ROSEMONT, IL – The 2026 Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team had six players named Big Ten Distinguished Scholars it was announced today.  Among the six are three seniors, two juniors and one sophomore; four of the six earn Distinguished Scholar honors for the first time in their career, while two, seniors Tripp Didden and Eric McDonald, were named for the third time.  Didden and McDonald become just the third and fourth players in program history to earn Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honors three times as they join Owen McManus (2020, 2021, 2022) and Jack Charboneau (2023, 2024, 2025) on this select list.

Big Ten Faculty Representatives established the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2008 to supplement the Academic All-Big Ten program. Distinguished Scholar Award recipients must have earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition in the previous academic year, must have been enrolled full time at the institution for the entire previous academic year (two semesters or three quarters) and earned a minimum GPA of 3.70 or better during the previous academic year, excluding any summer grades.

The list includes student-athletes from all 18 member institutions, plus affiliate members Johns Hopkins (men's & women's lacrosse) and Notre Dame (men's ice hockey). Collectively, this group competed in 41 different sports this past season.  In all, the 2025-26 class of Distinguished Scholar Award recipients includes 350 student-athletes who maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA during the previous academic term; in all, a total of 1,926 student-athletes earned Distinguished Scholar accolades.

Didden was among the 350 student-athletes, and four men's lacrosse players, who posted a perfect 4.0 GPA for the 2025-26 academic year

Johns Hopkins' 2025-26 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars (2025-26 GPA)
Liam Burke (So. • SSDM) – Political Science (3.79)
Erik Chick (Jr. • M) – Political Science (3.71)
Tripp Didden (Sr. • D) – Economics (4.00) *
Triston Jewell (Jr. • SSDM) – Public Health (3.70)
Nicholas Lane (Sr. • FO) – Neuroscience (3.86)
Eric McDonald (So. • SSDM) – Political Science (3.86) *

* 2024 & 2025 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar