Winona, MN-
Four student-athletes from four different Minnesota College Athletic Conference institutions were named to the 2019-20 NJCAA Division III Women's Basketball All-America teams, as announced Tuesday, April 7.
The NJCAA Division III First Team includes Northland Community & Technical College sophomore Carly Mekash; the multi-sport standout concluded her Pioneer basketball career on the court in the NJCAA national championship game where Northland finished as the national runner-up. Mekash led the Pioneers to a MCAC Northern Division co-championship with an 11-1 record and was the top shooter in the MCAC this past season, knocking down 59.6% of her shots from the floor. The Greenbush, Minnesota product was second in the MCAC in points per game at 19.6 and hauled in an impressive 11.3 boards a contest. This past fall, Mekash earned MCAC Volleyball All-State and NJCAA All-Region XIII honors as well.
Second-team honors were bestowed upon Western (WI) Technical College sophomore Caitlin Young. The sharp-shooting guard was a key component of the Cavalier 2019-20 NJCAA Division III Women's Basketball National Championship; Young scored 14 points against Northland in the 2019-20 national championship contest and was one of the top three-point shooters in MCAC play this past season, hitting 94 of her 242 attempts from behind the arc. Young closed out her two-year college career in leading Western Tech to back-to-back trips to the NJCAA Division III women's basketball championship appearances, the first two NJCAA championship appearances of any Cavalier sport.
St. Cloud Technical & Community College saw freshman Kamryn D'Heilly earn Third Team honors, one of just six first-year athletes to make the NJCAA All-America Division III list. D'Heilly was key in the SCTCC success this year, leading the Minnesota College Athetic Conference in rebounding at 15.9 boards a contest. The Annandale, Minnesota product also was an offensive catalyst, hitting 55.1% from the floor and scoring 19.2 points a game. D'Heilly also accumulated 35 blocked shots in 18 games in 2019-20. The Cyclones finished the season at 10-10 overall and 4-6 in the MCAC Southern Division.
Rounding out the MCAC presence in the 2019-20 NJCAA Division III Women's Basketball All-America teams was Hibbing Community College standout Alexis Desjarlait. Desjarlait was third in the MCAC in points-per-game this past season, averaging 19.5 points an outing for the Cardinals. The sophomore from Red Lake, Minnesota led Hibbing to the NJCAA Region XIIIB Championship game, where they fell to national runner-up Northland, 76-52. Desjarlait brought a well-rounded game to the HCC squad in 2019-20, hauling in over nine boards per contest and hitting 92 of her 129 free throw attempts. She also collected 76 steals defensively on the year.
For more on MCAC Women's Basketball, please go to: https://www.mcacsports.org/sports/wbkb/index
NJCAA Basketball information, including the NJCAA National Top 15 Poll and Player-of-the-Week releases can be found at: https://www.njcaa.org/sports/wbkb/index
The Minnesota College Athletic Conference is the organizational body for NJCAA-affiliated two-year technical and community college athletic programs in the Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system, as well as select member colleges in North Dakota and Wisconsin. The mission of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference is to advance intercollegiate athletics by providing an engaging and supportive environment for success of our student athletes and competition among member institutions. The MCAC is committed to the guiding principles of encouraging the development and success of student athletes, promoting the integrity, honesty and loyalty to member schools as well as upholding the sustainability of conference athletic programs.
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