17 career victories are good for a seventh-place tie all time and his 200 strikeouts rank fifth.
Johnston signed a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates after concluding his IUP career. He pitched for Gastonia of the Class A Western Carolinas League and Salem of the Class A Carolina League for three seasons, compiling a sparkling 12-1 record, mostly as a reliever.
A 1972 IUP graduate with a degree in education, Johnston worked as a senior vice president for Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., before retiring. He and his wife, Judy, have two adult children, Jill Boyette and Scott Johnston, and four granddaughters. The Johnstons reside in Mint Hill, N.C.
Zack Kempa (Men’s Golf | Class of ’14)
Zack Kempa graduated from IUP after putting together one of the most distinguished golf careers in school history.
A native of Brantford, Ontario, Kempa earned All-America honors each of his last three years, was twice tabbed as an academic All-American, was a four-time All-PSAC and all-region selection, won regional and PSAC individual titles and was named IUP’s Male Athlete of the Year in 2014.
Kempa made a splash not long after arriving at IUP from Canada, helping IUP capture a PSAC championship with his third-place finish in the tournament in the fall of 2010.
A year later, Kempa tied for fifth at the PSAC tourney, tied for second at regionals and tied for fifth at the NCAA Division II tournament, shooting a 6-under 210 at the Cardinal Club Golf Course in Simpsonville, Ky. He was selected to the PING/Golf Coaches Association of America All-America team.
Kempa kept producing as a junior. He captured the PSAC championship with the lowest score in tournament history—a 4-under 140—shot a 2-under 69 in the fourth round to win a regional title and finished 11th at nationals. Kempa was selected as a PING/Golf Coaches Association of America and Srizon/Cleveland Golf All-American, earned Capital One Academic All-America and CoSIDA Academic All-District honors, was named the PSAC Golfer of the Year and averaged 72.44 strokes per round, the lowest in school history.
He repeated those honors as a senior. Kempa tied for 19th at the NCAA tourney, sinking a birdie putt on the final hole of the third round to propel coach Fred Joseph’s team into the match play portion of the competition. The Crimson Hawks lost to eventual national runner-up Nova Southeastern (Fla.) in the quarterfinals.
Kempa, who graduated in 2014 with a degree in marketing, works as a business development consultant for Hartford Funds in Wayne. He and his wife, Ashley, a 2013 IUP grad, reside in Exton with their children, twins Grace and Brynn, 6; and Reese, 3.
Kerri McIntyre Joyce (Cross Country and Track & Field | Class of ’99)
The highlight of Kerri McIntyre Joyce’s distinguished distance-running career at IUP came in 1998, when she finished eighth at the NCAA Division II cross country meet in Lawrence, Kan., to earn All-America honors. She covered the 6,000-meter distance in 22 minutes, 9 seconds, the best time for any competitor from a Northeast Region school.
Joyce was IUP’s top finisher in every race that season. In addition to her All-America citation, she was named a Division II Cross Country Coaches Association Academic All-American for the second time and earned a second All-PSAC honor.
Leading up to nationals, Joyce finished sixth at the PSAC meet, helping coach Ed Fry’s team place third, and then finished sixth at regionals. IUP placed third at the regional meet behind only national powers Edinboro and Shippensburg.
Joyce’s eighth-place performance at the NCAA meet paved the way for IUP to finish ninth as a team, still the third-best finish by IUP at nationals. The Indians, as they were then known, were seeded 17th coming into the competition
Joyce came to IUP from North Penn High School, where she celebrated a PIAA track title as a member of the Knights’ 4×800 relay quartet as well as a team championship. She also earned third-place medals in the 800 and 4×400 relay. Joyce continued to thrive at IUP, winning PSAC titles in the 800 in 1998 and 1999 and joining Kate McCulloch, Sarah Carber and Melanie Sensenig to win the 4×400 relay both years. They set a school and PSAC record in 1999, breaking the tape in 3 minutes, 53.49 seconds.
Joyce earned a natural science degree from IUP in 1999 and graduated from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2005. She works as an osteopathic obstetrician/gynecologist for Premier Women’s Health in Pittsburgh. Joyce and her husband, Richard, a 1997 IUP grad, live in the Pittsburgh suburb of Ross Township with their three children: Robert, 17; Brigid, 13; and Maura, 11.
Allyson Mitidieri-Washick (Swimming | Class of ’14)
Allyson Mitidieri-Washick wrapped up her IUP swimming career with a flourish, claiming four All-America honors at the NCAA Division II national meet in 2014, bringing her all-time total to nine.
Mitidieri-Washick was named IUP’s Female Athlete of the Year for her efforts.
She began a dazzling month of March by winning the 400-yard individual medley at the PSAC meet. Mitidieri-Washick also finished second in the 100 breaststroke and 200 IM and placed third in the 200 breast, helping coach Chris Villa’s team finish second, the school’s best showing in the highly competitive conference meet in 15 years. That increased Mitidieri-Washick’s total of PSAC titles to four.
At the NCAA meet in Geneva, Ohio, three weeks later, she placed seventh in the 200 IM (2:03.05) and 400 IM (4:22.59), tied for seventh in the 200 breast (2:16.79) and finished eighth in the 100 breast (1:03.26). She broke three of her own school records during the event. She was also honored as a CoSIDA (now College Sports Communicators) Academic All-American that year.
Mitidieri-Washick had also excelled as a sophomore in 2012, when she earned her first three All-America honors. She finished sixth in both the 200 breast and 400 IM events and placed eighth in the 200 IM. Mitidieri-Washick also took firsts in the 200 and 400 IM and 200 breast at the PSAC meet.
She concluded her swimming career in possession of eight individual and three relay school records. She graduated in 2014 with a degree in nutrition and dietetics and added a master’s from IUP in food and nutrition and exercise science two years later.
Mitidieri-Washick served as a USA Swimming staff dietitian at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, in 2024 and at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships in Netanya, Israel, the year before. She works as a registered dietitian with Advocare Center for Specialized Gynecology in Voorhees, N.J.
She and her husband, David Washick, reside in Oaklyn, N.J., with their children, Joseph, 4, and Claire, six months.
Denise Raymond Erb (Gymnastics | Class of ’86)
One of the pioneers in an IUP program that would develop into a national power, Denise Raymond Erb was among the school’s first gymnastics All-Americans.
As a freshman in 1982, Raymond placed fifth in the uneven parallel bars event to earn Division III AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) All-America honors. Coach Jan Anthony’s team finished third in the nation behind Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.) and Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The Lady Braves, as they were then known, would become an NCAA Division II program a year later.
Raymond’s freshman year proved something of a breakthrough season for IUP. The Lady Braves held their own against Division I opponents such as Penn State, West Virginia, New Mexico and George Washington before claiming top honors at the Division III AIAW Eastern Regional meet. Raymond finished second on bars and tied for fourth on the balance beam.
At the national meet, hosted by Keene State (N.H.), she and teammate Meg Rogers gave IUP its first-ever All-Americans in the sport.
In her sophomore season, Raymond helped the Lady Braves finish second at the PSAC meet and fourth at regionals.
Coach Dan Kendig, who would later lead IUP to two national titles, came aboard in Raymond’s junior year. The Lady Braves captured their first PSAC title before the home fans at Memorial Field House, beating out both top-seeded Slippery Rock and Clarion, a Division I program, with a school-record score of 172.15. IUP then placed fourth at regionals.
Raymond did not compete as a senior because of stress fractures in both of her tibias.
She graduated from IUP in 1986 with a degree in health and physical education and earned a master’s in school counseling from Duquesne in 1997. Raymond works as a counselor at Shaler Area High School, her alma mater.
She has two adult children, daughter Devon and son Danny, a 2025 graduate of IUP. Raymond, who is in a relationship with 1983 IUP grad Bret Shugarts, resides in Wexford.
Eric Shafer (Track & Field and Cross Country | Class of ’91)
Eric Shafer earned NCAA Division II All-America honors in cross country in 1990 by finishing 10th at the national meet, the second-best performance by an IUP runner in school history. He was 15th with about a mile and a half to go before surging past five runners on a hill, helping IUP secure a 14th-place finish as a team.
Shafer had previously that fall won the ECAC championship and finished fifth at the PSAC meet and fourth at regionals in 30 minutes, 41 seconds, the fastest 10-kilometer time in school history.
He also earned All-America honors in 1989 by finishing 24th at nationals. That enabled coach Ed Fry’s team to place ninth.
Shafer excelled on flat surfaces, too, earning All-PSAC track honors in each of his last three seasons. He finished second in the 10,000-meter event at the conference meet in 1990 and 1991 and placed third in the 5,000 in 1991. IUP earned runner-up honors as a team that year.
Shafer continued to run after leaving IUP. He finished 31st at the 1999 Boston Marathon, ran a personal best time of 2 hours, 24 minutes, 4 seconds at the Shamrock Marathon in 2000 to place fourth, finished 15th in the 2008 Marine Corps Marathon in 2008 and placed 17th in the USA National Marathon Championships in 1998. Shafer once put together a streak of finishing at least one sub-17-minute 5K every year for 37 consecutive years. He still competes in distance races for the Pittsburgh Pharaoh Hounds Running Club.
A 2024 inductee into the Pittsburgh Marathon Hall of Fame—along with fellow IUP grads Kerry Green and Sara Raschiatore Zambotti—Shafer graduated in 1991 with a degree in business administration/accounting and earned an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 2006. He works as an accountant for the Carrier Corporation in Pittsburgh and serves as cross country and track coach at Carlynton High School in suburban Pittsburgh.
Shafer resides in the Pittsburgh suburb of Crafton.
Dennis A. & Regina Stover (Honorary Bell Ringers)
IUP graduates Dennis and Regina Stover, who spent their careers in banking, have always made sure their alma mater shared in the dividends of their success.
The Stovers have been selected as recipients of the honorary Bell Ringer Award for their unwavering support of IUP and IUP athletics.
Regina, who earned a degree in business management from IUP in 1975 and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, is immediate past president of the Foundation for IUP, current chair of the Athletics Advancement Council at IUP and, along with Dennis, is a member of the National Campaign Cabinet for IUP. She was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus in 1999 and was honored with induction into IUP’s Eberly College of Business Hall of Distinction in 2001.
A retired managing director at Mellon Bank (now Bank of New York Mellon) in Pittsburgh, Regina worked in various senior management positions in internal auditing and risk management. She was nationally recognized as an expert on fiduciary and investment management risk and spoke frequently at industry conferences, seminars and meetings.
Regina was a past member of the faculty at Bucknell University, Williams College and Robert Morris University.
Dennis, who earned a degree in business management from IUP in 1976 and an MBA from Pitt in 1978, worked in finance, cash management, network services and eCommerce at Mellon. He launched a Health Savings Account product in the Mellon Lab, a new business incubation unit, which led to a position as senior vice president and manager of Corporate Development at Health/Equity Inc., an HSA startup business. Dennis also served as a faculty member at Robert Morris in addition to teaching CPA exam review courses.
He and Regina established endowed scholarship funds at IUP, Pitt, Carlow University and Our Lady of Grace School (now Ave Maria Academy) in suburban Pittsburgh. They also funded a Title IX support endowment at IUP.
The Stovers reside in the Pittsburgh suburb of Scott Township.
1974 Women’s Tennis Team
Coach Mary Louise Eltz’s dominant squad is being inducted in the team category, a just reward for its 12-0 season.
But like the tip of an iceberg, that record reveals only a fraction of the whole story. The Indians, as they were then known, regularly rid opponents of any hope and matches of all suspense. They didn’t just beat foes—they annihilated them. IUP went 35-1 in singles play and 24-0 in doubles that fall, and surrendered only six of 124 sets played.
The Indians’ invincibility was notable given the odds against them. The program did not offer scholarships, facilities were woefully inadequate and they didn’t even have official uniforms. Players simply wore their own dresses, some of which had been made by their mothers.
Not that it mattered. Eltz molded her team into a juggernaut. Marcy Schwam and Cheryl Mistrick led the Indians with 12-0 records in singles and Terri Cook was 8-0. In doubles, Beth Johnson (11-0), Barb Beatty (8-0), Lynn Roser (8-0), Anna Marie Raglani (7-0) and Sue Hughes (6-0) turned back every challenge.
The lone blemish occurred in a season-opening 4-1 victory over Chatham when Cook, the team’s top player, was a late scratch after injuring her ankle in warm-ups. Eltz was forced to insert Jan Frissora, a doubles specialist, into the No. 1 singles slot. She lost 7-5, 6-1.
The Indians would defeat every subsequent opponent by a 5-0 score. One of the highlights of their season was a rout of rival Slippery Rock before a raucous crowd on the Rockets’ home courts. IUP won every match in straight sets.
Eltz’s Indians crushed Slippery Rock in the rematch two weeks later to improve to 10-0, thumped California and then wrapped up a perfect season at Edinboro with their 11th consecutive 5-0 victory, overcoming bitter cold and swirling snow.
Like every one of the Indians’ previous opponents that season, the Scots were no match for perhaps the most dominant team in IUP history.
James A. Welker (Men’s Tennis | Class of ’89)
No player in the history of IUP tennis won more matches—singles and doubles—than Jim Welker. The three-time All-American compiled a 60-9 record in singles and was 56-12 in doubles for an overall record of 116-21.
Welker went 13-1 during his freshman season as coach Vince Celtnieks’ No. 2 singles player and again finished 13-1 as a sophomore. Then he actually improved.
During his junior year, Welker went 16-0 in singles before suffering his only defeat in the PSAC tournament finals. He was also 16-0 in doubles with partner Brad Hanes before they fell in the PSAC finals. Welker was instrumental in helping IUP finish with a 14-2 record—the best in program history—and place second in the conference. A finance major with minors in accounting and economics, he was named a PSAC Scholar Athlete.
In 1989, Celtnieks moved Welker to the No. 1 singles slot, where he faced stiffer competition. He finished 13-3 in singles, highlighted by a victory over Edinboro’s Kaleem Ghanchi, a Davis Cup participant for Pakistan. Welker came back from a 5-0 deficit in the third set to win the match, 2-6, 7-5, 7-5. He also played in the No. 1 doubles slot that season with partner Sebastian van den Boogaard.
Welker was again named a PSAC Scholar Athlete. He graduated with a 3.31 grade-point average, was accorded Division II Academic All-America honors and was one of only five players from a Division II school named to the Volvo Academic All-America team.
Welker graduated from IUP in 1989 with a degree in finance. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Dayton School of Law in 1992 and has been a practicing attorney with the Pittsburgh firm of Jubelirer, Pass & Intrieri, P.C. since 1995. Welker has been recognized by the Best Lawyers in America every year since 2012 in the practice of Workers’ Compensation law.
He and his wife, Laurie Sims, reside in Seven Fields.
Rob Zinsmeister (Baseball | Class of ’13)
Rob Zinsmeister reigns as one of the premier offensive threats in IUP baseball history. A glance at the school’s record book confirms as much.
A four-year starter as an infielder under coach Jeff Ditch, Zinsmeister ranks second in career runs (193), hits (231), doubles (47), total bases (371) and stolen bases (75), third in triples (21) and fifth in RBIs (124). His total of 17 home runs is ninth-best in IUP history. He posted a career batting average of .333.
Zinsmeister’s name can also be found on IUP’s all-time top 10 list in numerous single-season categories. He ranks fourth in stolen bases with 25 in 2012 and fifth in runs with 57 that season; is tied for fifth in triples (7) and stolen bases (20), both in 2013; is sixth with 108 total bases in 2012; and seventh with 106 total bases a year later.
After celebrating a PIAA baseball title as a member of the North Penn Knights in 2009, Zinsmeister played for another championship squad as an IUP freshman. The Crimson Hawks took top honors in the PSAC West en route to a 31-24 record. IUP won 105 games in Zinsmeister’s four years in uniform.
He earned Daktronics/Division II Conference Commissioners Association first-team all-region honors as a shortstop in 2012 and second-team American Baseball Coaches Association and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association honors. Zinsmeister also earned a berth on the Capital One Academic All-America third team. He was an All-PSAC first-team selection in 2012 as a shortstop and in 2013 as a second baseman.
Zinsmeister played independent professional baseball after wrapping up his stellar IUP career. He spent parts of two seasons with the New Jersey Jackals of the Can-Am League.
A 2013 graduate of IUP with a degree in mathematics, Zinsmeister is employed as an operations manager by Danella Rental System Inc. in Plymouth Meeting. He and his wife, Keely, reside in King of Prussia with their son, Avery, 2.
