Latrobe's Mikayla Bisignani honored for swimming, academics

Greensburg Central Catholic graduate Mikayla Bisignani continues to shine in and out of the pool for the Johns Hopkins women’s swimming team.

Bisignani, 20, a junior out of Latrobe, was named recently to the Academic All-America Division III Women’s At-Large first team by the College Sports Information Directors of America for the second consecutive season.

She was one of 45 athletes selected and among 12 repeat selections.

Athletes were selected based on career statistics. Bisignani, a molecular and cellular biology and psychology major, has a 3.98 GPA.

She is the second female swimmer in Johns Hopkins history to repeat and the third female athlete to be honored twice.

Bisignani is a two-time All-American as part of the 200-yard freestyle relay team. The team qualified for this season’s NCAA championship meet and was named All-America by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America after the meet was canceled because of the coronavirus.

It placed fourth last season, when Bisignani earned the NCAA’s Elite 90 award given to a sophomore or upperclassman with the highest cumulative GPA participating at the finals site.

She is a three-time CSCAA first-team Scholar All-American.

The 6-foot Bisignani also has competed in outdoor track and field and was named a Centennial Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year this spring. In 2019, she earned the conference title in the discus.

“The honor that has always meant the most to me and I tend to talk about the most is how my school is always at the top of the College Directors’ Cup,” said Bisignani, who plans to attend medical school and become a trauma surgeon. “This is really cool to be a part of because my school is not one typically looked at as an athletically focused school.

“All of us are taking way too many credits and have way too many extracurricular activities, but we still manage to compete and win more championships than any other school in Division III. We have a very close-knit group across all the student-athletes at Hopkins, and we all support each other as one giant team.”

The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics awards the Learfield IMG Directors’ Cup to the institution that records the highest number of points in its division’s Directors’ Cup standings.

The Blue Jays, who are based in Baltimore, Md., were 2018-19 runners-up and the winter leaders in 2019. This season’s cup was cancelled because of the pandemic.

Blue Jay swimming coach Scott Armstrong said Bisignani, a three-time PIAA Class AA finalist in the 50 freestyle, has made some major strides this past year.

“I am excited to see Mikayla moving into a leadership role,” he said. “(It’s) times like these we need great leaders to emerge like Mikayla has for us.”