Best of the Boilermakers: 2024

Celebrating the top feats, milestones and moments of the year in Purdue Athletics

This articles is part of The Persistent Pursuit: Best Boilermaker Stories

College athletics – and the competition it brings – is a collection of moments: some inspiring, some mundane, some frustrating, some exhilarating. For the student-athletes and fans alike, they become a collective set of memories.

So, by that measure, Purdue Athletics had a memorable 2024. From the winter and early spring run of men’s basketball to the Final Four to the December hiring of Purdue’s 38th head football coach, it was a remarkable year.

To bring it all to a close for the year that was, here are some top moments in quasi-chronological order that unforgettably touched each Purdue team.

For the fourth time in school history, Purdue hosted the Big Ten Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center. The women’s diving crew had standout performances when it came time for the NCAA championships in mid-March. Sophie McAfee finished fourth in the 3-meter. McAfee, Daryn Wright and Maycey Vieta accounted for three of the top eight in platform diving at the meet held in Athens, Georgia.

The following week at the NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships in Indianapolis, Purdue continued to excel in diving. Three Boilermakers earned All-America status: Max Miller (1-meter), Jordan Rzepka and Holden Higbie (platform). Rzepka earned his third career All-America honor with his fourth-place finish, helping the Boilermakers land in the top 25 at the NCAAs for the 15th time since 2005.

Also in March, coach Katie Gearlds’ women’s basketball team finished the 2023-24 season on a positive note with its third consecutive postseason experience, earning a quarterfinal spot in the WNIT while also enjoying a couple of capacity or near-capacity crowds in Mackey Arena.

Coach Matt Painter’s men’s basketball team’s magical NCAA tour through Indianapolis, Detroit and Phoenix was not only the event of 2024, but the Boilermaker team sporting accomplishment of the 21st century – with all due respect to the 2001 Rose Bowl and 1999 NCAA Women’s Final Four. Zach Edey becoming the first two-time national player of the year since the first term of Ronald Reagan was spectacular, possibly only matched by the fervor of the Boilermaker fan base throughout the entire season. The tens of thousands of Purdue fans in Phoenix provided a lifetime of sports experiences and camaraderie wrapped up in just one long weekend.

Later in the spring, Purdue baseball got everyone’s attention with a program record 11-game Big Ten winning streak and left a lasting impression on Chicago-area fans by visiting the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field and pasting Northwestern on a rainy Chicago evening. Ultimately, the diamondmen posted their top win total in six years and a nine-win improvement from 2023.

Softball also progressed under first-year head coach Magali Frezzotti, posting the most Big Ten wins in 10 years and setting a school mark for consecutive wins in conference play.

The tennis teams were buoyed by strong individual play at the No. 1 spots. Stefan Simeunovic was named second team All-Big Ten, the first Boilermaker in five seasons to earn a spot on the all-league team. In the fall, Carmen Gallardo Guevara was the first Boilermaker to reach the NCAA Singles Championship since 2019. It was the sixth appearance ever by a Boilermaker in the singles tournament.

The golf teams accomplished something that both programs hadn’t done in seven years, with both qualifying for the NCAA Championships. The women’s squad finished the second season under coach Zack Byrd by producing two wins and four Top 3 finishes in 2023-24. The men were led by the highest individual finish in the NCAAs in 20 years, as Kent Hsiao placed 34th.

Highlighting the close of the 2023-24 sports season was Praise Aniamaka earning first team All-America honors in the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. It was his third All-America performance in as many years. Aniamaka, sprinter Cameron Miller and discus thrower Seth Allen all won Big Ten crowns earlier. Purdue made a mark at the NCAA Cross Country championships in the fall, with Douglas Buckeridge becoming the first Boilermaker to run sub-30 minutes, the ninth to finish in the top 50 of an NCAA Championship, and the third in five seasons.

Purdue track & field was well represented at the Olympic Games in Paris as Devynne Charlton was sixth in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, while Chukwuebuka Enekwechi placed sixth in the men’s shot put.

The highlight of the 12 Boilermakers competing in the City of Light was volleyball’s Annie Drews winning her second Olympic medal, as Team USA won the silver after winning gold three years earlier in Tokyo. The 3-meter synchronized diving duo of Tyler Downs and Greg Duncan took eighth, while women’s divers Wright, Jaye Patrick, and Vieta all finished in the top 25. The divers had the extra help for four-time diving medalist David Boudia, who served as an assistant coach for Team USA.

When the fall semester commenced, the soccer program was under new direction as Richard Moodie’s first Boilermaker squad. The improvement was noticeable as Purdue’s seven victories in 2024 were more than the program had in its last two campaigns combined (six). It was the most significant year-to-year improvement in seven seasons, providing much promise.

Wrestling’s big moment in 2024 came late, with No. 3-ranked Matt Ramos becoming just the fifth Boilermaker in school history to win the prestigious Cliff Keen Invitational. The 125-pounder also became the first four-time place winner at the event and hopes to make a run at becoming the first Boilermaker conference title holder in the rough-and-tumble Big Ten since 2004.

Speaking of a competitive conference, with the possible exception of wrestling, volleyball is as tough as it gets. And once again, coach Dave Shondell’s volleyball program capped off a highly successful season with their fifth NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance in six years, spending much of the season ranked in the top 10 nationally. But what will make the 2024 campaign most memorable was the record-setting capacity crowds in Mackey Arena on consecutive Saturdays in late October against Indiana and Wisconsin, shattering the attendance mark for conference matches.

Hope and promise were keywords as the Purdue sports season ended in 2024. Hiring new football coach Barry Odom gave the Boilermaker faithful just that. Odom led UNLV to one of the surprise seasons in 2024 and a No. 20 ranking before taking the reins in West Lafayette. The gritty, no-nonsense coach knows there is work to keep Ross-Ade Stadium filled with fans, but his recent experiences in Vegas have the Boilermaker faithful optimistic as the calendar turns to 2025.