University of Minnesota Athletics
Klucas, Mitchell Named Distinguished Scholar Athletes
8/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Aug. 23, 2011
University of Minnesota softball player Kelsey Klucas and recent alum Mallory Mitchell were tagged as a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Athletes for their successes in the classroom during the 2010-11 academic year.
Klucas and Mitchell are joined by 66 other Golden Gopher student-athletes that met the Big Ten's lofty stipulations of sporting a grade point average of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year and being a letterwinner. The Big Ten handed the accolade out to 534 student-athletes, and Minnesota tied with Michigan State for the most by one institution (68).
Klucas just finished her sophomore year at Minnesota and is currently pursuing a degree in Environmental Science Policy and Management. Mitchell graduated this past Spring with a major in Kinesiology, and she will begin nursing school in Texas at Brookhaven College this coming Spring.
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.
