SEARCY – Harding University seniors Brian Jones and Artur Kern were named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VI Track and Field/Cross Country Team on Thursday.
Jones, a senior from Birmingham, Ala., recorded an NCAA Division II provisional qualifying mark in the pole vault in 2009, vaulting 16 feet, 0.75 inches in a meet at the University of Memphis. He won the pole vault at two events this season and won six times in his career. He is a math and vocational ministry major with a 3.95 GPA.
Kern, who hails from Hrubieszow, Poland, earned his eighth career All-America honor by placing 15th at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship in 2008. He placed third at both the Gulf South Conference Championship and the NCAA South Region Meet. This is his third consecutive ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District honor. A graduate student in political science, Kern has a 3.56 GPA.
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.
Jones and Kern were two of ten student-athletes that will move on the Academic All-America ballot. The All-America team will be released on Thursday, June 18.