July 11, 2012

PARK RIDGE, Ill. -- Thirty-six University of Wisconsin student-athletes were named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for 2011-12 in a release by the Big Ten Conference office Wednesday.

The Conference announced a total of 587 student-athletes were selected in 36 different sports who had earned a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year. Distinguished Scholar Award recipients must be letterwinners in at least their second academic year at their institution.

Wisconsin had 15 sports represented in the Distinguished Honors List including men's cross country (2); women's cross country (3); football (2); women's golf (1); men's hockey (1); women's lightweight rowing (3); men's rowing (4); women's rowing (4); men's soccer (1); women's soccer (5); women's tennis (2); men's track (1); women's track (3); volleyball  (2); wrestling (1).

Six honorees had a 4.0 cumulative grade point average for the 2011-12 year including Megan Beers, a senior cross country runner in elementary education from Brooklyn, Wis.; Kimberly Dinh, a redshirt sophomore golfer majoring in chemical engineering from Midland, Mich.; Jenna Pavelec, a sophomore lightweight rower majoring in international studies from Mequon, Wis.; Kendall Schmidt, a junior rower from Greenfield, Wis.; Laurie Nosbusch, a soccer player and double major in biology and Spanish from Mequon, Wis.; and Alaina Trgovich, a senior tennis player majoring in rehabilitative psychology from Munster, Ind.

Three-time honorees include Beers, Schmidt, Nosbusch and Trgovich. Other repeat  honorees include Michael Brice and Elliot Krause in men's cross country; Andrew Lukasko from football; Jessical Lund in lightweight rowing; Paige Adams in women's soccer; Lauren Gruber from women's tennis and Monika Jakutyte from women's track.

Wisconsin's 2011-12 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars