LOCK HAVEN, PA – For the first time since 2001, Clarion University has three PSAC Top 10 winners in the same sports season, as Mike Kromka, Kayla Shull and Hannah Heeter all earned the award for their athletic and academic efforts during the winter sports season.
The PSAC Top 10 awards are designed to recognize student-athletes who excel in both the classroom and in athletic competition. Initiated for the 1997-98 academic year, the Top 10 Award is given to five males and five females in each athletic season: fall, winter and spring.
For Shull, it’s the third time she has won the award becoming the second athlete in school history to earn the award three times – diver Jamie Wolf is the other.
Heeter, meanwhile, earns the award for the second time this year having been named a Top 10 Award winner in the Fall in volleyball. She is the first athlete in school history to earn Top 10 Awards in two different sports (Erin Richard won in indoor track and outdoor track) and the first to earn two awards in the same academic year.
Kromka, who is a Top 10 Award winner for the first time, is the first men’s basketball player from Clarion to earn the award since Josh Adams in 1998.
Shull, a senior Pathology & Audiology major from Franklin, Pa. and Rocky Grove High School, carries a perfect 4.0 GPA. She was a two-time NCAA Division II All-American this season placing fifth in the 100 backstroke in a Clarion-record time of 55.40 while also taking 16th in the 200 freestyle.
Named the PSAC Champion Scholar (highest GPA at a PSAC Championship event) for the second straight year, Shull helped Clarion take second at the PSAC Championships by earning PSAC titles in the 100 backstroke and 400 medley relay while also taking second in the 50, the 100 freestyle and the 200 medley relay. It was her fourth consecutive PSAC title in the 100 backstroke.
In her career, Shull was a 15-time NCAA Division II All-American and was a member of Clarion’s fourth-place NCAA Division II finisher in 2011 when she earned two individual All-American awards and four relay All-American finishes. She was also named the 2010 PSAC Freshman of the Year and was a four-time PSAC relay champion.
Heeter, a junior Biology/Pre-Med major from Seneca, Pa. and Cranberry High School, carries 3.94 GPA. She is an outstanding two-sport student-athlete who earned second-team Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American honors in both women’s basketball and volleyball while also earning All-Conference and All-Region honors in both sports.
During the basketball season, Heeter, who is a red-shirt sophomore in the sport, was the only player in the PSAC to average a season double-double (14.4 ppg, 13.3 rpg) and one of just two in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region. She led the PSAC and ranked third in the country in rebounding while breaking a 33-year old school record for rebounding average and recording the most rebounds per game in the PSAC since 1999. She also led the PSAC with 16 double-doubles and was fourth in the conference in scoring, seventh in blocked shots (1.3 bpg) and 14th in steals (2.0 spg). Her nine games of 15 or more rebounds set a school record as well, and her 25 rebounds vs. Lock Haven Jan. 23 were the most rebounds in a game in NCAA Division II this season.
In basketball, Heeter earned first-team All-PSAC West honors this year and was a second-team Daktronics All-Region nod after being named the PSAC West Freshman of the Year and a second-team All-PSAC West performer as a freshman. In just two years, she ranks 11th in school history with 616 rebounds, seventh with 65 blocks and 39th with 682 points. Her 12.6 rebounds per game is the school record by nearly two rebounds per contest, and she has 29 career double-doubles in 49 career games with a pair of 20-20 games.
In women’s volleyball, she was a first-team AVCA All-Region winner and a second-team PSAC West volleyball selection, and she was the 2011 PSAC Champion Scholar Award winner in women’s volleyball. She is also a two-time Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-Region award winner in volleyball.
Kromka, a junior Mid-level Math Education major from Monroeville and Gateway High School, has a 3.89 GPA. He was named a second-team Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American this winter.
A starter on this year’s men’s basketball team, he led the team and ranked fifth in the PSAC with 8.5 rebounds per game while also leading the squad and ranking 24th in the conference with 12.5 points per contest.
In addition to his Academic All-American award this year, Kromka is also a two-time Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-District award winner. In three years, he has 649 career points and 509 career rebounds for the Golden Eagles.
NOTES – With three PSAC Winter Top 10 Award winners, Clarion now has 46 Top 10 Award winners in school history, the second most in the PSAC … The last time the Golden Eagles had three Top 10 Award winners in the same sports season was in the Winter of 2001 when Gary Aughinbaugh (Men’s Swimming and Diving), Bob Topper (Wrestling) and Megan Tracy (Women’s Swimming and Diving) all earned the award. Clarion also had three award winners in the Winter of 1999 (Dan Pierce – Men’s Swimming and Diving; Stan Spoor – Wrestling; Christina Tillotson – Women’s Swimming and Diving) and in the Winter of 1998 (Adams – Men’s Basketball; Andy Smearman – Men’s Swimming and Diving; Tillotson – Women’s Swimming and Diving) … Wolf earned her three Top 10 Awards in 2005, 2006 and 2007 … The last PSAC athlete to earn multiple Top 10 Awards in completely different sports was Laura Kline of Kutztown in 2005-2006 who earned the Fall Top 10 Award in Field Hockey and the Spring Top 10 Award in Outdoor Track & Field. There have been several PSAC Top 10 Award winners in the same year who earned the awards in either Cross Country, Indoor Track and Field or Outdoor Track and Field.
