BURNSVILLE, Minn. – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced today Southwest Minnesota State University's
Jon Dicke and
Sara DeSmet have been named 2019 NSIC Honor Student-Athlete award winners.
As a part of the today's announcement, the conference named Anna Winter from Upper Iowa University as its 2019 Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award for Academic Excellence and Kirby Hora from Augustana University as the recipient of the 2010 Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athlete Award for Academic Excellence. The two awards recognize the top female and male scholar-athletes in the NSIC.
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.
Both Dicke and DeSmet will be honored at the SMSU Athletic Department's annual Celebration of Excellence awards program on Monday, April 29.
Dick, a senior exercise science major from Rochester, Minn., was a four-year member of the football team and earned numerous awards for his work in the classroom and field during his career. He was named a CoSIDA first team Academic All-American in both 2017 and 2018 and was one of 22 college football players in the country named to the 2018 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. Dicke was also chosen this fall as a semifinalist for the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame William V. Campbell Trophy, which recognizes the top football scholar athlete in the nation. He was also the recipient of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Glen Galligan Award, which is given to football student-athlete who is academically superior while making a positive contribution to the institution.
DeSmet, a senior communication arts and literature education with an English emphasis major from Minneota, Minn., is a four-year member of the softball program. A three-time Academic All-NSIC honoree, she has played in 107 career games with 56 starts. This season she is batting .293 with two home runs and one double in 28 games with 14 starts.
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. Winter and Hora will be recognized on July 9 at the 2019 NSIC Hall of Fame Banquet Hall of Fame Banquet at the Holiday Inn & Suites in Lakeville, Minn., and will each receive a $3,000 post-graduate scholarship.
