Matt Hipshire Receives Third Straight CoSIDA Academic All-America Award

SEARCY – Harding senior Matthew Hipshire of the men's track and field team, the 2021 Great American Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year, received his third consecutive CoSIDA Academic All-America honor Wednesday. He was a Third Team honoree in 2019 and Second Team in both 2020 and 2021.

Hipshire, a native of Ferris, Texas, and a 2017 graduate of Life High School, graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.00 GPA in mechanical engineering.

Hipshire placed second in the decathlon at the 2021 GAC Track and Field Championship. His scored of 6,090 points was Harding's fourth best at the GAC Championships. He also placed seventh in the 110-meter hurdles, eighth in the high jump, ninth in the javelin and 10th in the long jump.

Hipshire won the decathlon at the Bobcat Invitational, hosted by Texas State, and the NextEra Energy Harding Spring Break Multi. He finished the season ranked 51st in NCAA Division II in the decathlon and set Harding's indoor heptathlon record with 4,804 points in a meet at Northwest Missouri State.

All nominees for this award must have reached sophomore status, carry a 3.30 cumulative GPA and boast noteworthy academic and athletic achievements.

Hipshire is Harding's second CoSIDA Academic All-American in the 2020-21 school year, joining Allison Carpenter of the women's tennis team.

Hipshire in the fourth member of the Harding men's track and field team to earn three or more Academic All-America honors. The others were Scott Penick (2000-2002), Kevin Naceanceno (2014-16) and Lucas Goodspeed (2015-18)

With Hipshire's award, Harding men's track and field has had at least one Academic All-American in each of the last eight years with 14 total honorees during that time.

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Players Mentioned

Matt Hipshire: Multi; 5' 11"; Senior

Players Mentioned

Matt Hipshire
: 5' 11"; Senior
: Multi