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University of Minnesota Athletics
5 Gopher Gridders Earn Scholar Athlete Distinction
7/18/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
University of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics placed 68 student-athletes on the Big Ten Conference Distinguished Scholar Athletes list, announced today by the Big Ten Conference. Having earned a 3.7 grade point average or higher from the previous academic year, 534 student-athletes across the Big Ten Conference received the award. The 68 Gopher student-athletes ties Michigan State for the most honorees by an individual school.
Of those 68 student-athletes, five were from the Golden Gopher football team. They are Chase Haviland (So., Journalism, Thief River Falls, Minn.), Aaron Hill (Soph., Pre-Kinesiology, St. Charles, Mo.), Adam Lueck (Jr., Finance, Eden Prairie, Minn.), Ryan Orton (Sr., Applied Economics, Eden Prairie, Minn.) and Kim Royston (Sr., Communication Studies, Minneapolis, Minn.).
The Minnesota list represented 16 of the Gophers’ 25 sports. Minnesota’s largest contingent came from the women’s cross country and track & field team, which included 18 honorees. The Gophers also had representatives from baseball (5), women’s basketball (2), football (5), women’s golf (1), men’s gymnastics (1), women’s gymnastics (4), rowing (5), soccer (3), softball (2), men’s swimming and diving (5), women’s swimming and diving (7), men’s tennis (1), men’s track & field (8) and wrestling (1).
In February of 2008, Big Ten Faculty Representatives established a conference academic recognition to supplement the Academic All-Big Ten program. Similar to the Academic All-Big Ten honor, Distinguished Scholar Award recipients must be letterwinners in at least their second academic year at their institution. However, the Distinguished Scholar Award encompasses only student-athletes with a minimum GPA of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year, excluding summer school. The Academic All-Big Ten threshold is a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher for a student-athlete’s academic career.
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