WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – With 61 Boilermakers earning Big Ten Distinguished Scholar recognition for their academic excellence, Purdue Athletics had 60 honorees for the sixth consecutive school year.
Student-athletes across the conference were recognized as Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for achieving grade-point averages of 3.70 and better during the 2024-25 academic year. Nineteen of the Boilermakers’ 61 honorees (31%) compiled flawless 4.0 GPAs this past school year. That total is up from eight 4.0 student-athletes a year ago.
Ten of Purdue’s teams had at least one Big Ten Distinguished Scholar with a 4.0.
Nine Boilermakers were recognized as Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for at least the third time, a group headlined by graduate students and four-time honorees Logan Sandlin and Jenna Sonnenberg.
3-TIME BIG TEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS
Seniors/Grad Students to be recognized at least 3 times
• Grant Gogel – Men’s Track & Field
• Ali Hornung – Volleyball
• Caroline Jordan – Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field
• Kendall Klochack – Softball
• Juana Larranaga – Women's Tennis
• Sophie McAfee – Women’s Swimming & Diving
• Logan Sandlin (4x) – Men’s Track & Field
• Jenna Sonnenberg (4x) – Women’s Swimming & Diving
• Momo Sugiyama – Women’s Golf
Twenty of the Boilermakers’ Big Ten Distinguished Scholars were also 2025 spring graduates.
Purdue Swimming & Diving and Track & Field/Cross Country both accounted for 15 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars, with those sports combined nearly accounting for half of the department’s honorees this year.
Big Ten Faculty Representatives established the Distinguished Scholar award in 2008 to supplement the Academic All-Big Ten program. Distinguished Scholar recipients must have earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition in the previous academic year, must have been enrolled full time at the institution for the entire previous academic year (two semesters or three quarters) and earned a minimum GPA of 3.70 during the previous academic year, excluding any summer grades. The Academic All-Big Ten threshold is a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher for a student's academic career.
Purdue also had 248 student-athletes earn Academic All-Big Ten honors during the 2024-25 school year, good for third most in department history. There were a department-record 107 Academic All-Big Ten honorees in the spring as well as 72 in the winter and 69 in the fall.
BIG TEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR NOTABLES
• Women’s Swimming & Diving had a department-high 11 honorees.
• Diver Sophie McAfee was Purdue’s female recipient of the Big Ten Medal of Honor.
• Golfers Jocelyn Burch and Momo Sugiyama were both in the lineup for Purdue at the NCAA Championships.
• Brett Otterbacher was an NCAA Track & Field Championships qualifier again, competing with Purdue’s 4x400m relay team at the indoor meet.
• Divers Jenna Sonnenberg and McAfee also returned to the NCAA Championships, with Sonnenberg qualifying in all three diving events. McAfee was an All-American on platform and an honorable mention All-American on 3-meter, the event in which she set a team-record list score in November.
• Baseball’s Aaron Manias was a third-team Academic All-America honoree and Michael Vallone was a second-team All-Big Ten performer.
• As Purdue Volleyball’s primary libero, Ali Hornung played in all 118 sets and led the team with 491 digs, helping lead the Boilermakers to the third round (regional semifinal) of the NCAA Tournament.
• Swimmer Kathryn Ackerman eclipsed the Purdue record in the 400 individual medley.
FULL LIST OF PURDUE’S 2024-25 BIG TEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS
Names in bold achieved 4.0 GPAs for the school year
Years in parentheses are previous years they were also recognized
BASEBALL
• Brandon Anderson – Graduate Certificate in Communication & Leadership
• Albert Choi – Graduate Certificate in Communication & Leadership
• Brody Chrisman – Selling & Sales Management (2024)
• Aaron Manias – Selling & Sales Management
• Michael Vallone – Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Management
MEN’S BASKETBALL
• Josh Furst – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Med)
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY AND TRACK & FIELD
• Joel Gomez – Civil Engineering
• Matthew Helton – Finance
• Quintin Lowe – Environmental & Natural Resources Engineering
• Brady Yoder – Supply Chain & Operations Management (2024)
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY AND TRACK & FIELD
• Meredith Bloss – Master’s in Mechanical Engineering
• Jaelyn Burgos – Kinesiology
• Julia Economou – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Med)
• Paige Hazelrigg – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Dentistry)
• Caroline Jordan – Ecology, Evolution & Environmental Biology (2023, 2024)
FOOTBALL
• Bakyne Coly – Studio Arts & Technology / Art History
• Joey Tanona – Film & Video Production
MEN’S GOLF
• Sam Maylee – Finance (2024)
• Andrew White – Finance / Accounting (2024)
WOMEN’S GOLF
• Jocelyn Burch – Master’s in Communication
• Alison Hildebrand – Mechanical Engineering (2024)
• Jasmin Kahler – Sociology
• Lana Malek – Biological Engineering
• Momo Sugiyama – Psychological Sciences (2023, 2024)
SOCCER
• Lauren Adam – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Dentistry)
• Sabrina Blount – Animal Sciences / Pre-Veterinary
• Sydney Boudreau – Civil Engineering
• Abigail Roy – Integrated Business & Engineering
SOFTBALL
• Emma Bailey – Interior Design (2024)
• Kyndall Bailey – Media & Mass Communication (2024)
• Kylie Franks – Organizational Leadership
• Kendall Klochack – Actuarial Sciences / Applied Statistics (2023, 2024)
• Delaney Reefe – Development & Family Science
• Ryen Ross – Public Health (2024)
MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING
• Wyatt Blair – Financial Counseling & Planning
• Holden Higbie – Finance
• Idris Muhammad – Mechanical Engineering
• AJ Robertson – Construction Management
WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING
• Kathryn Ackerman – Master’s in Biomedical Engineering (2024 at Michigan)
• Olivia Callinswood – Biochemistry
• Kelsey Cooper – Brain & Behavioral Sciences (2024)
• Mahala Erlandson – Selling & Sales Management
• Madeline Greaves – Elementary Education (2024)
• Abbie Kehmeier – Public Relations & Strategic Communication
• Sophie McAfee – Economics (2023, 2024)
• Maggie Love – Biomedical Engineering (2024)
• Ana Rojas – Public Health (2024)
• Jenna Sonnenberg – Graduate Certificate in Communication & Leadership (2022, 2023, 2024)
• Cecilie Wiuff – Electrical Engineering
WOMEN’S TENNIS
• Calissa Dellabarca – Political Science
• Juana Larranaga – Nutrition & Dietetics (2023, 2024)
MEN’S TRACK & FIELD
• Danny Affleck – Biology (2024)
• Grant Gogel – Mechanical Engineering (2023, 2024)
• Brett Otterbacher – Construction Engineering (2024)
• Logan Sandlin – Master’s in Sports Engineering (2022, 2023, 2024)
WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD
• Rebecca Caliendo – Economics (2024)
• K’Ja Talley – Graduate Certificate in Communication & Leadership
WRESTLING
• Jaden Reynolds – Selling & Sales Management
• James Rowley – Law & Society
VOLLEYBALL
• Ali Hornung – Hospitality & Tourism Management (2023, 2024)
• Julia Kane – Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences (2024)