LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – IUP junior swimmer Paige Mikesell was named to the 2020-21 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Spring/Winter Top 12 Team, announced by the league office Thursday afternoon. The awards are chosen and voted on by the league's sports information directors.

This is Mikesell's second straight selection and automatically qualifies her for the PSAC Pete Nevins Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.

With competition being halted in Fall 2020, and limited in the 2020-21 Winter season, the awards committee chose to call this year's award the "PSAC Spring/Winter Top 12", adding one honoree for both men and women and for the extra season. Typically, the accolade is announced at the end of each athletic season (Fall, Winter, Spring) as the PSAC Top 10. The PSAC Top 10 was initiated in the 1998-98 academic year, given to men and women who excel in both the classroom and in athletic competition.

From Clearfield, Pennsylvania, Mikesell boasts a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average as a health & physical education major. 

Mikesell put together arguably the greatest season in IUP women's swimming history. Fighting through an unconventional season brought on by the pandemic, Mikesell won the national title in the 200 yard freestyle and earned seven All-American honors at the 2021 NCAA Division II Championships in March. She nearly added two more national titles, finishing second in both the 100 and 200 yard butterfly, while helping IUP to a 13th place finish at the national meet, the program's best since 2000. 

One month later, Mikesell was named the Women's Most Outstanding Swimmer at the 2020-21 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships, capturing four individual and three relay titles during the two-day meet. She scored 176 points and helped the IUP women to a PSAC championship, the program's first since 1999. 

Mikesell was also named the PSAC Women's Swimming Athlete of the Year, the first by an IUP swimmer since Jackie Hynson in 2010-11. 

IUP and the PSAC Top 10 award
Mikesell becomes the 62nd IUP student-athlete to earn PSAC Top 10 honors in the 24-year history of the award. The 62 total selections is third all-time behind Shippensburg (72) and Slippery Rock (71).

This is the fifth PSAC Top 10 honor for IUP women's swimming. Mikesell and Hynson are both two-time recipients.

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