AUSTIN, Texas -- A quintet of Montana Tech women's track & field and cross country student-athletes carried Academic All-District honors, presented by College Sports Communicators, CSC announced Tuesday.
Graduate student Alyssa Plant and four seniors — Abby Clark, Jenna Jordan, Olleca Severson, and Jadyn Vermillion — claimed the award.
Student-athletes must hold a 3.5 cumulative grade-point average, sophomore or better standing, and rank in the top 25 of her conference in an event to be eligible. Institutions are limited to five honorees each year. Academic All-District award recipients are then selected for eligibility for Academic All-America honors by a CSC committee.
All five of Montana Tech's honorees were advanced to the national ballot. Only five NAIA institutions advanced so many to Academic All-America eligibility.
Clark, a Fort Benton native who graduated with a degree in metallurgical and materials engineering last month, earned her fifth-career All-America accolade this spring with a third-place finish in the heptathlon at the NAIA outdoor championships. She was also 14th in the high jump at nationals. Clark earned a fourth-consecutive Frontier Conference field athlete of the meet award after winning conference titles in the heptathlon, long jump, and high jump and helping the Orediggers to a fourth-straight Frontier championship. Outside of track & field, Clark also competes for the Montana Tech volleyball team, was president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and served the Tech campus in many other capacities. She graduated with a 3.90 grade-point average.
Jordan, a chemistry major from Corvallis, garnered her second-career All-America honor in the javelin throw. She placed seventh at the NAIA meet last month with a 41.54-meter heave. Jordan also won the Frontier Conference title in the event and broke the program record in April in Missoula (43.86m). In 2024, her research, "Investigation of the Mechanism behind Increased Phage Infectivity of Escherichia Coli Siderophore Mutants when Pre-treated with Iron-doped Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles" won the Chancellor's Award for Scientific Insight at the Techxpo Design Showcase. She graduated last month with a 3.86 GPA.
Plant, an environmental engineering student from Helena, won the Frontier Conference cross country title, paving the way for the Orediggers' first-ever team championship in women's cross country. She was also the Frontier champ in the 5,000m run in April. A two-time national qualifier in 2024-25, Plant ran to a team-best 84th place at cross country nationals in November and finished 15th at NAIA indoor nationals in the 3,000m run in February. She graduated from Montana Tech last spring with a bachelor's in environmental engineering and finished a master's in the same this year. Also a mathematics minor, Plant carried a 3.97 GPA in her undergraduate studies and a 4.0 in her master's.
Severson, a Manhattan native who graduated with a degree in biological sciences, won the Frontier Conference championship and set the program record in the 100m hurdles at the conference meet, clocking in at 14.86 seconds. She was on the Orediggers' Frontier-winning 4x400m relay and runner-up in the 400m hurdles. Over her career, she won six Frontier event titles and was all-conference in the heptathlon and triple jump. Her 2025 research, "Assessing VO2 Max in Collegiate Long-Distance Runners using a Novel Flat Track Protocol," won runner-up for the one-semester project at the Techxpo Design Showcase. Involved on campus, Severson led the SAAC's annual spring Red Cross blood drive. She graduated with a 3.84 GPA.
Vermillion, a nursing student from Myrtle Creek, Ore. with a 3.89 GPA, became Montana Tech's first-ever All-American in an indoor field event in 2025, placing fifth in the long jump. She holds Montana Tech records in both the indoor (5.83m) and outdoor (6.11m) long jumps and the 4x100m relay (48.64). Vermillion won five Frontier Conference athlete of the week accolades between the indoor and outdoor seasons despite competing a limited outdoor schedule to save a season of eligibility.
Montana Tech's five women's track & field and cross country honorees are the most in program history.
College Sports Communicators, formerly known as College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), is a 4,400-member national association for strategic, creative and digital communicators across intercollegiate athletics in the United States and Canada. Established in 1952 and selected by CSC membership, the Academic All-America program is the longest-running and premier award for athletic and academic success across championship college sports.
The NAIA CSC Academic All-America program is partially financially supported through the NAIA governance structure. For more information about CSC's Academic All-District and Academic All-America program, visit AcademicAllAmerica.com.
CSC will announce its women's track & field/cross country Academic All-America teams Tuesday, July 15.
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