Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Men's Golf

Former Nittany Lion standout Mark Leon will enter his third season as the head coach of the Penn State men’s golf team in 2025-26. A Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-American, GCAA All-Region and All-Big Ten selection as a Penn State student-athlete from 2001-05, Leon was announced as the head coach at his alma mater on June 9, 2023. Leon has mentored four GCAA All-Region picks during his first two season as the head coach of the Nittany Lions. He guided Penn State to its ninth-straight Rutherford Intercollegiate title in the spring of 2024. Leon returned to Happy Valley after serving as the head coach at Florida Atlantic for the previous two seasons. In addition to his time as the head coach of the Owls, Leon’s coaching career has also seen him make assistant coaching stops at Florida (2017-21) and Penn State (2011-17). Leon was named the head men’s golf coach at Florida Atlantic in August 2021. He mentored five All-Conference USA selections during his two seasons with the Owls. Leon’s 2021-22 FAU team won the stroke play portion of the Conference USA Championship, in addition to the Bayou City Collegiate tournament title. Leon spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Florida prior to his appointment as head coach at FAU. While with the Gators, Leon helped guide Florida to three-straight NCAA Regional appearances (2020 NCAA Championship events were canceled due to COVID-19) and a berth in the 2021 NCAA Finals. Leon helped mentor five GCAA All-Americans, the

Nick Ziccardi joined the Penn State men's golf program in January 2021 and enters his seventh season on staff in 2026-27. Ziccardi came to Happy Valley after spending four years as an assistant coach for the men’s golf program at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Ziccardi has helped mentor 13 All-Region honorees, an All-Big Ten selection, two NCAA Regional individual qualifiers and 10 GCAA All-America Scholars throughout his first six seasons at Penn State. This past season, Ziccardi saw the Nittany Lions regain its Rutherford Intercollegiate Championship as the lone team in red figures after failing to capture the title during the 2024-25 campaign. It marked their 32nd Rutherford title and the 10th since 2015. Senior Andres Barraza also secured individual medalist honors with a 5-under, 208, while each of the Nittany Lions in the starting lineup finished inside the top-18. Barraza became Penn State’s 22nd individual champion in tournament history. Ziccardi also saw Penn State finish tied for sixth at the B1G Championships, the best finish for the Nittany Lions since 2018. Sophomore Will Preston finished the week tied for 20th while Creamean and Barraza finished T-23. Individually, Creamean shaved over two shots off his stroke average finishing the season with a team-best 70.97 mark over 10 tournaments and moved from No. 502 to No. 278 in the Clippd golf rankings while Barraza went from No. 999 to No. 624. As a team, Penn State had the third highest jump