EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern smashed another academic milestone Thursday when 84 Wildcats earned spring Academic All-Big Ten awards to bring the year's total to a school-record 228 recipients. This is the fifth-straight year that NU student-athletes have collected over 200 honors for work in the classroom.

This spring 84 student-athletes from across eight different sports were recognized for their outstanding achievement in the classroom. To be eligible for an Academic All-Big Ten selection, student-athletes must be letterwinners who are in at least their second academic year at their institution. From that pool, those who carry a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher receive the award. Remarkably, 76 percent of those eligible from NU's spring and at-large sports qualified for the accolade.

In addition to the abundance of success in the classroom, six of the eight Northwestern teams receiving academic distinction this week also advanced to postseason competition. Earlier this week, the women's golf program posted a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Championships in Bradenton, Fla., its best-ever placement at the event.

The Big Ten recognized a total of 1,447 student-athletes from its spring and at-large sports Thursday. Notably, of 93 women's lacrosse recipients conference-wide, 20 percent (19 total) come from Northwestern. Out of the 126 baseball players that were recognized from 13 schools, 19 represent Chicago's Big Ten Team (15%).

Northwestern student-athletes garnered 41 Academic All-Big Ten recognitions in the winter, while 103 were recognized in the fall. All told, approximately 65 percent of eligible NU student-athletes picked up an Academic All-Big Ten award during the 2014-15 school year.

The Wildcats have continued to raise the bar as they set other academic records in recent days, as well. On May 20 a school-record 15 of 19 programs received NCAA Public Recognition Awards for placing in the top-10 percent of their respective sports in the latest multi-year Academic Progress Rate (APR) data. Additionally, it was announced Wednesday that a school-record twelve of NU's 19 teams received perfect APR scores of 1,000 for the 2010-11 to 2013-14 cohort.

The conference office will also present the Distinguished Scholar Award in July. Qualifying students must be in at least their second year at the institution, while maintaining at least a 3.7 grade-point average.

Following are Northwestern's 2015 spring and at-large season Academic All-Big Ten award winners:

••••••

Be the first to know what's going on with the 'Cats -- Follow @NU_Sports on Twitter and Instagram, become a fan of Northwestern Athletics on Facebook and sign up to receive promotional text alerts for the latest news, schedule updates and video and to interact with NU. For more information on following specific Northwestern teams online, visit our Social Media page!

Northwestern University Athletics

Northwestern University Athletics

Northwestern Establishes Another Academic Milestone

••••••

Related News

Related Videos