SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – South Dakota State’s Myah Selland was named the Daktronics Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year by Summit League officials Thursday. The Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award is the most prestigious accolade The Summit League bestows each year and is determined by a vote of the league’s faculty athletic representatives.
The award recognizes one male and one female student-athlete annually for outstanding academic achievements, athletic achievements, attitude, and leadership throughout the 2022-23 academic year. This year’s male winner is Max Abmas of Oral Roberts.
Selland closed out her dynamic career by being named The Summit League Player of the Year for the second time and leading SDSU to its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance during her tenure. She scored 29 points during an opening-round win over Southern Cal that broke the League’s NCAA Tournament single-game scoring mark.
The four-year team captain averaged 16.1 ppg overall and upped that to 16.9 ppg in League play that saw the Jackrabbits go 18-0 in conference play and win their first Summit League Tournament title since 2019.
The Letcher native earned All-Summit League first team honors three consecutive seasons and was a Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year finalist for the second time during her career. She surpassed the 2,000-career point milestone and ended up third on The Summit League’s all-time scoring charts with 2,167 points.
Selland is the only Jackrabbit to rank among the program’s top 10 in points, rebounds and assists.
In the classroom, Selland carried a 3.9 cumulative GPA throughout her academic career in Brookings, leading to a bachelor’s degree in exercise science, community and public health. She was a three-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-American, a four-time Summit League Commissioner’s List of Academic Excellence honoree and a four-time Summit League Academic Honor Roll member.
Giving back to her community was engrained in Selland during an early age and her humanitarian efforts continued during her time in Brookings. This past January, Selland was awarded nationally for those efforts as she was named the female recipient of the Coach Wooden Citizen Cup by the Athletes for a Better World organization. Selland and the five other award winners were honored April 27 at a ceremony at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
Selland’s serving spirit led her to co-founding the nonprofit “Her Turn” initiative with teammate Tori Nelson that provides scholarships for local girls and young women in the Brookings community to attend various SDSU athletic camps. Those two were awarded a $25,000 grant recently from Gatorade and attended the 2023 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles as part of the program.
She was also a four-year Student-Athlete Advisory Committee representative for SDSU and also volunteered with Rock Steady Boxing, the Promising Futures Fund and was a mentor with the Brookings County Youth Program.
Selland has signed a professional contract to continue her basketball career in Spain with the Baxi Ferrol club, which plays in the top tier of the Spanish League.
This marks just the second time in League history that the awards were swept by basketball players. The previous occurrence was in 2008-09 when North Dakota State’s Brett Winkleman and South Dakota State’s Jennifer Warkenthein were honored. Selland is the fourth Jackrabbit female to earn the distinction joining Rachel King (2018-19; women’s track and field), Diana Potterveld (2015-16; women’s soccer) and Warkenthein.