Burnsville, Minn. – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference announced the winners, as well as the nominees, for the 2022 Britton and Kelly Awards. Northern State seniors Megan Mooberry and Robert Coyle were nominated for the department.
 
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.
 
Coyle is a special education major at Northern State and a member of the wrestling team. Off the mat, Coyle is a member of TRiO Student Support Services and volunteers in the Aberdeen community. He was a member of the 2021 NSIC Championship team for the Wolves a season ago.
 
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.
 
Mooberry is a biology and chemistry major at Northern State and a member of the cross country and track and field teams. At NSU, she served as a student advocate for the Common Read Committee, the director of the Junior High Science Bowl, and a member of the pre-health club. Athletically, Mooberry scored points for the Wolves taking eighth in the 10,000m at the 2021 outdoor championships and sixth in the 5,000m at the 2022 indoor championships.
 
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.