April 15, 2016 CLEVELAND – Six Northern Illinois University student-athletes were recognized as Mid-American Conference Distinguished Scholar Athletes from the winter sports season, the league office announced on Friday.

The six Huskies honored by the MAC – with two representatives each from women’s basketball, women’s gymnastics and women’s indoor track & field – marked an improvement on the five NIU selections for the same award last year and signaled another highlight for the continued success academically from the NIU athletic department.

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.

Here is the complete list of NIU’s MAC Distinguished Scholar Athletes for the winter of 2015-16:

WBB – Lacia Gorman, Graduate Student, 3.87 GPA, Early Childhood Education
WBB – Kelly Smith, Sophomore, 3.98 GPA, Biological Sciences
GYM – Megan Greenfield, Junior, 3.84 GPA, Kinesiology
GYM – Jamyra Carter, Junior, 3.20 GPA, Organizational & Corporate Communications
ITF – Carly Pederson, Junior, 3.91 GPA, Nursing
ITF – Hannah Savage, 3.85 GPA, Biological Sciences

NIU women’s basketball improved upon its MAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete total as Lacia Gorman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Wisconsin) and Kelly Smith (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) were both honored. Two players who started the majority of games for the Huskies, Smith finished second on the team at 10.7 points per game to go with her average of 5.5 rebounds, while Gorman provided lockdown defense and tallied 79 assists to rank second on the team.

The two Huskie gymnasts selected, Megan Greenfield (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South) and Jamyra Carter (Ypsilanti, Mich./Huron), both advanced to NCAA Regionals for NIU in 2016 on top of their outstanding academic achievement. Greenfield qualified for the regional meet in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the beam, while Carter specialized in the uneven parallel bars. Both scored at least 9.700 at Alabama to cap tremendous junior seasons of gymnastics.

And NIU track & field again had two honorees for the prestigious MAC award from its indoor season as distance runners Carly Pederson (Bloomington, Ill./Normal Community) and Hannah Savage (Cedar Falls, Iowa/Cedar Falls) garnered the distinction. Pederson was one of NIU’s most-improved runners and advanced to the MAC Championships in the 5,000 meters, and Savage tallied four top-10 finishes total to highlight her indoor efforts in the mile and the 3,000 meters.

These six winter-sports Huskies joined the 17 NIU student-athletes dubbed MAC Distinguished Scholar Athletes from the fall season to total 23 Northern Illinois selections thus far during the 2015-16 season.

--NIU--