CLEVELAND, Ohio – Northern Illinois University men's soccer senior Jan Maertins (Rheinfelden, Germany/Georg-Buechner Gym) and women's track and field senior Jehvania Whyte (Kingston, Jamaica/Vere Technical) were recognized with the Mid-American Conference Medal of Excellence, announced on Wednesday (June 3) by the league office. 

Maertins earned CoSIDA First Team Academic All-America and Second Team All-MAC honors as a senior in 2019. He ranked fourth in the MAC with seven goals and sixth with 17 points during his final season. A Leadership and Management Major in the College of Business, Maertins is just the sixth Academic All-American in NIU men's soccer history, and just the third first team honoree. 

After spending his freshman year at Marquette, Maertins was a two-time Academic All-MAC and MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete honoree. He finished his three-year Huskie career with 18 goals and eight assists. 

Maertins was also a member of the Huskie Mentor program at Clinton Rosette Middle School and completed nearly 50 hours of community service during his time as a Huskie

Whyte concluded her outstanding NIU career as a five-time MAC Champion, a two-time All-American and a four-time Academic All-MAC honoree. The Kingston, Jamaica native won five consecutive MAC triple jump titles, taking the indoor crown in 2018, '19 and '20 along with the outdoor titles in 2018 and '19. She earned All-America honors in the triple jump both indoors and outdoors in 2018, finishing eighth at the NCAA Indoor Championships and seventh at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. 

NIU's school record-holder in the indoor triple jump (13.24m) as well as the long jump (6.04m) and triple jump (13.42m) outdoors, Whyte earned her bachelor's degree in Organizational & Corporate Communications and has been working on her master's in Business Administration. She also completed nearly 100 hours of community service during her time at NIU. 

The MAC Medal of Excellence is awarded to one male and one female senior student-athlete from each league school. To be honored with the Medal of Excellence Award, student-athletes had to participate on the varsity level in a conference sponsored sport and shown evidence of academic success with a minimum 3.50 accumulative grade-point average, exhibited athletics excellence, leadership and service.