PRINCETON, N.J. -- Penn’s Nia Akins was announced as a 2021 NCAA Today’s Top 10 award winner Wednesday. 
 
The award recognizes former student-athletes for their successes on the field, in the classroom and in the community. Recipients will be recognized during a virtual Honors Celebration awards show on Wednesday, Jan. 13, which will be streamed live at 7 p.m. ET on the NCAA Twitter account and the ESPN app. 
 
Akins—a nursing and nutrition science major and a member of the Penn women’s cross country, women’s indoor track & field and women’s outdoor track & field teams—was a three-time Most Outstanding Track Performer of the Meet at the Ivy League Track & Field Championships. Akins was 1-of-3 finalists for the USTFCCCA National Women’s Track Athlete of the Year and 1-of-10 athletes on the Bowerman Award watch list recognizing the nation’s top collegiate track & field athlete. She was a member of the Sphinx Senior Society, the oldest and most prestigious honor society at Penn. 
 
The two-year Quaker team captain was the runner-up in the 800 meters at both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Division I Track & Field Championships in 2019. She contributed to Penn’s three-straight Ivy Leauge Heptagonal Women’s Indoor Track & Field Championships and owns two conference and eight school records. She is currently a professional runner with the Brooks Beasts training group. 
 
Akins was also a Top 30 honoree for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, following her decorated career at Penn. Since the establishment of the NCAA Woman of the Year program in 1991, the Ivy League has had 27 student-athletes recognized on the national level as state winners, Top 30 honorees or finalists. 

The Ivy League has produced an NCAA Today’s Top 10 Award recipient in each of the past three years with Yale’s Ben Reeves (2019) and Columbia’s Iman Blow (2020) preceding Akins. 
 
The NCAA Today’s Top 10 Award honorees were selected by the NCAA Honors Committee, composed of representatives of NCAA member schools, conferences and distinguished citizens, including past awardees. 
 
Before 2013, the award recognized eight student-athletes and was known as Today’s Top VIII. The NCAA Honors Committee expanded the award to include 10 honorees to recognize the growing number of college athletes, sports and championship opportunities. This year’s recipients competed in 10 sports, including one emerging sport.