A handful of past high school standouts from the Wayne Herald coverage area were recently listed among a record-tying Spring semester for Northeast Community College.
According to an early July release from Northeast Athletics, student-athletes have once again tied a school record for their efforts for not only on the playing field and court, but in the classroom.
Wayne's Delaney Kruse, Laurel's Mallory Eriksen as well as a trio of Wakefield natives being Alex Arenas, Daveigh Munter-McAfee and Katie Borg were among the 114 student-athletes from Northeast Community College earning Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) Spring Academic All-Region.
This also marked the third time in athletic department history that 114 student-athletes placed on the list.
Delaney Kruse from Wayne collected First Team honors after playing on the Northeast softball team during her first collegiate season. She helped the Hawks to a 21-36 overall record (8-20 conference) appearing in 51 total games in the infield mainly as a third baseman.
Kruse recorded a .290 batting average with 45 hits (15 doubles), drove in 20 runs and scored 26 runs. She also had a .856 fielding percentage with 82 putouts, 19 assists and 17 errors while turning three double plays.
Alex Arenas from Wakefield earned First Team following her first year with the Hawks women's basketball team. She was also a member of the volleyball program from 2023-24 and 2024-25 (during basketball) and was listed Second Team Fall Academic All-Region back in January.
Arenas helped Northeast to a 21-9 overall record (12-6 conference) while appearing in 25 games as a guard.
In an average of 12 minutes per game, she scored 5.4 points per game, averaged 2.6 rebounds, went 31.2% from the field and knocked down 28 three's. Arenas also recorded 27 total steals and 14 total assists.
The two-sport standout also appeared in 39 matches for the Northeast volleyball team (starting 33) as an outside hitter. She averaged 2.00 kills per set, 3.56 digs per set, 21 blocks (four solo) and 37 service aces. Over her two years on the volleyball program, she has appeared in 71 total matches averaging 2.29 kills per set with a .102 attack percentage, 3.58 digs per set, 50 blocks (10 solo) and 49 service aces.
Both Daveigh Munter-McAfee and Katie Borg from Wakefield and Mallory Eriksen from Laurel were named First Team for the Northeast volleyball team all in their first collegiate season. They helped the Hawks to a 26-15 overall record (8-3 conference).
Outside hitter Munter-McAfee (25 matches) started four matches and averaged 2.18 kills per set with eight blocks (two solo).
Defensive specialist Borg (30 matches) started four matches and averaged 2.04 digs per set while also posting 24 service aces.
Outside hitter Eriksen (21 matches) started five matches and averaged 1.02 kills per set, 1.07 digs per set and had eight total blocks.
There were 73.8% of student-athletes at Northeast who received the award and seven out of the eight athletic teams at Northeast had a GPA of 3.0 or higher. The programs with the highest team GPAs in the department included volleyball at 3.66, women’s soccer at 3.59 and men’s golf at 3.48. The department GPA was 3.36.
To qualify, First Team performers had to receive a 3.5 grade point average or above while Second Team members earned between a 3.0 and a 3.49 GPA.
