UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Soccer seniors Kerry Abello and Pierre Reedy have been selected as Penn State's 2020-21 recipients of the prestigious Big Ten Medal of Honor.
The Big Ten, the nation's oldest collegiate conference, commemorates the 107th anniversary of a very unique tradition – the Big Ten Medal of Honor – awarded to one male and one female student from the graduating class of each member institution who has demonstrated excellence on and off the field throughout their college career.
The conference's most exclusive award was the first of its kind in intercollegiate athletics to recognize academic and athletic excellence. The Big Ten Medal of Honor was first awarded in 1915 to one student from the graduating class of each university who had "attained the greatest proficiency in athletics and scholastic work."
In 1982, the award was expanded to include one female student-athlete from each member institution. Big Ten institutions feature early 10,000 students competing in intercollegiate athletics, but only 28 earn this prestigious award on an annual basis. In more than 100 years of the Big Ten Medal of Honor, nearly 1,400 students have earned this distinction.
Abello is the sixth women's soccer student-athlete to win Big Ten Medal of Honor laurels and second-straight, joining Emily Oleksiuk (2003), Joanna Lohman (2005), Zoe Bouchelle (2009), Britt Eckerstrom (2016) and Kaleigh Riehl (2020). Reedy is the third Nittany Lion men's soccer student-athlete to earn the award, joining Conrad Taylor (2008) and Jason Yeisley (2010).
Kerry Abello
Senior Kerry Abello has been a versatile student-athlete for the Nittany Lions, playing every position in her career at Penn State while helping the team to three Big Ten Championship titles.
On the pitch, Abello has been part of the Nittany Lions' 62 wins and has tallied five game-winning goals during her career. She is a two-time All-Big Ten honoree as well as a two-time United Soccer Coaches All-North Region honoree.
In the classroom, Abello has twice earned CoSIDA Academic All-America accolades (2018, 2019). She is also a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and two-time Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honoree. In spring 2021, Abello was tabbed as a Senior CLASS second-team All-American.
Pierre Reedy
Redshirt senior midfielder Pierre Reedy has been the ultimate student-athlete in his collegiate career as a Nittany Lion.
During the 2020-21 spring season, a season truly unlike any other, Reedy, a two-time team captain, helped lead the Nittany Lions to their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and their first Sweet Sixteen since 2013. He scored a career-best five goals and added four assists for a career-high 14 total points. He was named Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week during the season and earned third-team All-America status in the postseason, as well as first-team All-Big Ten honors and United Soccer Coaches All-North Region first team accolades.
This 2020-21 season of accomplishments was well-deserved for the Kutztown, Pennsylvania native, building on a 2019 season where he had four assists in his first season back on the pitch after missing the previous two seasons with season-ending knee injuries.
In the classroom, Reedy is a two-time Penn State graduate, completing his undergraduate degree in security and risk analysis with a 3.64 cumulative grade-point average in May 2020 and his masters in corporate finance with a 3.66 GPA in May 2021. In 2021, he was named a first-team Scholar All-American from United Soccer Coaches and CoSIDA Academic All-District. Reedy is also a four-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and was a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar during the 2018-19 school year.
Penn State Ranked in Top 25 in Learfield Directors' Cup Midseason Standings
Following the fall and winter athletic seasons, Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics stands in the top 25 in the Learfield IMG College Directors' Cup Division I standings with a No. 22 ranking. Penn State was led by the fencing and wrestling programs which finished as the nation's second-ranked team.
Also adding points for the Nittany Lions were the men's gymnastics program who sent eight gymnasts to the NCAA Championships en route to a No. 7 ranking, the women's gymnastics program who boasted four individual NCAA Regional qualifiers and the men's swimming and diving program who had five athletes earn All-America honorable mention honors at the NCAA Championships.
The Directors' Cup awards points based on success at NCAA postseason events. The final Division I Learfield IMG College Directors' Cup standings spring update with be published on July 2, following the conclusion of the College World Series.
Penn State is among only nine institutions nationwide to have finished in the Top 25 in all 26 Learfield Directors' Cup final standings.
Record-Breaking NCAA Graduation Success Rate
The Nittany Lions recorded a fourth consecutive record academic performance with a 92 percent graduation success rate, according to data reported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
The NCAA's annual graduation rates report of Division I institutions across the nation revealed Penn State student-athletes at the University Park campus earned a Graduate Success Rate (GSR) of 92 percent to break the school's all-time record of 91, which was previously set in the 2019 NCAA report. Nittany Lion students posted a 92 percent graduation rate compared to the 88 percent average for all Division I institutions for students entering from 2010-11 through the 2013-14 academic year.
Penn State student-athletes have logged a GSR in the 88-92 percent range during each of the past 14 NCAA reports, improving from 88 percent in the 2015 report to a record-breaking 92 percent report in 2020.
Sixteen of the Nittany Lions' 27 teams (men's and women's track and field/cross country teams combined) earned a GSR at or above the Division I national GSR average for their respective sport. A total of 17 Penn State squads have a GSR of 90 percent or higher.
Penn State Among the Nation's Most Comprehensive and Successful Athletic Programs
Under the leadership of Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sandy Barbour, Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive and successful athletic programs, featuring 800 student-athletes across 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's). The Nittany Lions' 31 programs are tied for the fourth-highest number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution.
