BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) recognized some of its best and brightest winter-sport student-athletes on Thursday with the announcement of the basketball, hockey, swimming & diving, and indoor track & field Elite 22 Awards.
For the first time since the inaugural award, which was modeled after the NCAA Elite 90 Award in 2013, two Cardinals earned the prestigious honors!
Senior Lindsey Lettner, a two time recipient of the award, from women's basketball and junior Connor Abric from men's hockey.
The MIAC Elite 22 Award recognizes the true essence of the term "student-athlete" by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the conference championship level in their sport while also achieving the highest academic standard among their peers. The award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average (GPA) in each sport who meets similarly high, sport-specific athletic requirements.
In all sports with MIAC team postseason tournaments, including basketball and hockey, the MIAC Elite 22 Award is presented to the individual with the highest GPA on the active postseason roster of a playoff-qualifying team. In swimming & diving and indoor track & field, the winner is the individual with the highest GPA who was named All-Conference. Each winner must be a junior or senior and in at least their second full academic year at their current institution. Ties are broken by the number of credits earned at current institutions.
Lettner is the only Saint Mary's women's basketball student-athlete to receive the award and she has done it in back-to-back seasons. The sharp shooter is even brighter in the classroom as she earned a perfect 4.0 GPA in the classroom studying accounting.
She accomplished this all while playing and starting in all 28 games this season. She averaged 26 minutes a game with 159 total points this season and 51 assists. She was a key piece to the Cardinals as the lone senior and captain of the squad, helping lead them to their first NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament appearance since the 2013-14 season.
Abric is making headlines for the Saint Mary's men's hockey team as just the second Cardinal to earn the award and the first since the 2014-15 season. He led the Cardinal backline to a MIAC semifinal appearance this season for the program's first time since 2019.
The computer science major focused on the game and his studies earning a perfect 4.0 in the classroom. He played in 16 games, scored and assisted once each this season. He earned 16 blocked shots to push the Cardinals to their 10-5-1 record in conference.
Congratulations to Connor and Lindsey on their prestigious awards and representing Saint Mary's.
