In February of this year, Pitman native Mikayla Mitchell, 20, found her rhythm balancing athletics and academics while helping her college indoor track and field team to a historic conference championship.
From the moment she took the baton, Mikayla Mitchell, a 2023 Pitman High School graduate and a junior at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., recalls only a blur of nerves, speed, and responsibility. She was running the third leg of the 4×200 relay at the 2026 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Indoor Track & Field Championships — a race she was running for the first time — and the pressure was on.
“I remember being so anxious,” she said. “We were in first place, and I knew I had to keep that position.
She did, and the team secured Lebanon Valley’s first Middle Atlantic Conference 4×200 win since 2013. Mitchell also earned her first All-Conference honor as the team captured its first conference championship in 12 years.
“It was just so thrilling,” she said. “And then being able to win the MAC, it was exciting because our men’s team also won. It was a really big moment for our school.”
Lebanon Valley hadn’t swept the men’s and women’s championships since 2009.
While her relay success marked a milestone, Mitchell’s primary event remains hurdles, a discipline she approaches with both determination and humor. She started running track as a freshman in high school and began hurdling as a sophomore. Her senior year, she broke Pitman’s school record in the 400-meter hurdles. When asked about the physical toll the hurdles take on her body, she laughed and said that her knees are “in shambles.” She also placed eighth in the 60-meter hurdles at the MAC Championships.
Mitchell credits Melissa Byler, head track and field coach and director of the Lebanon Valley College Sports Center, with challenging her to reach her potential.
“She really pushes me to do my best,” she said of her coach. “She knows I can do well and keeps me motivated when I don’t always want to be.”
At Pitman High, Mitchell was both a track and soccer star who was named the school’s Woman Athlete of the Year before continuing her two-sport athletic career in college. After indoor track in the winter comes outdoor track in the spring. Then, in the fall, Mitchell plays soccer — a sport she’s played since she was five years old. Last season, she appeared in all 18 games with eight starts and scored her first collegiate goal.
Her academic year is filled with athletics, beginning before classes start with preseason two-a-day soccer practices followed by the fall season. Once soccer ends, she takes a couple of weeks off before daily track training begins in December and lasts through May.
Byler is quick to praise Mitchell’s work ethic.
“Since Mikayla plays soccer in the fall, she arrives to us after we have begun our fall season,” said Byler, who was recently voted MAC coach of the year. “She always quickly transitions to our training and focuses on what she needs to do to get the job done. Mikayla is a great teammate who motivates others and is willing to do whatever we ask.”
Mitchell, an exercise science major, is looking forward to gaining real-world experience next year in a practicum that she hopes will help narrow her career choices. She said the structure combining academics and athletics is actually what makes it all manageable.
“Once I get into a routine, it’s so much easier,” Mitchell explained. “I know when I have class, when I have to study, when practice is; it all kind of falls into place.”
This steady, disciplined approach has helped her adjust to the rigorous demands of college sports, which she describes as a significant step up from high school.
“It’s definitely a lot different, more intense, especially with workouts and lifting,” Mitchell said.
Off the track and the soccer field, she is equally grounded.
In the summer, Mitchell cleans houses in Sea Isle City, a popular shore community, to earn cash; working during the school year simply isn’t possible with her packed schedule. She uses the summer to relax and refresh, completely stepping away from sports except for some informal soccer training and occasional beach volleyball games with her brother, Evan. In the past, she’s stayed with extended family at the beach, but this year, her younger sister, Marissa, will spend the summer with her.
Meanwhile, back in Pitman, her sports-loving family — her dad was her travel soccer coach and both her brother and sister were also multi-sport athletes — remains a constant source of support. Her parents, Dawn and Ken Mitchell, attend her meets and games whenever they can, and her mom always makes her presence known.
“I can always hear my mom cheering in the crowd,” she said with a laugh.
At Lebanon Valley, about 100 miles from Pitman, Mitchell has found a second home that mirrors the close-knit feel of her hometown.
“I really like the small classes,” she said. “The professors get to know you, and they really care. They ask about your meets and how you’re doing. They want to help.”
That sense of community has helped Mitchell carve out her place as both a student and an athlete on campus.
And while the MAC Championship and All-Conference honors are significant achievements, Mitchell isn’t satisfied yet. She’s already looking ahead to her senior year at Lebanon Valley.
“I just want to keep getting better,” she said.
