DEKALB, Ill. – Six Northern Illinois University spring student-athletes were named Mid-American Conference Distinguished Scholar Athletes on Monday.
 
Four student-athletes earned their first Distinguished Scholar Athlete honor, while two others earned the recognition for a second time.
 
The Distinguished Scholar Athlete is an award given to students who have excelled in athletics and academics. Following each season, any student with a 3.20 grade point average and has participated in at least 50 percent of their team's contests was automatically named to the Academic All-MAC team from each sport. The faculty athletic representatives then select the 'best of the best' of the Academic All-MAC teams to be honored with the Distinguished Scholar Athlete Award.
 
Below is the complete list of NIU's MAC Distinguished Scholar Athletes for the spring of 2018:
 
Baseball: Blake Walker, Sophomore, 3.87 GPA, Kinesiology
Men's Golf: Thomas DeMarco, Junior, 3.645 GPA, Finance
Women's Golf: Kelly Anderson, Junior, 3.987 GPA, Communicative Disorders
Softball: Jenny Van Geertry, Junior, 3.853 GPA, Rehabilitation Services
Men's Tennis: Georg Lundkvist, Senior, 3.609 GPA, Finance
Women's Track and Field: Nora Finegan, Sophomore, 3.952 GPA, Electrical & Computer Engineering
 
NIU softball had two honorees after reaching the MAC Tournament championship game. Jenny Van Geertry (Mokena, Ill.) was named Second Team All-Mac this season after leading the Huskies in eight offensive categories, hitting .385 with 110 total bases and 44 runs scored. She was also named to the Second Team All-Great Lakes Region by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors. Van Geertry was named a MAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete for the second consecutive year.
 
Kelly Anderson (Wheaton, Ill.) also earned her second straight MAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete honor. The junior finished the season second on the NIU women's golf team with a 76.3 scoring average. She led the Huskies to a third-place finish at the MAC Championships with NIU's highest individual finish in a tie for 11^th. Anderson was named an All-American Scholar by the Women's Golf Coaches Association last week.
 
Senior Georg Lundkvist (Linkoping, Sweden) earned his first MAC Distinguished Scholar Athlete recognition. Lundkvist finished his senior season with a 21-14 record and won the MAC's Jack Vredevelt Sportsmanship Award. NIU men's golfer Thomas DeMarco (LaSalle, Ontario), along with sophomores Blake Walker (Indianapolis, Ind.) of NIU baseball and Nora Finegan (Palatine, Ill.) of women's track and field, earned their first career Distinguished Scholar Athlete honors as well.
 
The six spring student-athletes recognized by the MAC join nine honorees from the fall and five Distinguished Scholar Athletes from the winter season to total 20 Huskies honored as MAC Distinguised Scholar Athletes during the 2017-18 academic year.