BURNSVILLE, Minn. — The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) announced the University of Minnesota Crookston’s Madeleine Schneider as the 2024 Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award winner and the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Arik Johnson as the recipient of the 2024 Dr. William Britton Scholar-Athlete Award. The Britton Scholar-Athlete Award for Academic Excellence, in its 40th year, recognizes the NSIC’s top male student-athlete and the Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award, in its 39th 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 30 student-athletes nominated for the NSIC’s two most prestigious awards will also be recognized as NSIC Male and Female Honor Student-Athletes of the Year at their respective institutions. Schneider and Johnson will be recognized Tuesday, July 9 at the NSIC Hall of Fame Banquet in Bloomington, Minnesota and will each receive a $3,000 post-graduate scholarship. 

Arik Johnson, a native of Birchwood, Wisconsin, is a graduate student, majoring in criminology and sociology while minoring in history at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The Rice Lake High School graduate holds a 3.98 grade point average while excelling in football for the Bulldogs. Johnson joins Stephen Blackmarr (1998), Jesse Beckermann (1997) & Tom Aney (1988) as the only student-athletes from Minnesota Duluth to earn the NSIC Britton Award. 

Johnson has earned a spot on the UMD Dean’s List over his eight semesters as well as the UMD Athletic Academic Scholar List. He is a four-time honoree of the D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award and NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence. He earned the NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award and is a two-time College Sports Communicator Academic All-District Team member and CSC Academic All-American. 

On campus, Johnson has worked as a teacher’s assistant in Introduction to Sociology and Psychopathology & Crime classes during his time at UMD.  

On the gridiron, Johnson is a three-time All-NSIC First Team performer on the offensive line, where he made 42 career starts. He was a part of an offense that produced an NSIC best 2,682 rushing yards (6.28 yards per carry) and led the league in scoring at 37.3 point per game in 2023.  During his career he was a part of two conference title teams (2018 and 2021) and teams that compiled a combined record of 45-12. Johnson continued his football career in the international league in Sweden in the spring of 2024. 

Johnson has completed a 300-hour internship with Two Rivers (Wis.) Police Department in 2022 and has volunteered as a World War II Living Historian for multiple Historical Societies throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. He has also volunteer coached at Two Rivers High School Football Summer Practices; at the Annual Black Woods Blizzard Tour ALS Fundraiser; at the Duluth Special Olympics Rock Party Fundraiser; and has packed backpacks at Second Harvest Food Banks.

Madeleine Schneider, a native of Gärtringen, Germany, is a senior majoring in software engineering, information technology management at the University of Minnesota Crookston. The Andreae-Gymnasium Herrenberg High School graduate holds a 4.00 grade point average while excelling in women’s tennis for the Golden Eagles. Schneider is the second student-athlete from UMC to earn the NSIC Kelly Award as she joins Angela Swanson (2001).  

Schneider has been named to the Chancellor’s List multiple times during 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 been an Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society member the last two years and a Mestenhauser Student Award for Excellence in Campus Internationalization honoree in 2023: a system-wide University of Minnesota award that is given to recognizes outstanding student contributions to international education. 

Schneider earned All-NSIC First Team honors for the second-consecutive season in 2024. She went 12-3 at No. 1 singles, which was the third-best winning percentage in the conference and the best among No. 1 single players. Schneider went 9-5 at No. 2 doubles with Blaike Zander this past season. Schneider is the all-time leading singles player in UMC program history and was the first UMC tennis student-athlete to earn NSIC Player of the Week honors, a feat she accomplished four times in her career. 

In the community, Schneider has volunteered at the annual Santa Land which is an event dedicated towards children to have a fun day during the winter holiday. She has also given her time serving meals at Harvest & Cathedral Church with the Multicultural International Club.

2023-24 NSIC HONOR STUDENT ATHLETES