Syracuse Olympic Sports update: — and more

We’re back today to get you caught up on the latest from Syracuse’s Olympic Sports as winter sports hit championship season.

Ice Hockey (14-16-4, 10-11-3):

Syracuse’s season came to an end with a 2-0 series loss to #3 Penn State. The Nittany Lions dominated game 1 with a 7-1 rout, but the Orange pushed them in game 2 before falling by a 2-1 score. Jackson Kinsler scored the lone Syracuse goal while Ava Drabyk made 28 saves in game 2- limiting the powerful Penn State offense to just two goals.

The Orange have a solid piece to build around in Drabyk, who had an outstanding first season. Can they find more scoring and improve the special teams? Syracuse averaged under 2 goals per game this season and their power play was 6th in the AHA while the penalty kill was last. Without a billionaire funding the program, the Orange need to find ways to win in the margins and improving the special teams will be key.

Softball (10-6):

Syracuse went 3-1 at the Terrapin Classic with wins over Fairfield, UMBC and Providence. This triple from Gabby Lantier helped the Orange close out the weekend on a winning note over the Friars.

The Orange head back to Maryland next weekend to compete in the UMBC Tournament in Baltimore.

Track and Field:

Jamir Brown’s 2nd place finish in the 60m hurdles in a time of 7.56 seconds was the top Syracuse performance at the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships. The other scorer for the men was Drew Zundell, who placed 8th in the mile in a time of 4:06.

For the Orange women, Talea Buxton (8.29) took 4th in the 60m hurdles while Tia Outlaw was 8th in a time of 8.50. Both teams finished in 16th place in the team competition, which were won by the Florida State men and Clemson women.

Tennis (5-5, 1-2):

Syracuse got their 1st ACC win with a 5-0 sweep over Boston College. Anastasia Sysoeva and Nelly Knezkova were able to secure the doubles point and then the Orange swept the singles matches.

The Orange will be back home next Sunday to take on SMU with an 11:00 am start at Drumlins

Check out The Feed for this week’s schedule of Syracuse games. We’ll have more updates next week.

It’s another week of the Mountain West Recruiting Roundup.

To officially close the book on the 2026 recruiting class, our cover photo winner needs to be mentioned. For the 2026 cycle, Boise State and Hawaii share the title of having the most cover photo appearances. Congrats to the Broncos and Rainbow Warriors.

Now it’s full steam ahead to the 2027 class. Teams have been handing out 2027 offers for quite some time and continue to do so at a high rate, with San Jose State leading the way. No commits this week, but UNLV already has a decommit, bringing their class from two players to one.

This post does feature our first Mountain West team rankings release, or at least the four teams that have signed a player thus far.

And San Jose State will kick off the 2027 cover photo series after recording 25 offers this week.

Class of 2027 Cover Photo Total:

• San Jose State: 1

Recruiting Calendar:

Starting today and going through mid-April, we are in a quiet period. On-campus contact is permitted, while off-campus contact is limited to text, calls, and DMs.

Next College Student Athlete says:

The NCAA defines the quiet period as a time when “a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents off the college campus and may not watch student-athletes compete or visit their high school.” To break it down, the NCAA Quiet Period is a time you can talk to college coaches in-person on their college campus. However, the coach is not allowed to watch athletes compete in-person, visit their school, talk to them at their home—or talk to them anywhere outside of the college campus. Coaches can still text, call, email or direct message coaches during this time.

Commitment Spotlight:

Visit Recap:

2027 Mountain West March Team Rankings:

For this initial month, we also include the names of the commits to illustrate what each team has done so far. Only four Mountain West teams have a verbal pledge at this point in the cycle.

1) UNLV

• OL Phoenix Pollard

2) New Mexico

• DB Tayven Collins

3) Wyoming

• WR Alijah Landrum-Hamilton

4) Nevada

• QB Blake Nadler

Recruiting Updates:

Offers:

• Air Force: 5
• Boise State: 7
• Colorado State: 9
• Fresno State:
• Hawaii: 5
• Nevada: 2
• New Mexico: 9
• NIU:
• North Dakota State:
• Oregon State: 2
• San Diego State: 7
• San Jose State: 25
• Texas State: 1
• UNLV: 2
• Utah State:
• UTEP:
• Washington State: 1
• Wyoming:

Visits

Commits:

Decommits

• DL Jaxon Wilson: UNLV

Follow @Mike_SBN on Twitter for all the latest recruiting news and updates.

AC Milan stars Matteo Gabbia and Davide Bartesaghi are reportedly at risk of missing Sunday’s Serie A clash against Inter.

According to Sky Sport Italia via FCInterNews, the question marks are hovering over both defenders’ heads.

Inter and Milan will renew hostilities in the second Derby della Madonnina edition of the season this weekend.

Despite emerging victorious in November’s reverse fixture, Massimiliano Allegri’s men are trailing the Nerazzurri by a whopping ten points.

Therefore, Cristian Chivu could all but secure the Scudetto in his first season at the club with a win on Sunday.

Gabbia & Bartesaghi Could Miss AC Milan vs Inter Milan Clash

TURIN, ITALY – OCTOBER 15: Massimiliano Allegri, Head Coach of Juventus looks on prior to the Serie A match between Torino FC and Juventus at Stadio Olimpico di Torino on October 15, 2022 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

Matteo Gabbia missed Milan’s last-gasp league win at Cremonese last Sunday due to a thigh injury.

However, the Rossoneri had hoped to welcome their defensive cornerstone back for the upcoming Milan derby.

Unfortunately for Allegri, this fixture will come too soon for the Italian center-back.

Meanwhile, Bartesaghi suffered a knock at Stadio Giovanni Zini, and Allegri is sweating over his fitness.

If the Milan academy graduate don’t recover, Pervis Estupinan is likely to take his place on the left wing.

The IndyCar circus has been dormant since the 2025 season ended 183 days ago, and in spite of that lengthy off season, it doesn't seem any of the drivers in the series have figured out a way to beat four-time champion Álex Palou and his Chip Ganassi Racing team. Sunday's St. Petersburg Grand Prix once again went Palou's way as he brute forced his way to the front and delivered the largest margin of victory in the history of the event. Palou came home a full 12.49 seconds ahead of pole man Scott McLaughlin. He kept his cool and made it look easy. 

It may be a little early in the season, but allow me to be the first to congratulate Mr. Palou on winning his fifth IndyCar title in 2026. Sure, there are still 17 races in the season to be run, but all that feels more or less like a formality at this point. I've seen this guy get better every single year, and while everyone else on the grid is still dang fast, they're not developing at the same pace.

On Sunday Palou ran a strategy that very few other drivers in the field chose to take. With the new 2026 rulebook requiring every car to run two stints on soft tires and one stint on hards, Palou started the race on softs, ran softs again in the middle stint, and moved to the hards to close out the race. The top competitors started on the hards and closed with two sets of soft tires, hoping to catch up to Palou in that final stint with a tire advantage. Not only did Palou work himself a huge gap to the chasing pack, but he stayed fast on the worse set of tires. It was magic.  

Read more: Anyone Can Drive Volvo's New VNL Semi Truck, But That Won't Make You A Trucker

The once and future champ

IndyCar is a more or less spec series with some of the top international drivers and incredibly talented teams of individuals. There's no way any one driver should be able to dominate the way Palou routinely does. The cars are the same, the tires are the same, everyone has essentially the same equipment. In 2026 the main differences between cars on the grid are how their dampers are tuned, and teams are spending millions to have an infinitesimally small advantage over one another. All of that is moot if you don't have Palou in the car.

It looks like 2026 is shaping up to be another Palou versus the world season. I was hoping that McLaren could bring a tighter ship to the grid this year for its superstar driver Pato O'Ward, or Penske could figure out a few of the things that have been plaguing the team for the last couple of years. It's possible both will be able to improve through the season, but St. Pete didn't fill me with a ton of confidence that Álex will have anyone to push him to be faster, except himself. We're witnessing a generationally talented run in IndyCar right now, and I love to see the Spaniard succeed. 

Nobody but Palou has led the IndyCar championship since June of 2024, so just let that little factoid sink in for a moment. This weekend's run at Phoenix will be Palou's 100th race in the series, and St. Pete marked his race victory. There isn't a driver in IndyCar right now who could deliver that kind of win rate, and now that Palou has essentially closed the door on a potential run in Formula One, there isn't anything coming to save the current grid from his pace.

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