2008 Spring Top 10 Awards
2008 Spring Top 10 Awards
(June 19, 2008)
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference has honored a group of talented student-athletes as the league’s Spring Top Ten Awards winners.
The Top Ten Awards, selected by the PSAC’s sports information directors, recognize student-athletes who distinguish themselves in the classroom, as well as in the arena of competition. The conference designates Top Ten Award winners after each of the sports seasons: fall, winter and spring.
To be a candidate for the Top Ten Awards, a student-athlete must have achieved a minimum of a 3.25 cumulative grade point average and must be a starter or key reserve with legitimate athletic credentials. Only student-athletes from the spring sports season are eligible for the Spring Top Ten Awards. Those sports are: baseball, softball, women's lacrosse, men's and women's outdoor track & field, men's and women's tennis, and golf.
At the end of the academic year, the league announces the Scholar-Athlete Awards, which recognize student-athletes on all PSAC squads with 3.25 cumulative GPAs or better. Additionally, the PSAC recognizes one male and one female as its Pete Nevins Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
Following are biographical sketches of the PSAC’s 2008 Spring Top Ten recipients:
Lisa Baumgartner
Senior, Clarion
Women’s Tennis (West Middlesex/Wilmington)... Baumgartner carries a perfect 4.0 in the field of speech pathology and audiology. The senior co-captain carried a 5-3 singles and 6-5 doubles record this spring, closing out 2007-08 at 10-7 and 8-9, respectively. Among her career highlights was receiving the 2007 NCAA Division ll Sportsmanship of the Year Award. She closes out her career with 50 singles and 47 doubles wins, playing much of her career at the No. 2 spot.
Sheelin Fisher
Senior, Bloomsburg
Softball (Coplay/Allentown Central Catholic)... Fisher holds a 3.91 in elementary education. The second-team All-PSAC pitcher finished her senior season with an impressive 16-3 record and 0.94 ERA, ranking second and fifth among PSAC pitchers in wins and ERA. Fisher was ninth in the league with 102 strikeouts and allowed just 24 walks in during her 119 innings on the mound. Her 2008 accolades include being named the PSAC East Pitcher of the Week on April 20 after going 3-0 with a no-hitter.
Amber Hackenberg
Senior, Bloomsburg
Women’s Outdoor Track & Field (Middleburg/Middleburg)... Hackenberg holds a 3.98 GPA in business administration. The Middleburg native was a national qualifier in the 5,000 meters after shattering the school record (17:16) by over 25 seconds. Earlier in the year Hackenberg became the school's first-ever cross country All-American. Following her solid track season, she was earned Bloomsburg’s Eleanor Wray Award as the top senior female athlete. In 2007 Hackenberg was named a third-team CoSIDA Academic All-American.
Jennifer Hansen
Junior, Slippery Rock
Women’s Outdoor Track & Field (Charleston, W. Va./ Capital)...Hansen is an exercise science major who has achieved a perfect 4.00 GPA. This season she became a two-time outdoor All-American with her third-place finish in the pole vault at the NCAA Championships. She also defended her 2007 PSAC title with her meet record effort of 13.3-75 on her way to PSAC Championship Field MVP honors. Her top showing in 2008 came at Allegheny College's Gator Invitational where she cleared 13-5.25, setting the PSAC overall record for the fourth time in a two-week span. The 2007-08 Winter Field Athlete of the Year, Hansen is now a three-time Top Ten Award winner following recognition in the winter of 2007-08 and spring of 2007.
Rachael Lanzel
Senior, Edinboro
Women's Track & Field (St. Marys, Pa/St. Marys)... Lanzel carries a 3.78 GPA in health & physical education/teacher's certification. This season Lanzel earned All-America honors in outdoor track & field for the second time with a third-place finish in the 10,000-meter run, finishing with a time of 35:39.72. Other top showings in the 10K included a win (35.47.28) at the Raleigh Relays and a runner-up finish at the PSAC Championships. Lanzel also posted an NCAA qualifying time in the 5,000 meters but did not compete at nationals, and reached provisional standards with her best effort in the 1,500m. Lanzel is a two-time PSAC Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Year and a three-time All-American in the sport, and earned All-America accolades during the 2006 outdoor track and field season for an eighth-place finish in the 5,000m.
Chris Cummings
Senior, Mansfield
Men’s Outdoor Track& Field (Mansfield/Mansfield)... Cummings currently has a 4.0 GPA while earning his master's degree in education. Last year, he completed his undergraduate work in physics at Mansfield, earning a 3.86 GPA. His sixth-place finish in the 1,500m at the 2008 NCAA Championships marked his second All-America citation in outdoor track, following a runner-up showing in the mile two years ago. Cummings spring recognition completes a sweep of Top Ten Awards for the 2007-08 school year. Earlier this academic year he was a PSAC indoor champion in the mile and became the school's first-ever All-American in cross country.
Dan Gal
Senior, Bloomsburg
Men’s Tennis (South Park/South Park)... Gal is a finance major with a 3.46 GPA. This season Gal repeated as PSAC Athlete of the Year after helping his team win the PSAC Championship and advance to the third round of NCAA Championships. He compiled a mark of 18-3 record at No. 1 singles, including an 11-match winning streak earlier in the season. In doubles competition Gal combined with his partner for a mark of 14-7, highlighted by wins in two of the three matches at NCAA Championships. The 2008 national winner of the Division II ITA Arthur Ashe Award for leadership and sportsmanship, Gal was a PSAC Men’s Individual champion 2006 and was the league's Rookie of the Year in 2005.
Justin Garber
Senior, Shippensburg
Baseball (Elizabethtown/Elizabethtown)... Garber has achieved a 3.34 GPA in finance. A four-time All-PSAC selection, including three times on the first team, Garber finished his senior season as the PSAC West Player of the Year. Garber was the top hitter on a team that went 39-26, won the PSAC West crown with a 14-6 record and won the NCAA North Atlantic Regional title. The first PSAC player to post 100 hits in a season, he established a new PSAC record with 105 in 2008 and also led the league in total bases (153). He also set the league's career record with 288 hits, and school records for batting average (.396), games played (204), at-bats (727), runs (188) and total bases (404).
Ryan Mostyn
Junior, Indiana (Pa.)
Baseball (Phillipsburg/Phillipsburg/Osceola)... Mostyn, a business management major, finished his junior year with a 3.92 GPA. The Crimson Hawk team captain helped lead his squad to a school-record 36 wins and their first berth in the PSAC playoffs since 1998. The team's win total was 16 better than that of a year ago. Mostyn batted .313 and had 13 multiple-hit games, including a pair of four-hit efforts, and added 29 runs, 30 RBI and 18 extra-base hits. He is an an IUP Provost Scholar, a member of the Dean's list all all six semesters and was selected to attend the 2008 NCAA Student-Athletic Leadership Development Conference in Boston.
Sean Strauman
Senior, Indiana (Pa.)
Men’s Track & Field (South Park/South Park)...Strauman carries a 3.58 GPA in accounting. He capped of his collegiate career by winning the national championship in the 800 meters at the outdoor meet with a time of 1:49.37. Between indoor and outdoor track, Strauman is a seven-time champion in the event, which includes a PSAC meet record of 1:48.57 at this year's outdoor championship. That time was just .07 shy of earning a berth at the Olympic trials. For his efforts he was named the PSAC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year. The IUP Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the 2007-08, Strauman totaled five All-America citations, including a runner-up finish at the 2007 indoor championship.