MIAC ELITE 22 AWARD - 2022-23 WINTER SPORTS

MINNEAPOLIS -- Augsburg University defender Payton Allen (SR, St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville HS) was recently named as the winner of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Elite 22 award for academic excellence in women's hockey.

The MIAC's Elite 22 Award, modeled after the NCAA's Elite 90 honor, is given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average among competing teams in MIAC playoffs in team sports, and among all-conference honorees at MIAC championships in individual sports. According to the MIAC, student-athletes must have achieved junior or senior status and be in at least their second seasons with their current team.

Allen is an exercise science major at Augsburg with a 4.00 grade-point average.

A defender, Allen earned All-MIAC honors for the second straight year in 2022-23. Allen was one of the team's leaders on defense, scoring three goals with 10 assists for 13 points. She scored two power-play goals and two game-winning goals, recording a plus-19 plus-minus rating. She also had 15 blocked shots, and had a goal or assist in 10 of her 27 games played this season.

In her 90-game collegiate career, Allen finished with six goals and 26 assists for 32 points, with three power-play goals, two game-winning goals and a plus-31 plus-minus rating. She was a team captain this season. Allen is also a two-time Academic All-MIAC honoree and two-time American Hockey Coaches Association All-American Scholar honoree.

The MIAC's Elite 22 award was established in the 2013-14 school year. Augsburg has now had nine Elite 22 honorees. Ana Ortiz earned the honor in women's soccer in 2019-20, Brett Buckingham earned the honor in men's golf in both 2017-18 and 2018-19, Brett Bukowski earned the men's hockey honor in 2017-18, Chris Nuth (men's hockey) and Megan Johnson (women's hockey) earned the honor in the 2016-17 school year, and Lauren Rice earned the honor for women's indoor track and field in 2013-14.