MEADVILLE, Pa. -- Two recent Allegheny College graduates, Jess Bickart (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley) and Aidan Dyga (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny), were honored by the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) as Allegheny's 2025-26 PAC Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

Although Bickart was unable to attend the formal celebration, Dyga was recognized along with representatives from the conference's other member institutions at the annual PAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Banquet, held on May 12 at The Fez in Aliquippa.

A four-year starter on the women's basketball team, Bickart graduated from Allegheny College with a 3.99 GPA as a political science major. On the court, she was a do-it-all playmaker and a two-time All-PAC selection. While serving primarily as Allegheny's point guard, she was proficient in all aspects of the game and regularly filled the box score in several categories. A 1,000-point scorer, Bickart also ranks fourth in program history in career assists (433), fifth in steals (209), and sixth in rebounds (732). She led the PAC in assists in each of her first two seasons, ranked second in 2024-25, and finished sixth in the conference as a senior, all while distributing no fewer than 96 assists in any of her four years. As a sophomore, coaches around the conference voted her to the All-PAC Second Team following a season in which she posted career highs in every category with 308 points, 227 rebounds, 132 assists, and 63 steals. A triple-double threat on numerous occasions, she achieved the rare feat as a senior with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in an 84-58 victory over Mount Aloysius College on December 29, 2025.

Academically, Bickart is a Doane Scholar, Distinguished Alden Scholar, a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District honoree, and a PAC Spring Academic Honor Roll selection. She served as president of both the Pre-Law Club and Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, and was a fellow in Allegheny's Center for Political Participation. 

In just three years at Allegheny, Dyga has accomplished more than most students can typically fit into four years. Not only did he graduate early with a bachelor's degree in computer science, but he did so with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. And after spending four months as a software engineering intern last summer, Dyga has already accepted a full-time software engineering role at Microsoft in Pittsburgh. While at Allegheny, he contributed to multiple coding projects, including an educational coding website titled Code With Chompers, which features introductory programming lessons for elementary, middle, and high school students. Dyga is a Doane Scholar, Distinguished Alden Scholar, a College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District selection, and a member of the PAC's Fall Academic Honor Roll. He also served as public relations director for the Association for Computing Machinery.

On the pitch, Dyga was an All-PAC Honorable Mention in 2024 and an All-PAC Second Teamer in 2025. He began last fall as a starting center back for the men's soccer team, and his move to the top of the formation immediately sparked a successful late-season surge. He scored six goals in the last six games of the year, including the tying goal in an eventual 2-1 double-overtime comeback win over Washington and Jefferson College in the PAC quarterfinals. Dyga also earned a PAC Offensive Player of the Week award after scoring thrice in a 2-0-0 week with wins over Franciscan University and Thiel College in late October. He ended the season with a career-high 13 points (6g-1a), tied for the second-most on the team despite playing a majority of the fall in a defensive role.