Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Four student-athletes from across the Upper Peninsula received scholarships at the 48th annual U.P. Sports Hall of Fame banquet Saturday at the Island Resort and Casino in Harris. Pictured from left to right: Gladstone’s Sydney Herioux, Kingsford’s Luke Terrian, UPSHF scholarship chairman Dave Lahtinen and Escanaba’s Paxton Johnson. Westwood’s Nathan Beckman was unable to attend.

HARRIS — Two local student-athletes received a prestigious honor at the 48th annual U.P. Sports Hall of Fame banquet at the Island Resort and Casino in Harris Saturday evening.

Escanaba senior Paxton Johnson and Gladstone senior Sydney Herioux were presented $1,000 scholarships by the UPSHF executive council. Kingsford senior Luke Terrian and Westwood senior Nathan Beckman also received scholarships, but Beckman was unable to attend.

These four were chosen among 42 candidates nominated throughout the U.P. Each school is allowed to nominate a maximum of one boy and one girl.

Johnson, a three-time defending U.P. girls’ golf champion, has a 4.2 GPA and is in the top 10 of Escanaba’s class of 2019. She has six varsity letters in volleyball and golf, and has signed to Northern Michigan University, where she will major in biochemistry and play on the women’s golf team.

Johnson works at the Escanaba Country Club and teaches golf to youth during the summer.

“I’m very thankful and excited at the same time, but I am appreciative of all the people that helped me get here because I didn’t do this all by myself,” Johnson said. “The boy at my school didn’t get it, and he told me before that I got it. I was like, ‘I’m pretty sure I didn’t get it because he’s way more athletic than me.’ I was surprised.”

Johnson talked about the challenges of balancing academics and athletics.

“It’s very time consuming,” she said. “I’ve gotten better at time management, but when I first started it was a challenge. I’m used to it now.”

Herioux has a 4.0 GPA and is the valedictorian of Gladstone’s class of 2019. She has 12 varsity letters in tennis, swimming and softball. She will attend Saginaw Valley State University and major in accounting and play softball.

“After my sophomore year, I kind of got in to the whole downstate recruiting thing on the travel team,” Herioux said. “I got my offer in September and I accepted the offer in late October because I kind of knew that’s where I wanted to be .. so It was my junior year that I decided.”

Herioux also touched on the life of a student-athlete and what it means to get this honor.

“It’s tough going from practice to practice, to homework, to school the next day or to games. It can be tough, but it’s really awesome .. I love it. I wouldn’t change anything about my high school experience or balancing any of that,” she said.

“It feels pretty awesome. It’s such a great honor to be able to represent the U.P. in such a positive way. It’s a really good enforcement of my hard work and tells me that it’s all worth it. I was really surprised when I got the letter in the mail. It was definitely awesome though.”

Terrian has a 4.1 GPA and is ranked No. 1 in the Kingsford class of 2019, while taking advanced classes. He has nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball.

Terrian has also been selected as student of the month and has the Air Force math and science award. He will attend Michigan Tech University to play football and major in pre-med.

“This is one of the biggest honors I’ve ever had,” Terrian said. “I’m just so thankful for my parents and my family that have helped me get here, all the teams I’ve played on and all my teammates that have helped make this possible because they’re all team games .. so I feel very, very honored.”

Terrian acknowledged he was a little surprised to receive the award.

“I was surprised,” he said. “I’ve always thought of the U.P. Sports Hall of Fame as one of the top honors. I was very surprised they I thought I was deserving.”

Beckman has a 4.0 GPA and is the valedictorian of the Westwood class of 2019. He has nine varsity letters in football, basketball and track. He has been a state qualifier in Business Professionals of America for three straight years and has been his class’s vice-president all four years of high school.

Beckman will also attend Michigan Tech and play football, while majoring in engineering.