ROSEMONT, Ill. –The Big Ten Conference announced on Wednesday that 31 Maryland students competing in intercollegiate athletics have earned the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award. The list includes students from men's and women's basketball, field hockey, football, women's gymnastics, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, women's tennis, track & field and volleyball programs who have recorded a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year.

The 2015-16 class of Distinguished Scholar Award recipients includes three students who maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA during the previous academic term, including Zoe Stukenberg (women's lacrosse), Olga Bredikhina (women's tennis) and Emily Fraik (volleyball). This group of honorees is pursuing diverse fields of study with a list of majors that include aerospace engineering, biological sciences, kinesiology, journalism, sociology, studio art and elementary education.

Big Ten Faculty Representatives established the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2008 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 students 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's academic career.

-Terps-