Two graduating seniors — one male and one female — have been named Ellsworth High School's 2021 WIAA Scholar Athletes. Mason Anderson and Briana Giese have been selected to represent the Ellsworth High School as part of the Middle Border Conference Scholar Athletes._ Each year, member high schools of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association are invited to nominate one boy and one girl for Scholar Athlete honors. The program, which is underwritten by Marshfield Clinic, was launched in 1984 to demonstrate the positive impact of interscholastic athletic activities.

To qualify for WIAA Scholar Athlete recognition, a nominee must have earned at least four varsity letters through the first half of his/her senior year and must have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. The Middle Border Conference held an awards night to honor the area Scholar Athletes on April 7 at St. Croix Central High School with 1996 EHS graduate Patrick Larson as the guest speaker.

Anderson is the son of Matthew and Angelina Anderson and has three siblings: Mylon, Mackenzie and Mollie. He is a three-sport athlete competing in football, basketball and track. He is a seven-time letter winner and a two-time team captain in football and basketball. His conference accomplishments were First Team All Conference in football and basketball his junior and senior years and sophomore year in basketball. He also earned Second Team All Conference in football his junior year and Honorable Mention All State._ Anderson has also reached scoring 1,000 points in his high school basketball career, was a two-time MVP in basketball and Middle Border Conference 2021 Player of the Year. He was also All Region Player in football and All State Honorable Mention Player in basketball.

He is also a two-year member of Math League, Student Council, Gift Box Program Coordinator, Mentor Program Leader and is a one-year National Honor Society member. Anderson has a GPA of 3.87 and will attend UW-Platteville for physical therapy and playing basketball. His role models are his father, Matt Anderson and his football coach, Jason Janke.

Giese is the Ellsworth Female Scholar Athlete Award Winner. She is the daughter of Brad and Anne Giese and has three siblings; Dan, Abby and Jenica. Giese is a three-sport athlete and competes in volleyball, basketball and softball. Giese, otherwise known as “B” is seven-year letter winner and a threeyear team captain in softball, a two-year team captain in basketball and a oneyear captain in volleyball. She was named Rookie of the Year in Softball as a sophomore when their team was a State Qualifier. B is also a two-year All Conference winner in softball.

Giese is a three-year member of the Math League and Drama Department, two-year member of the Trap Team and Mentoring Program, and a one-year member of Academic Coaching and the National Honor Society. She has a 4.0 GPA and is ranked No. 2 in her class. She will attend UW-Platteville and major in Biology. Her role models are her parents and her grandfather John Thuente._