WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Forty-five Boilermakers have been recognized as Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for academic excellence that featured them achieving 3.7-plus grade point averages during the 2025-26 school year.
Eight Boilermakers compiled flawless 4.0 GPAs this past school year to earn special recognition among the Big Ten’s most exceptional academic performers. Six of Purdue’s teams had at least one Big Ten Distinguished Scholar with a 4.0.
Five Boilermakers were recognized as Big Ten Distinguished Scholars for the third time, headlining a group of 17 multi-year honorees.
3-TIME BIG TEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS
Seniors/Grad Students to be recognized at least 3 times
• Emma Bailey – Softball
• Kelsey Cooper – Women’s Swimming & Diving
• Alison Hildebrand – Women’s Golf
• Julie Kane – Volleyball
• Ana Rojas – Women’s Swimming & Diving
MORE MULTI-YEAR HONOREES
• Mujtaba Ali-Khan – Men’s Tennis
• Bakyne Coly – Football
• Julia Economou – Women’s Cross Country/Track & Field
• Kylie Franks – Softball
• Abbie Kehmeier – Women’s Swimming & Diving
• Paige Hazelrigg – Women’s Cross Country/Track & Field
• Quintin Lowe – Men’s Cross Country/Track & Field
• Lana Malek – Women’s Golf
• Aaron Manias – Baseball
• James Rowley – Wrestling
• Joey Tanona – Football
• Daryn Wright – Retail Management
Purdue Swimming & Diving accounted for a department-high 17 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars. Purdue Track & Field/Cross Country ranked second with nine honorees.
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 203 student-athletes earn Academic All-Big Ten honors during the 2025-26 school year – 52 in the fall, 77 in the winter and 74 in the spring.
BIG TEN DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR NOTABLES
• Women’s Swimming & Diving had a department-high 14 honorees.
• Diver Daryn Wright was Purdue’s female recipient of the Big Ten Medal of Honor. The Olympian won silver as an All-American in platform diving at the NCAA Championships and a pair of medals at the Big Ten Championships.
• Baseball’s Aaron Manias was an Academic All-American for the second year in a row, moving up to a second-team honoree this season. He was also chosen as the department’s male recipient of the Big Ten Outstanding Sportsmanship award.
• Headlined by Manias and Wright, 18 of Purdue’s Big Ten Distinguished Scholars were also Academic All-District honorees. That list also includes golfers Samantha Brown and Lauren Timpf; wrestlers Ashton Jackson and James Rowley; football’s Bakyne Coly and Joey Tanona; baseball’s Gavin Beuter; softball’s Kylie Franks; volleyball’s Julia Kane; men’s track & field/cross country’s Douglas Buckeridge, Quintin Lowe, Nathan Walker and Nerius White; swimming & diving’s Lara Phipps, Ana Rojas and Zach Welsh
• Softball’s Emma Bailey was the department’s female nominee for the Big Ten Jackie Robinson Community & Impact Award.
• Kane led the volleyball team in aces and played in all 131 sets as a key defensive performer. The Boilermakers posted a 27-7 record and advanced to a regional final (round of 8) at the NCAA Tournament again.
• Timpf was in the lineup for women’s golf at the NCAA Regional and represented Purdue on the Big Ten All-Championship Team.
• Brody Baumann was among Purdue’s four wrestlers to qualify for the NCAA Championships this season, earning a bid to nationals for the third consecutive year.
• Diver Zach Welsh joined Wright as an NCAA Championships qualifier. He was an All-American on 1-meter.
• Swimmers Hannah Hill, Lara Phipps and Adele Sands helped the Purdue women eclipse the team record in the 400 freestyle relay in November. It was a benchmark that had stood since 2011.
FULL LIST OF PURDUE’S 2025-26 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
• Gavin Beuter – Selling & Sales Management
• Aaron Manias – Selling & Sales Management (2025)
MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY AND TRACK & FIELD
• Douglas Buckeridge – Mathematics / Statistics
• Quintin Lowe – Environmental & Natural Resources Engineering (2025)
• Nathan Walker – Mathematics Education
• Nerius White – Kinesiology
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY AND TRACK & FIELD
• Julia Economou – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Med) (2025)
• Paige Hazelrigg – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Dentistry) (2025)
• Layla Henderson – Psychological Sciences
• Elise Peckinpaugh – Psychological Sciences
• Sophia Yon – Industrial Engineering / Integrated Business & Engineering
FOOTBALL
• Nolan Buckman – Selling & Sales Management
• Bakyne Coly – Studio Arts & Technology / Art History (2025)
• Luke Shorter – Integrated Business & Engineering
• Joey Tanona – Master’s in Sport Management (2025)
WOMEN’S GOLF
• Alison Hildebrand – Mechanical Engineering (2024, 2025)
• Lana Malek – Biological Engineering (2025)
• Lauren Timpf – Media & Mass Communication
SOCCER
• Katrina Chong – Kinesiology
SOFTBALL
• Emma Bailey – Interior Design (2024, 2025)
• Kylie Franks – Organizational Leadership (2025)
MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING
• Mason Kajfosz – Mechanical Engineering Technology
• Zach Welsh – Finance
• Raymond Whittaker – Electrical Engineering
WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING
• Kelsey Cooper – Brain & Behavioral Sciences (2024, 2025)
• Caroline Frazier – Environmental & Ecological Engineering
• Hannah Hill – Mechanical Engineering Technology
• Keira Kask – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Dentistry)
• Abbie Kehmeier – Public Relations & Strategic Communication (2025)
• Ashley Lund – Nursing
• Ruth Anne McCranie – Retail Management
• Ripley Merritt – Biomedical Health Sciences (Pre-Physician Assistant)
• Lara Phipps – Biomedical Health Sciences
• Ana Rojas – Master’s in Public Health (2024, 2025)
• Adele Sands – Kinesiology
• Kaitlin Simons – Biomedical Engineering
• Daryn Wright – Retail Management (2024)
MEN’S TENNIS
• Mujtaba Ali-Khan – Kinesiology (2024)
VOLLEYBALL
• Julia Kane – Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences (2024, 2025)
WRESTLING
• Brody Baumann – General Management
• Ashton Jackson – Selling & Sales Management
• Wyatt Krejsa – Selling & Sales Management
• Ethan Popp – Mechanical Engineering Technology
• James Rowley – Law & Society (2025)