Rivers and Stevens Selected as Student-Athletes of the Year

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa – Penn State Athletics announced its Female and Male Student-Athletes of the Year, with NCAA track champion Danae Rivers and men’s basketball standout Lamar Stevens claiming honors for the highly successful 2019-20 academic year. 
 

Rivers is the third member of the women’s cross country and track & field program to earn Female Student-Athlete of the Year, joining Kim McGreevy, who was the recipient in 1996-97, and Shana Cox, who won the award in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Stevens becomes the fourth Nittany Lion basketball student-athlete to earn male honors, joining Pete Lisicky (1997-98), Joe Crispin (2000-01) and Talor Battle (2010-11). Penn State began awarding Student-Athlete of the Year honors in 1991-92.
 
Rivers and Stevens will be on the ballot for Big Ten Male and Female Athletes of the Year with honorees from the other 13 conference institutions.
 
Ally McHugh (women’s swimming) and Bo Nickal (wrestling) were Penn State’s 2018-19 honorees.
 
Danae Rivers
Rivers became the first female student-athlete in the history of the Big Ten to win four consecutive 800m Big Ten Indoor Championships on February 29, 2020. Rivers ran 2:06.27 to capture her fourth title in the 800m. Along with her 800m title, Rivers also won the Big Ten title in the mile event. Rivers completed her indoor career with six Big Ten titles and was a three-time All-American. Rivers had qualified for her fourth NCAA Indoor Championships prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic cancelling the Championships
 
Rivers set 11 Penn State school records, was a nine-time USTFCCCA first-team All-American, a 10-time Big Ten Champion, a two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a three-time Mid-Atlantic Regional Women’s Track Athlete of the Year. In addition, she set the collegiate record in the 1,000m run with a time of 2:38.58 at the Nittany Lion Challenge in 2019. She was also the 2019 NCAA Indoor Champion in the 800m to become the first individual women’s national champion in program history.
 
Lamar Stevens
One of the greatest to play men’s basketball for Penn State, Lamar Stevens returned for his senior campaign to lead the 2019-20 Nittany Lions to 21 wins, 11 Big Ten Conference wins and their first Associated Press poll ranking since 1996. Stevens helped position Penn State for an NCAA Tournament berth as the Nittany Lions reeled off a…