A pair of All-North Central Conference basketball forwards -- John Emerson and Lindsey Dietz -- have been voted the University of Minnesota Duluth's Outstanding Senior Athletes for 2005-06, while Dietz and shortstop Nate Taran are the recipients of this year's E.L. \"Duce\" Rasmussen Award as the school's top-scholar athletes.

Emerson averaged a team-leading 13.7 points per game this winter en route to earning his first-ever All-NCC Team selection. The New Richmond, Wis. product also logged more minutes (33.2 per outing) than any other 2005-06 Bulldog and was the club's most proficient three-point shooter (83 of 191 for a .434 percentage). This past February, he set a Bulldog single-game record by hitting all six of his shots from three-point range in a 75-67 NCC victory at Augustana College. Emerson, who transferred to UMD in 2003-04 after spending the 2002-03 season at the University of Wisconsin, held a starting role in the UMD frontcourt the past two seasons. Despite being with the UMD program for just three years, he still wound up 24th on the Bulldogs' career scoring list with 1,107 points in 87 games. As a junior, the 6-5, 215-pound Emerson was an All-NCC honorable mention pick.

Dietz, a native of Elk River, Minn. enjoyed unprecedented success both on and off the court during her remarkable four-year career at UMD. This past March the 6-0 forward was chosen to the NCAA Division II Kodak/WBCA All-America Basketball First Team for a second straight season and landed her third consecutive Daktronics All-American honor (second team in 2006, first team in 2005 and third team in 2004). Dietz, who is only the second three-time basketball All-American the Bulldogs have ever produced (she joins NCAA II career scoring leader Dina Kangas, 1987-91 in that elite group), also was a repeat selection on the All-NCC Team in 2005-06 and received Daktronics All-North Central Region first team recognition for the third time in as many years. The NCC Player of the Year as junior and the conference's top scorer in each of the past seasons, Dietz holds down the No. 2 spot on UMD's all-time scoring charts with 2,115 points in 104 games (a 20. 3 points per outing clip). She is the proud owner of six Bulldog records, including field goal accuracy in a single season (.664 set in 2005-06) and most free throws made (678) and attempted (721) in a career. Dietz, the 2005-06 UMD co-captain, holds the distinction of being the only player to ever lead the Bulldogs in scoring four times. As a mathematics and psychology double major with a 3.97 cumulative grade point average, Dietz's academic achievements have been equally as impressive. In 2005-06, she received the prestigious ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American Player of the Year award for the second season in a row. She has been a member of the Dean's List seven semesters while earning NCC/Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference All-Academic Team acclaim on three occasions (2004-06).

In baseball terms, Taran is in the process of completing a perfect game in the classroom. The Hermantown, Minn. native has maintained a 4.00 cumulative grade point average while double majoring in political science and criminology. A two-time NCC All-Academic Team selection (2005 and 2006) and a member of the All-NSIC All-Academic Team as a sophomore, Taran has made the Dean’s List all seven of his semesters at UMD. In each of the past three years, he's also been the baseball representative on UMD’s Athletic Academic Support Center Scholar List for maintaining the highest cumulative grade point average among his teammates. Taran will graduate this May before moving on to the University of Minnesota Law School next fall. On the diamond, the four-year starting shortstop has saved his best baseball for last and currently owns a career-high .303 batting average while topping the 2006 Bulldogs in both games played (35 of a possible 38) and assists (91). Earlier this spring, he was tabbed the NCC's Player of the Week after going 9-for-13 (.692) and driving in four runs while helping UMD to a four-game weekend sweep of the University of North Dakota (April 22-23).

Senior basketball guard Laura Sylvester of Alborn, Minn. was bestowed with the Shjon Podein Community Service Award, which has been given annually since 2003 to a UMD student-athlete who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the field of play and has made noteworthy humanitarian contributions in the Duluth and UMD communities. Over the past five years (she was redshirted in 2002-03 due to a knee injury), Sylvester has been involved in a multitude of volunteering endeavors. Those include stints with the Duluth YMCA, the AlBrook High School volleyball, basketball and softball teams, the Chester Park Elementary School Head Start Program, the Northern Lights AAU basketball program, the Proctor High School French Club, Faith Lutheran Church in Culver, and the Duluth Denfeld High School junior varsity softball team. She's also taken part as a volunteer with Heart Walk and UMD's Relay for Life and has devoted time reading to children at local elementary schools. Slyvester will graduate this spring with a degree in communication.