SEARCY – Harding University track and field/cross country athletes Katy Grant and Dia Gibson were named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VI Team on Thursday. It was Grant's third career Academic All-District honor and the first for Gibson.

Grant, a senior from Mustang, Okla., has earned Academic All-America honors each of the last two years and could add her third honor when the Academic All-America Team is revealed on Thursday, June 24.

Grant earned her third All-Gulf South Conference cross country honor in 2009 by winning the GSC Cross Country Championship. She also earned All-South Region honors for the third time.

A holder of three Harding records, Grant ran an NCAA provisional time of 11:11.71 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase during the outdoor season.

Grant recently received her social work degree from Harding. She graduated with a perfect 4.00 grade point average.

Gibson, a senior from Jonesboro, Ark., ranked first in the NCAA Division II South Region in the indoor high jump with a mark of 5 feet, 4.25 inches. Outdoors, she high jumped 5-3.75 to rank third in the region.

Gibson is an exercise science major with a 3.43 grade point average.

The ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District teams are voted on by the district's sports information directors. District VI includes NCAA II, NCAA III, and NAIA schools in Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Mississippi.

Grant and Gibson were two of ten student-athletes that will move on the Academic All-America ballot.