Two Wesleyan players named All-Americans

Two Dakota Wesleyan University basketball players earned All-American honors from the NAIA, it was announced Wednesday afternoon.

DWU women’s player Kim Johnson was given NAIA All-American second team honors and Jalen Voss was named an NAIA honorable mention All-American on the men’s side.

Johnson became the eighth DWU women’s player to earn All-American accolades in program history. The last women’s basketball players to earn the honor were Randi Morgan and Victoria Drefs in the 2003-04 season. Morgan was given first-team honors and Drefs was on the second team that season.

“This just proves that when you put some time and hard work in, you get deserving awards and this is something she has done on the court and academically,” DWU women’s coach Jason Christensen said.

This is the first All-American accolade for the forward, who led the Great Plains Athletic Conference in scoring with 18.5 points per game and earned all-GPAC first team honors this season. Johnson was the GPAC player of the week three times this season as well.

She finished the season 10th in the NAIA in total scoring with 574 points and earned her career-high 35 points against Northwestern College on Feb. 13.

The 5-foot-11 junior scored her 1,000th point of her college career in the final game of the Tigers’ regular season against Briar Cliff Feb. 16 at the Corn Palace. She was the 17th player in DWU women’s basketball history to reach the mark and finished her junior season with 1,019 total career points.

This is the first All-American honor for Voss and the first for the Tiger men since Brady Wiebe earned first team honors in 2011. Voss, who was also co-freshman of the year last season, is the 30th All-American in Tiger men’s basketball history.

“It’s a great honor for Jalen and much deserved,” DWU men’s coach Shane Murphy said. “He’s done a great job improving both years he’s been here. He’s a huge part of our program and looking for him to continue to improve.”

Voss was the only sophomore named to the all-Great Plains Athletic Conference first team this season. He led the DWU men’s basketball team in nearly every category.

Voss averaged 14.2 points per game, 9.9 rebounds per game and recorded 44 blocked shots. He finished his sophomore season 10th in the league and first in the conference and sixth in the NAIA in rebounds per game.

After two seasons with the Tigers, Voss has 737 points and 482 rebounds.

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