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Jul. 18—SIOUX CITY, Iowa. — Dakota Wesleyan University football and baseball player Landon Ruesink has been selected as the Great Plains Athletic Conference's male nominee for the A.O. Duer Award.
The national award has been presented since 1967 to a male and female student-athlete completing their junior season in any sport who has excelled in scholarship, character, and citizenship.
The Duer Award is named in honor of the NAIA's former executive secretary who served the association for 26 years.
Ruesink, from Dell Rapids, is majoring in accounting and is a rising senior for 2025-26. With a 4.0 grade-point average, he was an all-GPAC honoree for football in 2024 and baseball in 2023. He is also a two-time NAIA Scholar-Athlete and earned College Sports Communicators academic all-district honors in 2023.
Playing football for the Tigers, Ruesink played 11 games in 2024, made 53 tackles and intercepted two passes, bringing his career totals to 126 total tackles, five interceptions and 21 pass breakups in three seasons for DWU. On the baseball diamond, Ruesink appeared in 43 games in 2025, mainly as an outfielder, hit .284, scored 34 runs, amassed 38 hits, had nine extra-base hits and drove in 21 runs, while logging a .944 fielding percentage.
"Landon is one of those young adults who pass through your school and you don't realize how great they are until they are gone," said Dakota Wesleyan professor Joel Reinesch, who is the university's faculty athletic representative. "To earn this award, you must have the total package: academics, athletics, and citizenry. That is what this honor demands of a student-athlete, and Landon exceeds expectations. He is the same kid in victory as he is in defeat and is very worthy of this honor."
The GPAC female nominee for the Duer Award is Zavyr Metzger, a member of the Northwestern College volleyball team.
The national winners will be named during the NAIA National Awards Day in September. The NAIA winners will also be recognized at the NAIA National Convention in April 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Continue reading...
The national award has been presented since 1967 to a male and female student-athlete completing their junior season in any sport who has excelled in scholarship, character, and citizenship.
The Duer Award is named in honor of the NAIA's former executive secretary who served the association for 26 years.
Ruesink, from Dell Rapids, is majoring in accounting and is a rising senior for 2025-26. With a 4.0 grade-point average, he was an all-GPAC honoree for football in 2024 and baseball in 2023. He is also a two-time NAIA Scholar-Athlete and earned College Sports Communicators academic all-district honors in 2023.
Playing football for the Tigers, Ruesink played 11 games in 2024, made 53 tackles and intercepted two passes, bringing his career totals to 126 total tackles, five interceptions and 21 pass breakups in three seasons for DWU. On the baseball diamond, Ruesink appeared in 43 games in 2025, mainly as an outfielder, hit .284, scored 34 runs, amassed 38 hits, had nine extra-base hits and drove in 21 runs, while logging a .944 fielding percentage.
"Landon is one of those young adults who pass through your school and you don't realize how great they are until they are gone," said Dakota Wesleyan professor Joel Reinesch, who is the university's faculty athletic representative. "To earn this award, you must have the total package: academics, athletics, and citizenry. That is what this honor demands of a student-athlete, and Landon exceeds expectations. He is the same kid in victory as he is in defeat and is very worthy of this honor."
The GPAC female nominee for the Duer Award is Zavyr Metzger, a member of the Northwestern College volleyball team.
The national winners will be named during the NAIA National Awards Day in September. The NAIA winners will also be recognized at the NAIA National Convention in April 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Continue reading...
