SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - On a night where the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) honored the best performances over the past year, Winona State football standout Mitch Snitker collected the annual NSIC Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athlete Award, given to the top male student-athlete from the previous academic year.   

WSU director of athletics Eric Schoh presented Snitker with his award during the 2023 NSIC Hall of Fame Banquet at the Best Western Ramkota in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Tuesday, July 11. 

Mitch Snitker, a native of Waukon, Iowa, is a senior, majoring in exercise and rehabilitative science: movement science and minoring in nutrition at Winona State University. The Waukon High School graduate holds a 3.98 grade point average while excelling in football for the Warriors. Snitker joins Carter McCauley (2018), Alex Coulter (2013), Marcus Greatens (2010), Nate Gruber (1995), Jeff Engbrecht (1994), and James Scott Bestul (1985) as the only student-athletes from Winona State to earn the NSIC Britton Award.   

Snitker graduated summa cum laude while making the Dean's list each semester he attended Winona State. He earned the 2022 Winona State Department of Health, Exercise, and Rehabilitative Sciences, Outstanding Graduate Award; was a Presidential Scholar Athlete (2018-22) a Luther & Mildred McCown Memorial Scholarship Award recipient in 2021 and 2022 and earned the Randolph W. Miller & Ruth Howe Scholarship Award in 2022. A three-time member of the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence, Snitker also earned the NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic Award and was named CoSIDA First Team All-District and Second Team Academic All-American in 2021.  

On the gridiron, Snitker  made his second career appearance on the NSIC All-Conference list in 2022, garnering  first team honors after earning second team status as a junior. In 2022, Snitker finished 13th in the NSIC in total tackles (70) and was eighth in the league in solo stops with 52. He was voted the WSU Defensive MVP in 2022 and was the WSU Male Student Athlete of the Year for the 2021-22 academic year.  Snitker was part of a 8-4 squad that qualified for the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 2017 and won a share of the NSIC South Division title. 

The Britton Award was created in 1985 in honor of Dr. William Britton, a longtime faculty representative at Bemidji State University who served on the Athletic Board of Control of the Northern Intercollegiate Conference for 25 years. Britton retired from BSU in 1982 and passed away in March of 2019.

Next up for the Waukon, Iowa product is graduate school at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Snitker will pursue a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at Mayo beginning this fall.