106 student-athletes earn Winter Academic All-Big Ten

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Penn State records its second-highest total for the Winter 2022-23 Academic All-Big Ten with 106 student-athletes earning a 3.0 or higher GPA. The highest all-time winter selection was achieved last year in 2021-22, when the Nittany Lions honored 123 student-athletes with the achievement.

To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, students must be part of a varsity team, as verified by being on the official selection list as of March 1 for winter sports, who are enrolled full-time at the institution for at least 12 months and have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.

Molly Carson, a sophomore on the women’s swim and dive team, was the only student-athlete to earn a spotless GPA.

Among those on the list of the winter Academic All-Big Ten honorees is women’s basketball Makenna Marsia, who earned her second consecutive College Sports Communicators’ Academic All-American Third Team selection this winter. In total, Penn State has earned 233 Academic All-America honors in the program’s history.

The women’s swim and diving team led Penn State for a fifth consecutive year with 234 Academic All-Big Ten honors. The men’s swim and dive team earned 13 awards, giving the program a total of 37 for the winter awards. The men’s hockey team trailed the women’s swimming and diving with 19 selections, and the National Champion wrestling program placed 16 team members on the Academic All-Big Ten list.

Team by Team Honorees

Women’s Swimming & Diving 24
Men’s hockey 19
Wrestling 16
Women’s gymnastics 14
Men’s Swimming & Diving 13
Men’s gymnastics 7
Men’s basketball 7
Women’s basketball 6

Penn State’s athletic department recorded 109 fall honors. The final 106 winter selections bring Penn State’s total academic honorees to 8,092 since 1991-92.

Penn State Highest Winter Academic All-Big Ten Totals (3.0 GPA):
2021-22 123*
2022-23 107
2020-21 106#
2018-19 91
2019-20 82
2015-16 79
* – Grade lists
# – alternative format due to COVID-19 pandemic

Graduation success rates

Penn State student-athletes continue to record record-breaking graduation rates and far exceed their peers across the country. The Nittany Lions achieved a record 92%NCAA Graduation Pass Rate (GSR)and 10 programs earned perfect 100% ratings. This is the sixth straight year that the Nittany Lions have posted a record or record-breaking performance in class, according to data reported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The NCAA’s annual report on the graduation rates of Division I institutions across the country found that Penn State student-athletes on the University Park campus achieved a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 92%, setting the record for 92 of the school, which was previously established in the 2020 and 2021 NCAA report. Nittany Lion students achieved a graduation rate of 92% compared to the 89% average for all Division I institutions for students graduating from 2012-13 up to and including the academic year 2015-16.

Penn State student-athletes have recorded graduation success rates in the range of 88-92% during each of the past 16 NCAA reports, improving from 88% in the 2015 report to a record-breaking 92% in the last three reports.

Twenty-one of the 27 teams of the Nittany Lions (combined men’s and women’s track and field teams) achieved a graduation success rate of 89% or higher than the Division I national GSR average.

The 10 Nittany Lion squads that posted 100% Graduation Success Rate scores were: Women’s Fencing, Field Hockey, Men’s Golf, Women’s Golf, Women’s Field Hockey, Women’s Swimming & Diving, Men’s Tennis, Women’s Tennis, Men’s Volleyball, and Wrestling.

Penn State has one of the nation’s most comprehensive and successful athletic programs

Under the direction of Vice President Intercollegiate AthleticsPatrick KraftPenn State has one of the most extensive and successful athletic programs in the country, with 800 student-athletes across 31 varsity programs (16 men, 15 women). The Nittany Lions’ 31 programs are tied for the fourth-most number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution.