BEMIDJI -- Bemidji State senior Carolyn Smith has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Elite 18 Award for women’s soccer. She is the second Beaver soccer player to earn the award, joining Anna Fobbe in 2017, and the fourth BSU athlete overall to receive the honor, following Allyna Storms (outdoor track and field, 2020) and Ben Skaar (men’s golf, 2017).
The Elite 18 awards are presented annually to an athlete in each of the NSIC’s 18 sponsored sports who owns the highest GPA and has completed the most credits.
A native of Grand Forks, N.D., Smith carries a 4.0 GPA as a double major in biology and chemistry. She is a three-time NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence honoree and earned the D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award in 2019. She has appeared in 35 matches for the Beavers, including seven in 2019, where she logged 63 minutes.
“Carolyn represents everything that is right about college athletics,” BSU head coach Jim Stone said in a news release. “In Carolyn, you see the model student-athlete. The student-athlete who, as defined, places an enormous priority on scholastic excellence while still having the discipline, focus, and drive to be a high-level athlete.
“Carolyn is a person of character who has always carried herself with the understanding that others are watching and as we watched, we witnessed hard-work, kindness and growth. We witnessed an incredible soccer player and student who made us a better team and made us better people.”
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