DeKALB, Ill. - Fourteen Northern Illinois University student-athletes representing the school's five fall sports programs, including five members of the NIU football team, have earned the Distinguished Scholar-Athlete Award from the Mid-American Conference as the league office announced 194 recipients of the new award Friday.

In addition to the five football student-athletes from the Huskies' 2014 MAC Championship team, NIU's first fall class of Distinguished Scholar-Athletes includes four women's soccer players, two individuals each from the Huskie men's soccer and volleyball squads, and women's cross country runner Carly Pederson.

The Distinguished Scholar-Athlete Award is presented to student-athletes who the league's faculty athletics representatives voted as the "best of the best" in both athletics and academics. The Distinguished Scholar-Athletes are announced at the conclusion of the fall and spring semester competitions and are chosen from among the student-athletes who are named to the Academic All-MAC squad from their respective sports. All have a GPA of at least 3.20, are in at least their second year at their respective institutions and have participated in at least 50 percent of their team's athletic contests that year.

The complete list of NIU's MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes for Fall 2014:

WXC - Carly Pederson, Sophomore, 4.00, Pre-Med (Bloomington, Ill.)
MSOC - Andrew Glaeser, Junior, 3.96 GPA, Mech. Engineering (Walla Walla, Wash.)
MSOC - Dusty Page, Senior, 4.00 GPA, Finance (Germantown, Wis.)
WSOC - Alex Elias, Sophomore, 4.00 GPA, Mathematics (Phoenix, Ariz.)
WSOC - Nicole Gobbo, Junior, 3.69 GPA, Marketing (Bartlett, Ill.)
WSOC - Ashley Neubeck, Senior, 3.86 GPA, Accountancy (Lindenhurst, Ill.)
WSOC - Gwen Sabo, Senior, 3.76 GPA, Accountancy (Alton, Ill.)
VB - Jenna Radtke, Sophomore, 3.22 GPA, undecided (Buffalo Grove, Ill.)
VB - Mackenzie Roddy, Senior, 3.94 GPA, Business Management (San Bernardino, Calif.)
FB - Ryan Brown, Senior, 3.67 GPA, Business Administration (Elburn, Ill.)
FB - Michael Gegner, Senior, 3.66 GPA, Health/Systems Engineering (Indianapolis, Ind.)
FB - Drew Hare, Sophomore, 3.63 GPA, Business Leadership & Mgmt. (O'Fallon, Mo.)
FB - Jason Meehan, Senior, 3.25 GPA, Marketing (St. Louis, Mo.)
FB - Rob Sterling, Senior, 3.63 GPA, Accountancy (Lansing, Ill.)

Three individuals - Pederson, men's soccer senior Dusty Page, a second-team Capital One Academic All-American in 2014, and Alex Elias, a sophomore member of NIU's women's soccer team - own perfect 4.00 grade point averages. Nine of the student-athletes selected have majors in the College of Business, and two are majoring in Engineering. Eight seniors, two juniors and four sophomores were selected.

The Huskie Distinguished Scholar-Athlete group features three first-team All-MAC performers as volleyball players Mackenzie Roddy and Jenna Radtke, and football defensive end Jason Meehan all earned the honor in 2014. Roddy was an honorable mention AVCA All-American and first team All-Region selection. In addition to Page, Elias, Roddy and football senior Rob Sterling received Capital One Academic All-District recognition from the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Later this spring, the MAC will announce the Distinguished Scholar Athletes from the remaining winter and spring sports sponsored by the Conference.

-- NIU --

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