Mitchell, Snyder named OSU athletes of year

Women’s basketball player Kelsey Mitchell and wrestler Kyle Snyder on Monday were named Ohio State’s 2017-18 female and male athletes of the year, respectively.

They will be placed on the Big Ten Athlete of the Year ballot.

Last June, Snyder was named Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year while Indiana swimmer Lilly King was named Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year.

Snyder, an Olympic gold medalist in 2016 and twice a world champion, finished his Ohio State career with three individual NCAA titles as well as a 2015 NCAA team title. He went 17-1 as a senior, defeating Michigan’s Adam Coon in the NCAA final in his last collegiate match.

Snyder won the 2018 AAU Sullivan Award given to the nation’s best amateur athlete.

Mitchell, who averaged 24.3 points per game as a senior, ended her Ohio State career as the No. 2 scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history with 3,402 points. She set an NCAA women’s record for career three-pointers with 497. She is just one of four women’s players in NCAA history with more than 3,000 points and 500 assists.

She was named the 2018 Dawn Staley Award recipient, given to the country’s most outstanding collegiate guard.

The Cincinnati native was selected No. 2 overall in the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever after becoming the Ohio State women’s program’s first four-time All-American.

Mitchell was named Big Ten women’s basketball player of the year in three of her four seasons at Ohio State. The Buckeyes had 106 victories during her career.