HICKORY, N.C. – Carson-Newman is the only team in the Southeast Region to place a pair of players on the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) announced on Thursday. Kayla Marosites earned a spot on the first team and Braelyn Wykle picked up a second-team slot.
There are now 14 different players in the history of the school to earn an all-region, all-district or All-American honor as Carson-Newman places two players on the list for a third-straight season after Haris Price and Kayla Marosites were on the list last season.
Marosites is the seventh player in school history to earn an all-region or All-American honor in multiple seasons as she ups her career awards tally to 24. On Tuesday she became the program's first ever Academic All-American. A two-time first-team All-SAC selection, she is the sixth player to earn a slot on the first team multiple times in her career. The team's leading scorer is the fourth player in school history to be on the top two teams three times in her career joining Leah Jackson (four-time first-team pick), Heather Ford (three) and Shari Buford (three).
From a career perspective, her 58 career double-doubles are good for third in Division II and fourth among all three divisions. With an 11.3 rebounding average she is second in SAC history for a career ranking third nationally and is fourth in the country with 1,072 rebounds.
On the program's record watch list, she is one of five players in school history with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds as she is seventh in scoring with 1,387 points, second in rebounding with 1,072 and fifth in made three-pointers with 157 over her three seasons at Mossy Creek.
Among her highlights from her senior season, she has won a single-season school record four SAC Player of the Week honors tying the high mark with six in her career. She has the top two single-season double-double marks with 23 on the year. Perhaps the best game of her career came on Nov. 13, 2019 against King when she scored 27 points and tied her own program record with 22 rebounds adding nine assists. She became the first Lady Eagle with a 20/20 game in the history in game No. 1,226. She earned USBWA National Player of the Week honors.
Marosites ranks in the top 10 in the country in double-doubles with 24, rebounds per game with 12.3, total rebounds, 370 while ranking in the top 20 in free-throw efficiency. The Volunteer State native has scored in double figures 29 times cresting 20 points 11 times. She has 25 double-digit rebounding efforts and two with 20 or more.
Not only is Wykle the lone freshman on the list of 11 players, she is the only underclassmen to earn an all-region nod. The SAC Freshman of the Year became the sixth player in school history to be the league's Freshman of the Year and first since Kaitlyn Cupples in 2013-14. The Greeneville, Tenn. native was also a first-team All-SAC selection and the top member of the All-Freshman team. She joins Brooke Johnson (2004-05) and Jackson (1989-90) as C-N players to get a first-team spot and the rookie of the year.
The first-team all-league selection is first SAC Freshman of the Year and first-team all-conference pick in the same season since Tusculum's Jasmine Gunn earn recognition in 2007-08. Gunn became a two-time SAC Player of the Year as a junior and a senior.
Wykle has produced one of the best freshman seasons in the history of the program. During the conference's regular-season, she was second in the league in scoring at 18.6 points per game, first in three-point percentage and second in field-goal percentage. The rookie scored in double figures 24 times and posted 13 contests with at least 20.
One of the best three-point shooters in the nation, Wykle ranks 12th in the nation in percentage at 44 from long range making 76 to rank second in the conference and rank 46th nationally. She is fifth in the league with 85 total assists ranking second in field goals made leading the league in field-goal percentage at 50.
The SAC's Player of the Week on Jan. 25, Wykle tallied five straight 20-point scoring efforts in the middle of league action capped by a season-high 30 points going 11-for-21 from the field and 5-for-8 from the floor against No. 20 Anderson on Feb. 1. She has scored in double figures in 16 consecutive outings.
The dynamic duo leads the Lady Eagle into the NCAA Women's Basketball Championships starting on Friday at noon against third-seeded Anderson from Greenwood, S.C. Broadcast coverage airs on 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live starting at 11:45 a.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off".
First Team
Alexy Mollenhauer, Anderson (S.C.) University (Sr. – Lindale, Texas)
Julianne Sutton, North Georgia University (Jr. – Flowery Branch, Ga.)
Kayla Marosites, Carson-Newman University (Sr. – Elizabethton, Tenn.)
Shanika Peterkin, Barton College (Jr. – Virginia Beach, Va.)
Jessica Harris, Lander University (Sr. – Sumter, S.C.)
Second Team
Breanna Locke, Emmanuel College (Jr. – Flowery Branch, Ga.)
Taneria Wilson, Clayton State University (Sr. – Fort Pierce, Fla.)
Braelyn Wykle, Carson-Newman University (Fr. – Greeneville, Tenn.)
Kwajelin Farrar, USC Aiken (R-Jr. – Grovetown, Ga.)
Maria Kuhlman, Belmont Abbey College (Jr. – Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.)
Mia Long, Tusculum University (Sr. – Ann Arbor, Mich.)
Southeast Region Player of the Year
Alexy Mollenhauer, Anderson (S.C.) University (Sr. – Lindale, Texas)
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