The Board of Directors of the Mifflin County Sports Hall of Fame (MCSHOF) is excited to announce they have secured Penn State National Champion Mitchell Mesenbrink as guest speaker for their annual induction ceremony.

Tim Searer, president of the organization, stated, “Our thanks go out to one of our corporate sponsors, Geisinger Medical Group, for their assistance in getting us another marquee speaker for this year’s event.”

Geisinger supports Penn State athletes through the name, image and likeness (NIL) program to further develop partnerships within our local communities.

Mesenbrink is an accomplished wrestler on the Penn State University squad. Hailing from Wisconsin, he’s made significant strides in his exceptional wrestling career. As a sophomore psychology major, he’s a two-time All-American, two-time Big Ten Champion, Big Ten Freshman of the Year, an NCAA National runner-up and newly crowned 2025 National Champion at 165 pounds. Mitchell has won several medals, including a bronze at the U23 World Championships in 2024, and gold at the U20 World Championships in 2023.

Mesenbrink will address all in attendance at the event slated for May 10 at 5 p.m. at the Birch Hill Event Center in Burnham. The MCSHOF Class of 2025 is an impressive list of six new inductees to the Hall.

The late Fred Stoicheff, who was on the back-to-back undefeated Lewistown football teams of 1957 and 1958, and set numerous high school records. Like his yards per carry average of 14.5 which stood as a Pennsylvania record for 50+ years.

John “Jet” Johnston, who when he graduated from Lewistown in 1968, held the all-time rushing record with 2,083 yards. After a solid career at Duke, among other things, he was an assistant coach at Penn State during their 1982 National Championship season.

Emily Lepley Shank, a 2003 Panther graduate on the track and field team, won the PIAA State Championship in the 100 meter hurdles, and at Susquehanna University went on to become an eight-time All-American hurdler.

George “Touch” Bohn was the first Chief Logan athlete to earn All-State honors in two sports, as a tackle/linebacker in football, and throwing the discus and javelin in Track & Field. After his playing days, he coached various sports for 28 years in local schools.

Annette Hoffman was a basketball standout for both the Chief Logan Mingoes and Indian Valley Warriors. She took her 1,000+ points to Juniata College where she became an honorable mention selection for the Kodak Division III All-American team in 1992-93.

Jon Zimmerman, a 1963 graduate from Kish, was a multi-sport standout. As league MVP he led the Indians to a Tri-Valley basketball title. Then at Dickinson, he earned an invite to the Olympic Development high jump competition at the esteemed Penn Relays.

In addition, local sports broadcaster/writer Brian Carson is also being presented a special recognition award for his media contributions.

It should be noted that Lewistown High School’s first state wrestling champion, Kenny Whitsel was also selected by membership for induction with this year’s group. Whitsel, however, is unable to be in attendance due to a prior commitment, and will enter the Hall at the next scheduled induction ceremony that he is able to attend.

Tickets to this year’s induction ceremony may be purchased online at the Mifflin County Sports Hall of Fame website www.mcsportshof.com, or you can also pay by check. Simply make your check payable to MCSHOF, and mail to P.O. Box 989, Lewistown, Pa. 17044. Tickets are priced at $30 for members, and $40 for non-members.