BURNSVILLE, Minn. — The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) announced Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Amanda Montplaisir as the 2023 Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award winner and Winona State University’s Mitch Snitker as the recipient if the 2023 Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athlete Award. The Britton Scholar-Athlete Award for Academic Excellence, in its 39th year, recognizes the NSIC’s top male student-athlete and the Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award, in its 38th year, is presented to the NSIC’s top female student-athlete.  

The Britton Award was created in 1985 in honor of Dr. William Britton, a longtime faculty representative at Bemidji State University who served on the Athletic Board of Control of the Northern Intercollegiate Conference for 25 years. Britton retired from BSU in 1982 and passed away in March of 2019. 

The Kelly Award is named in honor of Willis R. Kelly, an associate professor of physical education at the University of Minnesota-Morris. A member of the NSIC Hall of Fame, Kelly also coordinated the Minnesota-Morris Physical Education Department from 1970-87. She became the first director of women’s intercollegiate athletics at Minnesota-Morris in 1976 and was later promoted to athletics director for the whole department. Kelly passed away in 1988.

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.

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. Snitker and Montplaisir will be recognized Tuesday, July 11 at the NSIC Hall of Fame Banquet in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and will each receive a $3,000 post-graduate scholarship. 

Amanda Montplaisir, a native of Buffalo, Minnesota, is a graduate student who earned a degree in dietetics with a minor in sports medicine and is pursuing her master’s in exercise physiology at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The Buffalo High School graduate held a 3.97 undergraduate grade point average and a 4.0 graduate GPA while excelling in cross country and track & field for the Mavericks. Montplaisir is the third student-athlete from MSU to earn the NSIC Kelly Award as she joins Maggie Knier (2020) and Kendra Heuttl (2012).  

Montplaisir was voted by the NSIC coaches as the NSIC Women’s Cross Country Outstanding Senior of the Year in 2022.  She has been named to the Dean’s List all eight semesters of her undergraduate education is a NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic Award recipient and a multiple time member of the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence. She has received the following scholarships while attending MSU: Maverick Scholarship Award (2018-2019); Mary Jean Metag Family Consumer Science Scholarship (2019-2020 & 2020-2021); Family Consumer Science Endowed Scholarship (2021-2022) and the Caty Delwiche Cross Country/Track & Field Scholarship (2021-2022 & 2022-2023). 

Montplaisir is an 18-time All-NSIC performer in cross country and track and field. She was the named to the first team All-Region Cross Country team in 2021 and registered an 11th-place finish at 2021 NSIC Championship with a time of 22:19.60. In 2022 she finished fifth with a time of 21:46.03 to earn All-NSIC First Team honors. This past winter she won the 3000m run (9:43.13) and was second in the 5000m run (16:59.79) at the indoor track & field championship. This past spring she won the 3000m steeplechase (10:19.18) and was second in the 5000m run (16:46.75) at the outdoor championships.  She earned All-American honors at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in the 3000m run as she finished in eighth place (9:24.77) and was part of the distance medley relay that also finished in eighth.  

In the community, Montplaisir has been involved in a variety of community engagement events which have included: Nutrition Tabling Event; University Dining Center Server; Backpack Food Program; MNSU Campus Kitchen; COVID Relief Food Drive; Free Farmer’s Market; Kiwanis Holiday Lights;  MNSU Campus Cupboard and with the Mankato Marathon. 

Mitch Snitker, a native of Waukon, Iowa, is a senior, majoring in exercise and rehabilitative science: movement science and minoring in nutrition at Winona State University. The Waukon High School graduate holds a 3.98 grade point average while excelling in football for the Warriors. Snitker joins Carter McCauley (2018), Alex Coulter (2013), Marcus Greatens (2010), Nate Gruber (1995), Jeff Engbrecht (1994), and James Scott Bestul (1985) as the only student-athletes from Winona State to earn the NSIC Britton Award.   

Snitker graduated summa cum laude while making the Dean’s list each semester he attended Winona State. He earned the 2022 Winona State Department of Health, Exercise, and Rehabilitative Sciences, Outstanding Graduate Award; was a Presidential Scholar Athlete (2018-22) a Luther & Mildred McCown Memorial Scholarship Award recipient in 2021 and 2022 and earned the Randolph W. Miller & Ruth Howe Scholarship Award in 2022. A three-time member of the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence, Snitker also earned the NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic Award and was named CoSIDA First Team All-District and Second Team Academic All-American in 2021.  

On the gridiron, Snitker  made his second career appearance on the NSIC All-Conference list in 2022, garnering  first team honors after earning second team status as a junior. In 2022, Snitker finished 13th in the NSIC in total tackles (70) and was eighth in the league in solo stops with 52. He was voted the WSU Defensive MVP in 2022 and was the WSU Male Student Athlete of the Year for the 2021-22 academic year.  Snitker was part of a 8-4 squad that qualified for the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 2017 and won a share of the NSIC South Division title. 

Besides being named the outstanding graduate for the Department of Health, Exercise and Rehabilitative Sciences, Snitker has excelled as a student athlete in gaining internship and professional experience. In Waukon, Iowa he performed over 100+ hours shadowing physical therapists at Veterans Memorial Hospital, where he developed a better understanding and a passion for physical therapy. He further developed his professional goals as a Therapeutic Health Technician at EA Therapeutic Health in Rochester, Minnesota. At EA he collaborated with physical therapists to assess clients with complex chronic conditions/disabilities for therapeutic treatment, planned and implemented individualized therapeutic exercise programs for clients utilizing a variety of innovative methods, and maintained documentation tracking progress to keep clients on target to meet their therapeutic exercise goals.

These commitments outside of the classroom successfully led to Snitker’s acceptance into the highly competitive Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minnesota as he begins his graduate studies in August of 2023. 
 

2022-23 NSIC HONOR STUDENT ATHLETES