A pair of Pella High School seniors were recognized for their athletic achievements when the 2020 awards were announced earlier this week.

Mason Huerter won the Bernie Saggau Award from the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Caroline McMartin was nominated for the E. Wayne Cooley Award from the Iowa High School Girls Athletic Union.

The Bernie Saggau Award honors a student who best exemplifies a patriotic spirit, strong religious and moral convictions, living and professing qualities of honesty, integrity, and sportsmanship; believing that both games and life should be conducted by the rules. This award is presented to one student every year in each high school in the State of Iowa. Mason Huerter was a state qualifier in the shot put in the 2019 State Track and Field meet and accepted an invitation and will compete at the 48th annual Shrine Bowl this summer, which features some of the state’s best soon-to-be college freshmen competing in a North vs. South exhibition.

The E. Wayne Cooley Scholarship Award is a scholarship established in tribute to the man most responsible for making the “Iowa Girl” number one in the nation. The profile of the recipient should reflect discipline, perseverance, character, superior athletic skill, leadership, academic achievement and citizenship traits that have personified the life and expectation of the late Dr. E. Wayne Cooley. McMartin was a four-time state cross country qualifier, and owns the school records for fastest 5K and fastest 3000 meters on the track, and she qualified for 11 total events at the famous Blue Oval in Des Moines..