Seven Tiger basketball players earn academic honors

MITCHELL, S.D. – Seven members of the Dakota Wesleyan University basketball programs were honored for their work in the classroom Monday afternoon when the NAIA announced its men's and women's basketball Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes.

For the Tiger women, Taylor Kuhn, Celeste Beck, Micaela Erickson, Amanda Hart and Katie Johnson were honored and James O'Halloran and Kris Menning earned academic accolades for the DWU men.

Johnson, a Mead, Neb., native, posted a 3.9 GPA in her accounting and math double major at Dakota Wesleyan this season. The junior recently earned All-Great Plains Athletic Conference Second Team honors. This is the first academic honor of her career. Beck and Hart were both All-GPAC Second Team honorees as well this season. This marks the second NAIA scholar-athlete honor for Hart, an Alexandria, S.D., native. The senior is a sports management and English major with a 3.6 GPA. Beck, a Sioux Falls native, is a junior biology major with a 3.8 GPA.

This marked the first classroom honor for both Erickson and Kuhn. Kuhn, a junior, is a Custer native who is an athletic training major. She maintains a 3.82 GPA. Erickson, a Milan, Minn., native, is a senior business administration major with a 3.63 GPA.

This year's honor marks the second for O'Halloran and the first for Menning. O'Halloran is a senior criminal justice major with a 3.65 GPA. He is a Dakota City, Neb., native. Menning is a Corsica native. He is majoring in business administration and has a 3.54 GPA.

The five DWU women were part of 243 Division II athletes to earn scholar-athlete honors and the men were two of 143 athletes honored. In order to be eligible for the honor, a student-athlete must have a GPA of 3.5 or higher and have achieved junior academic status.