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 winter sports season are eligible for the Winter Top Ten Awards. Those sports are: wrestling, men’s and women’s basketball, men's and women's swimming, and men’s and women’s indoor track & field.

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 names the top Male and Female Scholar-Athlete of Year, recently renamed the Pete Nevins Male and Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year.

Following are biographical sketches of the PSAC’s 2007-08 Winter Top Ten recipients:

Chris Bach
Junior, East Stroudsburg
Men’s Basketball, (Levittown/Harry S. Truman)… Bach has accumulated a 3.81 grade point average in sport management.  The Warrior junior averaged 11.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. He shot 56.2 percent from the field this season, while leading the Warriors in conference play with 15.0 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.  Bach helped East Stroudsburg reach the PSAC playoffs for the third straight season.  He was also named to the second-team All-PSAC East and ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District II Team.  Bach was also nominated for the V Foundation’s Comeback Award.

Lauren Beckley
Sophomore, Shippensburg
Women's Basketball (Fairfield/Fairfield)... Beckley owns a 3.58 GPA in exercise science.  The sophomore was one of 356 student-athletes, selected from 1,308 applicants, to attend the 2007 NCAA National Leadership Conference.  On the court, the forward averaged a double-double for Lady Raiders, recording 22.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game for a league-high 21 double-doubles.  Those total were best in the league, along with her school-record 43.3 three-point field goal percentage (55-of-127).  She was a five-time PSAC Western Division Player of the Week selection, the most of any player in either division and finished the season with 624 points, the third-highest single-season total in school history.  Beckley became the first woman in PSAC history to score 1,000 career points as a sophomore and was just the third Lady Raider and first since 1991 to be honored as a 2008 WBCA/State Farm First Team All-American.  Additionally, she was a Daktronics All-America First Team selection and the PSAC Western Division Player of the Year after earning the division's Rookie of the Year award a season ago. 

Chris Cummings
Graduate Student, Mansfield
Indoor Track (Mansfield/Mansfield)... Cummings graduated in May with a 3.86 grade point average in physics and has returned as a graduate student achieving a 4.0 in his first semester.  He is a three-time PSAC Scholar-Athlete selection.  Cummings won the PSAC indoor championship in the mile run, marking the second time in his career that he won the title.  He was also the relay leg on the PSAC championship distance medley relay team.  The Mountaineer runner advanced to the NCAA Division II Championship in both the mile and the distance medley relay.  Cummings finished second in the race by .01 seconds, earning All-America honors.  He was named the co-MVP of the PSAC Championship and was selected as the PSAC Male Track Athlete of the Year.  Cummings has also earned the Mansfield University Presidential Scholar Athlete Award seven times.

Matt Fittery
Junior, Lock Haven
Wrestling (Denver/Colcalico)… Fittery boasts a 3.90 GPA as a health and physical education major.  The Bald Eagle 149-pound grappler was an NCAA National Qualifier, PSAC Championship Runner-up, finished fourth at the Eastern Wrestling League Championship and posted a team-high 24 wins this season.  Fittery is a two time PSAC Scholar-Athlete.

Pawel Glowiak
Junior, IUP
Swimming (Gorzow, Poland/SMS Krakow)… Glowiak has posted a 3.64 GPA in finance.  He earned a spot on the All-America team for the third straight year by finishing sixth in the 100-yard butterfly.  His time of 49.77 broke his own school record.  Glowiak finished 15th in the 200-yard  backstroke and second in the 200-yard individual medley.  He is a three-time PSAC Champion, with two 100-yard backstroke and one 200-yard backstroke championships, and placed in the top three in a total of nine events over the past three seasons.  For his career, Glowiak is a three-time All-American.  He was fifth in the 100-yard backstroke in 2006 and eighth in the same event the following year.  He holds the school record in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly and is a member of record holding teams in the 200-and 400-yard medley relays.

Ashley Grimm
Senior, Clarion
Women's Basketball (Sugarloaf/Hazleton)... Grimm carries a 3.94 GPA while studying biology/pre-medicine.  The senior led the PSAC and was 10th in the nation in assists per game (6.33).  She was also second in the PSAC and 50th in the nation in assist-to-turnover margin at 1.60.  Grimm contributed 8.9 points, 4.0 assists and 1.96 steals per game.  She was ninth in the PSAC in three-point field goal percentage (38.8, 31-of-80) while also shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 80 percent (40-of-50) from the free-throw line.  The highlight of her season came at East Stroudsburg when she recorded the first triple-double in 15 years with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.  Her 171 assists were the third most in single-season history at Clarion.  She holds four of the top eight single-season assist marks at Clarion.  As a freshman, Grimm was the starting point guard on Clarion's 2004-05 NCAA qualifying team that also advanced to the PSAC semifinals.  The senior is also an active member of Clarion's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Amber Hackenberg
Senior, Bloomsburg
Indoor Track & Field (Middleburg/Middleburg)... Hackenberg owns a near perfect GPA with her 3.98 in business administration.  The senior won her first PSAC indoor track & field championship as she took home gold in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 17:52.  She also finished second at the PSAC championships in the 3,000-meter run.  In her career, Hackenberg became the first cross country All-American in Bloomsburg women's history after finishing 34th at the 2007 NCAA Division II National Championships.  The Huskies, as a team, finished 15th out of 24 teams, and were the first Bloomsburg cross country team to ever qualify for the NCAA championships.  Hackenberg, whose 48th place finish in 2005 was the best previous mark in school history, topped that with her finish in this year's event. She covered the 6k course in 21:45 and was the second finisher from the league.  Her effort helped the Huskies claim their first ever PSAC championship in Cross Country.  She also finished sixth overall at the NCAA Division II East Regional. Her finished propelled the Huskies to their first ever Regional Championship.  Hackenberg has four times earned the PSAC Top 10 Award being selected in the Fall 2006, Spring 2007, and Fall 2008.

Jennifer Hansen
Junior, Slippery Rock
Indoor Track & Field (Charleston, W. Va./Capital)... Hansen holds a perfect 4.0 GPA in elementary education.  The field specialist placed third at the NCAA Division II National Championships with a vault of 12-9 and earned her third USTFCCCA All-America honor of her collegiate career.  For her efforts during the indoor season, Hansen was also named the 2008 USTFCCA East Regional Field Athlete of the Year in addition to garnering the 2008 PSAC Field Athlete of the Year.  At the league championships, Hansen won the pole vault with a PSAC record vault of 13-01.5.  The junior is a three-time USTFCCCA All-America selection and the 2007 NCAA Division II national runner-up in outdoor competition.  Last spring, Hansen was awarded as the 2007 PSAC Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year and is the PSAC pole vault champion in 2007 and 2008 indoor championships as well as the 2007 PSAC outdoor individual champion.

Teagan Riggs
Senior, Clarion
Diving (Meadville/Meadville)... Riggs carries a 3.67 GPA in molecular biology.  The senior diver continued a longstanding tradition of excellence in Clarion diving as she won the NCAA Division II 3-meter diving national championship with 455 points.  She was also second on the 1-meter board with 409 points. During the season she was also third at the Akron Invite on the 3-meter – behind two Division I divers.  In her career, Riggs was an 8-time NCAA Division II All-American.  Besides her first and second place finish in 2008, she was also a 2nd place finisher in 2007 on 1-meter behind Jamie Wolf, who won the 2007 PSAC Pete Nevins Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award.  She also placed 4th on 3-meter in 2007 at Nationals.  Riggs has also been a PSAC and Clarion Scholar Athlete throughout her career.

Dave Sanford

Senior, Mansfield

Indoor Track (Mifflinville/Mifflinville)…  Sanford owns a 3.94 GPA in physics/education.  The Mountaineer senior took the top spot in the 800 meters at the PSAC Indoor Championship.  He was also a member of the PSAC Indoor championship distance medley relay team that competed in the distance medley relay at Nationals, just missing out on an All-America certificate with a ninth-place finish.  He is a three-time Mansfield University Presidential Scholar Athlete and two-time PSAC Scholar Athlete.