Six North Dakota football student-athletes were honored with a selection to the All-MVFC teams on Monday morning, as announced by the league office. Nominations were done by each school’s sports information director (SID) while the voting was conducted by the league’s head coaches, SIDs and select media members.
Senior offensive lineman Matt Waletzko headlined the group for the green and white by earning first team honors while junior running back Otis Weah and fifth year defensive back Evan Holm were selected to the second team. Fifth year linebacker Jaxson Turner, fifth year defensive back Jordan Canady and senior linebacker Devon Krzanowski all were named to the honorable mention team.
Matt Waletzko, OL, Sr., Cold Spring, Minn., Rocori HS, First Team
Started 10 of the 11 games before an injury kept him out of most of the final two games of the regular season … Played every game at left tackle … UND surrendered only three sacks during the time when he played to lead the NCAA … Also ranked at the top of the conference in fewest negative plays … The Hawks were sacked five times over the final two games when Waletzko was not in … Ranked as the No. 22 offensive tackle in college football by ESPN … Earned All-MVFC Second Team honors last season and preseason first team honors this year.
Otis Weah, RB, Jr., Moorhead, Minn., Moorhead HS, Second Team
Appeared in nine games at running back, missing two games vs. Drake and at Southern Illinois … Led UND with 159 carries for 818 yards and nine touchdowns … Finished fifth in the conference in rushing … His 108.8 all-purpose yards per game are third in the Valley … Average over five yards per carry for the second straight season … His nine rushing scores are fourth in the conference … His 90.9 yards per game on the ground sat third in the MVFC … Scored a trio of touchdowns on 114 rushing yards in the season opener at Idaho State … Carried it 18 times for 125 yards and a touchdown while adding three catches for 73 yards through the air in the win over Western Illinois … Had 21 carries for a season-high 156 yards and three touchdowns at Missouri State … Scored six touchdowns over his final five games.
Evan Holm, DB, 5th, Edina, Minn., Edina HS, Second Team
Finished with 45 total tackles to rank fourth on the team … Sat second with 33 solo stops … Led the team with a pair of interceptions … Also ranked second with four pass breakups … Had a season-high seven tackles at South Dakota … Recorded a pick in the win over Idaho State … Tallied his second interception against Missouri State.
Jordan Canady, DB, 5th, New Berlin, Wis., Eisenhower HS, Honorable Mention
Returned from an Achilles injury that kept him out of the final month of the 2020-21 season … Returned in the second game of year at Utah State … Finished third on the team with 49 tackles … 32 of those stops were solo … Had an interception in the home shutout win over Drake … Forced a fumble at the goal line against South Dakota State that led to a fourth down stop … Had 10 tackles in the comeback win over Youngstown State.
Jaxson Turner, LB, 5th, Esko, Minn., Esko HS, Honorable Mention
Finished with 36 total tackles … Led UND in both tackles for loss and sacks … Tallied seven stops for loss and six quarterback takedowns … Had a sack, forced fumble and five tackles in the win at Idaho State … Exploded over the final four games of the season … Finished with at least one sack in those final games … Had two sacks in the win vs. Illinois State … Finishes his career with 22.0 total sacks to top the leaderboard among UND players during the Division I era and rank second in program history … Finished tied for ninth in sacks for the MVFC.
Devon Krzanowski, LB, Sr., Fond du Lac, Wis., St. Cloud State, Honorable Mention
Led UND with 68 total tackles … Started all 11 games at middle linebacker … Had 35 solo and 33 assisted tackles … Five of his stops came behind the line … Also had 1.5 sacks … Recorded 10 tackles, three for a loss, and a sack against North Dakota State … Had nine tackles and a fumble recovery for a touchdown at Southern Illinois … Recorded nine stops and a game-sealing sack on fourth down in the comeback win over Youngstown State.
The league will reveal the all-newcomer team tomorrow.
(UND Athletics/MVFC)
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