BURNSVILLE – The NSIC announced Bemidji State’s Alex Iverson and Sara Wendt to its list of 2023 Honor Student-Athlete and scholarship award winners.
The league also announced that Minnesota State’s Amanda Montplaisir and Winona State’s Mitch Snitker were named the 2023 Willis R. Kelly and Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athletes of the Year.
The member institutions of the NSIC nominate one male and one female student-athlete for the Britton and Kelly Awards. The nominees must meet the following criteria: a grade point average of 3.5 or better (on a 4.0 scale); evidence of academic excellence beyond the minimum grade point average (scholarship prizes and other academic recognition), evidence of participation in the life of the institution, and evidence of participation in at least two-thirds of the varsity events of the individual's primary sport. The award is voted on by the NSIC Faculty Athletic Representatives.
Iverson, a biochemistry molecular and cellular biology major at Bemidji State, has earned a 3.94 GPA over his collegiate career and was an NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic Team with Distinction award winner this year as well as a three-time NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence selection throughout his time at Bemidji State. The senior from Moorhead appeared in four rounds for the Beavers during the 2022-23 season and averaged 82.3 strokes per 18 holes and shot a low-round of 80 this season at the BSU Invite.
Wendt, a biology major with a psychology minor, is a two-time United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-American as well as All-Region and All-NSIC First Team selection. She led the Beavers and the NSIC with 31 points off 14 goals and three assists which was tied for 28th in Division II. She led the NSIC and was tied for fifth in DII with six game-winning goals and her five goals scored during postseason play this season was the most in a single postseason at Bemidji State.
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Wendt concluded her fifth season with the green and white as the programs' career record holder in game-winning goals (23), overtime goals (4), postseason points (16) and tied for the career goal mark (49) as well as second in career points (114). She earns this recognition for the second consecutive year.
The Britton Award was created in 1985 in honor of Dr. William Britton, a longtime faculty representative at Bemidji State 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.
The Kelly Award is named in honor of Willis R. Kelly, an associate professor of physical education at the University of Minnesota, Morris. A member of the NSIC Hall of Fame, Kelly also coordinated the Minnesota-Morris Physical Education Department from 1970-87. She became the first director of women's intercollegiate athletics at Minnesota-Morris in 1976 and was later promoted to athletic director for the whole department. Kelly passed away in 1988.
The 32 student-athletes nominated for the NSIC's two most prestigious awards will also be honored as NSIC Male and Female Honor Student-Athletes of the Year at their respective institutions. Snitker and Montplaisir will be recognized Tuesday, July 11 at the NSIC Hall of Fame Banquet in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and will each receive a $3,000 postgraduate scholarship.
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