LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference announced its 2024-25 Pete Nevins Scholar-Athletes of the Year, with Slippery Rock’s Brayden Long and Anna Igims both awarded the honor. Long was also selected as the Pete Nevins Scholar-Athlete of the Year for 2023-24 and becomes just the second-ever male to win the award twice (since California’s Mike Larson in 2003-04 and 2004-05.)
This year’s two honorees were selected by a vote of the conference’s sports information directors and athletics communications professionals.
The PSAC’s Pete Nevins Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards are presented to the top student-athletes who have achieved at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average while competing at an outstanding athletic level. Student-athletes must have been recognized as a PSAC Fall, Winter, or Spring Top 10 Award Winner to be eligible for the honor. The award was renamed in 2007 to honor East Stroudsburg’s long-time sports information director, Pete Nevins, who passed away earlier that year. Nevins held his position at ESU for 33 years and it is estimated that he wrote articles on more than 12,000 ESU events that covered more than 5,000 student-athletes.
With the two additional honorees this year, Slippery Rock has now had 15 all-time student-athletes win the award. Igims is the sixth-ever Rock female to be awarded and first since Sabrina Anderson went back-to-back in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Long is the seventh-ever male from Slippery Rock to claim the award.
A complete historical list of all Pete Nevins Scholar-Athletes can be found
here.
Anna Igims
Slippery Rock
Pittsburgh, Pa. / Avonworth
Women's Cross Country / Track & Field
Major: Undergraduate: School Wellness Education | Graduate: Applied Behavioral Analysis
Cumulative GPA: 3.98 (Undergraduate) | 4.00 (Graduate)
Igims was voted the PSAC Athlete of the Year for all three of her seasons (Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, and Outdoor Track & Field) in addition to a trio of PSAC Top 10 honors. She completed an undefeated 2024-25 year of PSAC competition, winning seven individual PSAC titles and leading Slippery Rock to three team titles. She was the PSAC and Atlantic Region Women’s Cross Country champion and was the first Rock female to earn All-America honors at the national meet since 2009. She won three PSAC indoor track titles, three PSAC outdoor track titles, and earned First Team All-America honors in the steeplechase at the national meet for the second consecutive season.
Brayden Long
Slippery Rock
Hanover, Pa. / New Oxford
Football
Major: Sport Management
Cumulative GPA: 4.0
Long was the CSC Academic All-American of the Year and ranked third in Division II in passing yards (3,470), ninth in passing touchdowns (28), and helped lead Slippery Rock to the national semifinals and a final national ranking of No. 3 in both the AFCA and D2football.com polls. He was also a national finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy as the D2 Player of the Year for the second year in a row and finished sixth in the national voting in addition to being the only Division II player in the country to be a finalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy. He was voted All-PSAC, All-Region, and All-America for the second year in a row and was named the Slippery Rock Male Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year.