ELMHURST, Ill. - The Summit League had 11 cross country/track and field student-athletes named to ESPN The Magazine Academic-All America team announced by CoSIDA today. North Dakota State was represented by five athletes, South Dakota State three and IPFW, UMKC and Oakland each placed one on the list.

Amanda Benz, Whitney Carlson, Laura Hermanson, Shawn Francis and Jeremiah Sellheim each earned first team honors for the Bison. Benz, a senior pyschology major, and Carlson, a sophomore zoology major, had a 4.00 grade-point average (GPA). Hermanson has a 3.94 GPA as a senior business major, Sellheim, a senior pharmacy major, owns a 3.72 GPA and Francis, a senior physical education major compiled a GPA of 3.58. Carlson and Hermanson will represent NDSU at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships next week. Hermanson leads The Summit League the 800m (2:03.21) and the 1,500m (4:19.77), while Carlson set the league standard in the 400m hurdles (58.12) and the long jump (21-01.25/6.43m). Francis tops the league in the pole vault with a mark of 5.20m.

South Dakota State’s Ben Jasinski garnered first team accolades with a 3.76 GPA as a junior electrical engineering major. Amanda Frohling and Stacy Huss were named to the second team. Frohling, a senior biology and pre-physical therapy major, has a 4.00 GPA and Huss, a senior sociology and pre-law major, holds a 3.97 GPA. Jasinski leads the league with a mark of 15.62m in the triple jump.

IPFW’s Crystina Martinez was named to the second team. The senior from Valparaiso, Ind., owns a 3.51 GPA as a business major. After winning the 2008 Summit League Cross Country Championships with a season-best time of 20:54.9 in the 6K, Martinez was named the league’s cross country female athlete of the year.

UMKC’s Sara Hiller garnered first team accolades. Hiller, a senior from Springfield, Mo., is a pharmacy major with a 4.00 GPA. Hiller finished the 2009 outdoor campaign with a top-10 finish in 10,000-meter run with a time of 38:54.59 at The Summit League Outdoor Championships.

Zack Jones collected first team honors for Oakland. The Tustin, Mich., native has a 3.81 GPA as a junior linguistics major. Jones earned all-league honors for his performance at The Summit League Indoor Track and Field Championships in the 5,000-meter run (15:26.30) and set the school record in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:26.00. In the outdoor season, Jones set the school record in both the 5,000-meter (14:21.64) and the 10,000-meter (31:20.07) runs.

To be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or an important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his/her current institution. Nominated athletes must have participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s games at the position listed on the nomination form (where applicable). No student-athlete is eligible until he/she has completed at least one full calendar year at his/her current institution.

For a complete list of all honorees, please visit www.cosida.com