The Big Ten Conference announced the winners of the Distinguished Scholar Award on Thursday, July 14, including 103 Indiana scholar-athletes. The award is given to students who are in at least their second year at their university and have recorded a minimum 3.7 GPA during the 2021-2022 school year.
"These students have shown the ability to not only manage the type of demands on their time that very few other students have, but to perform at the highest level academically while doing so,” IU Athletic Director Scott Dolson said in a release. “This marks the second straight year that we have had at least 100 of our students earn this special honor, which is a great source of pride for our department."
The list of honorees features athletes from 16 different programs. Women’s track and field led the way with 19 award winners. The men’s track and field, men’s and women’s soccer, rowing, and swimming and diving teams each had eight or more athletes honored.
Earlier in the summer, 145 spring sport athletes received Academic All-Big Ten honors, bringing Indiana’s yearly total to 349 honorees — a school record. The minimum required GPA for academic all-conference honors is a 3.0.
Seven Hoosier athletes earned an unblemished 4.0 GPA. Those athletes included men’s tennis junior Jagger Saylor, track and field graduates Benjamin Veatch, Kelly Mindak and Maddy Pollard, and rowing athletes junior Sofia Sperduto and graduates Jayna Dolfi and Kalynn Scher.
