WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – For the third year in a row, Purdue Athletics set a department record for Academic All-Big Ten honorees from the fall sports season with 107 Boilermakers recognized for excelling in the classroom.
Purdue set department records during the 2020-21 school year with 96 fall Academic All-Big Ten honorees, 256 overall Academic All-Big Ten honorees and 85 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars.
To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten, student-athletes must be enrolled full-time at their university for a minimum of 12 months and carry a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. Big Ten Distinguished Scholar recognition is based on a 3.7-plus yearly or cumulative GPA for sophomores and above.
Football led the way with a program-record 42 Academic All-Big Ten honorees this fall. Cross country produced 27 (12 women, 15 men). Soccer (21) and volleyball (17) both had a large majority of their award-eligible student-athletes also recognized.
Runners Mya Hagerty, Ian Hunter and Leah Keesling as well as football player Ben Furtney earned special recognition for maintaining flawless 4.0 cumulative GPAs.
All four sports from the fall season also had at least one student-athlete accomplish the unique feat of being a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. That group of eight four-time achievers headlines a list of 31 seniors to be recognized by the conference for at least the third time.
Altogether, 64 of the 107 Boilermakers recognized this month are now multi-year Academic All-Big Ten honorees. Volleyball had the highest percentage with 13 of its 17 honorees making the list again.
Purdue Athletics has enjoyed a memorable fall sports season, highlighted by NCAA Tournament victories by soccer and volleyball. Football’s eight victories included a pair of headline wins vs. top-five opponents and earned the Boilermakers a berth in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl. All three teams were ranked among the top 25 for multiple weeks. Meanwhile, both of cross country’s NCAA Championships qualifiers this season – Curt Eckstein and Emma Tate – were also Academic All-Big Ten honorees. Eckstein is a four-time NCAAs qualifier and four-time…
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