Chambana Sun

The Big Ten Conference has announced its 2023-24 Distinguished Scholar list, recognizing 102 student-athletes from the University of Illinois' Fighting Illini. The awards were established in 2008 by Big Ten Faculty Representatives to complement the Academic All-Big Ten program.

To qualify for the Distinguished Scholar Award, student-athletes must have been recognized as Academic All-Big Ten in the previous academic year, maintained full-time enrollment for two semesters or three quarters, and achieved a minimum GPA of 3.70 during that period. The baseline for Academic All-Big Ten is a cumulative GPA of 3.00 throughout a student's academic career.

Among those honored, several student-athletes achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA for the academic year, denoted with an asterisk next to their names.

The honorees span various sports teams at Illinois. In baseball, Brady Banker (Agricultural & Consumer Economics), Joe Glassey (MS: Management), Camden Janik (Information Systems), and Ben Plumley (Agricultural & Consumer Economics) were recognized.

In women's basketball, Kendall Bostic was acknowledged for her Special Education graduate studies with a perfect GPA. Makira Cook and Adalia McKenzie also earned honors in Community Health and Recreation, Sport & Tourism respectively.

Football players Keion Battle (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences), Hank Beatty (Marketing), Ben Clawson (Agribusiness), TeRah Edwards (Strategic Brand Communication), Josh Gesky (Kinesiology), Grayson Griffin (Recreation, Sport & Tourism), TJ Griffin (Organization & Community Leadership), and Sam Tsagalis (Integrative Biology) were named distinguished scholars.

Men's track & field/cross country had Shawn Juliette achieving a perfect GPA in Finance + Data Science along with Will Merrick, Jake Myers, Aiden Ouimet, Tadeas Placek, Will Rezny, and Jack Roberts earning distinctions in their respective fields.

Women's track & field/cross country included Olivia Campbell and Abby Lynch who both secured perfect GPAs in Psychology and Accountancy respectively among others like Amalia Malecek and Lydia Malecek.

In men's golf Jackson Buchanan was honored alongside Ryan Voois who attained a perfect score in Finance. Women's golf saw Lexanne Halama achieve perfection in Integrative Biology with Anna Ritter and Isabel Sy also being recognized.

Men's gymnastics featured Ethan Boder among others including Max Farkhadau who scored perfectly in Chemistry. For women's gymnastics Alea Byrne joined Kaitlyn Ewald who achieved perfection alongside Amelia Knight also securing top scores.

Soccer player Kennedy Berschel was listed with Ashley Cathro attaining perfection while softball included Paige Berkmeyer among those achieving top grades like Gabrielle Debevec.

Swimming & diving participants such as Suvana Baskar were noted alongside Laurel Bludgen who reached top scores as did Alexis Wendel among others.

In men's tennis Mathis Debru joined Kenta Miyoshi while Oliver Okonkwo achieved perfection in Kinesiology. Women's tennis saw Kida Ferrari joining Josie Frazier who scored perfectly too.

Volleyball's Caroline Barnes attained top marks along with Sarah Bingham while wrestling featured Justin Cardani among other distinguished scholars like Luke Luffman achieving excellence academically this past year.