ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference announced this week that 26 Maryland student-athletes competing in intercollegiate athletics were named Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award recipients. The list includes student-athletes from 12 different teams from the men's basketball, women's basketball, field hockey, football, men's golf, women's lacrosse, women's soccer, softball, track & field, volleyball and wrestling programs who have recorded a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year.

The 2017-18 class of Distinguished Scholar Award recipients includes three student-athletes who maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA during the previous academic term in Adam Greene (football), Jen Giles (women's lacrosse) and Kate Swetz (women's soccer). Greene earned a master of finance this past spring, Giles is a rising senior studying marketing and Swetz is a rising senior majoring in finance.

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.