Wayne State College held its yearly Ameritas Athletic Honors Banquet for the 2017-18 school year Monday evening at the WSC Student Center. Seven major awards were presented along with Most Valuable Player awards announced for each sport.
Senior football player Zach Osborn was selected Male Athlete of the Year with senior track and field standout Michaela Dendinger named Female Athlete of the Year. Freshman Athlete of the Year awards were presented to baseball player Aaron Ras and volleyball player Jaci Brahmer. The Cunningham Scholar Athletes of the Year were presented to senior track athlete Derek Lahm and graduate student volleyball player Megan Gebhardt while the Wildcat Inspiration Award was presented to senior football player DaQuan Samuel.
Osborn, a senior quarterback from Harlan, Iowa, was a first-team All-NSIC South Division selection this season after completing 108 of 192 passes for 1,480 yards with 14 TD’s and just five interceptions. At the time of his season-ending injury at Winona State, he led the NSIC in passing yards per game, was second in TD passes, fourth in total offense and fifth in pass efficiency. He finished his career as the all-time leader in TD passes (86) and pass attempts (1,383) and was second in passing yards (9,866), total offense yards (10,569) and pass completions (756).
Dendinger, a senior track and field athlete from Coleridge, was named NSIC Indoor Field Athlete of the Year after winning the shot put and weight throw at the NSIC Indoor Championships. She then earned All-American honors in both events, placing second at the NCAA Indoor National Championships with a new school record mark of 67-0 in the weight throw to go with a national runner-up finish in the shot put. In the outdoor season, she was earned NSIC Field Athlete of the Week honors 10 straight times dating back to last year and has three NCAA automatic qualifying marks ranking first in NCAA Div. II in the shot put, second in the hammer throw and sixth in the discus.
Ras, a freshman left handed pitcher from Bancroft, leads the Wildcat baseball team in wins with five, going 5-1 in nine starts this season with a 3.28 ERA. He has recorded 41 strikeouts in 49.1 innings pitched and has held opponents to a .229 average. Ras fired 5 2/3 innings of no-hit ball in a start vs. Upper Iowa on April 17 and had a streak of 12 straight scoreless innings. He has not allowed more than four runs in a start this season.
Brahmer, a freshman middle hitter from Pierce, was a second-team All-NSIC selection in her first season at WSC, averaging 2.47 kills and 1.02 blocks per set (tie 3rd NSIC). She recorded a double-double in her first collegiate match with 13 kills and 11 blocks vs. Rollins (Fla.) and led WSC in attack percentage this season at .329.
Lahm, a senior track and field standout from Columbus, was named the Cunningham Male Scholar Athlete of the Year with a 3.91 grade-point average majoring in chemistry and health science. This season, he was the NSIC indoor champion in the long jump and All-NSIC placing second in the indoor heptathlon. During the outdoor season, he broke a 26-year old school record in the long jump and Monday set a new school record winning the NSIC Outdoor Decathlon in Aberdeen, S.D., with 6,951 points. Academically, he is a two-time CoSIDA third-team Academic All-American selection in 2015 and 2017.
Gebhardt, a graduate student from Norfolk, received the Cunningham Female Scholar Athlete of the Year for a second straight time. She maintains a 4.0 grade-point average majoring in business administration and finance. As a setter on the Wildcat volleyball team, she ranked seventh in the NSIC this season with 9.60 assists per set. Academically, she was named CoSIDA Academic All-American Second Team this season.
Samuel was named winner of the 13th annual Wildcat Inspiration Award. The Chandler, Ariz., native came to Wayne as a defensive lineman and was asked to move to offensive line where he started for two years and earned All-Academic honors. Off the field, Samuel’s newborn daughter was born with an extremely rare condition and hospitalized at Children’s Hospital in Omaha and as a junior his mother passed away unexpectedly. Despite these events, Samuel excelled on the field and in the classroom.
