Friday, June 05, 2009

MACON, Ga. - Eight A-Sun track and field athletes garned honors on the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District team. Four conference schools represent the list.

Diana Norden (Campbell-DIII, First Team), Natasha Harvey (Jacksonville-D-III, Second Team), Carolyn Latham (Lipscomb, D-IV, First Team) and Mollie Schlarman (Belmont, D-IV, First Team) represent the A-Sun on the women's side. Ryan Chastain (Lipscomb, D-IV, Second Team), Will Peters (Belmont, D-IV, Second Team), Caleb Swartz (Belmont, D-IV, Second Team) rounded out the men's honorees.

As first-team members, Norden, Schlarman and Latham will be on the ballot for Academic All-America recognition

Norden, a four-time Atlantic Sun All-Academic team member, Norden collected a pair of top-25 finishes in the 2008 cross country season with 5K and 6K personal bests. The 4.0 student-athlete, one of just four among District III winners, also set track personal indoor bests in the mile, 3000 and 5000 meters, while notching new outdoor personal records in the 1500, 3000, 5000 and 10000 meter events.

Harvey polished off a stellar career after leading the Dolphins to their fourth consecutive indoor and outdoor titles. She is the first Jacksonville athlete to win the award and just the third in her sport. Harvey finishes her undergraduate degree with an overall GPA of 3.53 and a 3.73 in her major. On the track, Harvey set conference and school records consistently throughout her career. She owns six A-Sun records and seven school records. She has racked up 18 individual titles and 29 all-conference team honors.

In cross country Latham earned Atlantic Sun All-Conference honors with a sixth place finish in the Conference Championships. She ran the course in 18:22, a personal record, despite missing most of the season. In 2007 she was also All-Conference in cross country with a seventh place finish in the Conference Championships. She has been a team captain for both cross country and track for the past two years. Latham has been a member of the A-Sun All-Academic Team for three years. She was named to the Athletic Director’s Academic Excellence Team, an honor given to Lipscomb athletes with a 3.5 or better GPA.

Over her four-year career with the cross country team, Schlarman has helped the Bruins earn three consecutive Atlantic Sun cross country titles. She boasts a 3.98 GPA and was up for the Courageous Student Athlete award recognizeing student-athletes who exemplify the ideals of balancing academics, athletics and lifetime pursuits.

Chastain, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, has a 3.68 GPA. He earned All-Atlantic Sun Conference honors, the first Bisons runner to accomplish the feat, with a time of 24:56.48 in the 8-kilometer course at the conference championships. In track he was ranked second in the conference in the 3000 meters this season. He is rankled in the top 10 this season in the conference in the 800 meters, the 1,500 meters, the 3,000 meters and the 5,000 meters. Chastain has been a team captain for both track and cross country the past two years. He has been an Atlantic Sun All-Academic Team member for the past two seasons.

Belmont's Kip Hill is a junior in political science with a 3.90 GPA and placed 14th in the A-Sun championship in 2008. His teammate Will Peters, a sophomore chemistry major with a 3.98 GPA took seventh in the 1500m (4:09.14) at the A-Sun Championship, The other Bruin on the list, senior Swartz has a 3.85 GPA in physics and earned a fifth-place finish in the 5000m with a time of 15:05.11.

CoSIDA's 1,800 members in the United States and Canada nominate players for ESPN The Magazine / Academic All-America recognition. To be eligible, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.30 cumulative grade-point average and be a starter or key reserve on his or her team. CoSIDA members vote on the all-district teams, then a national panel selects the Academic All-America squads. District 3 includes all NCAA Division I schools in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The national ESPN The Magazine / Academic All-America® team will be announced later this month.