GREENWOOD, Ind. -- Abby Clark can add one more award to her Montana Tech track & field career. 

Wednesday, College Sports Communicators announced the Orediggers' graduate student as a first-team Academic All-American for the second-straight year. 

Clark, a materials science and engineering master's student from Fort Benton, wrapped up one of the most decorated athletics careers in Montana Tech's history this past indoor season. She won the Frontier Conference's indoor field MVP award, USTFCCCA West Region Field Athlete of the Year, and placed third in the pentathlon at NAIA nationals. It was Clark's sixth-career All-America honor, the second-most for any student-athlete in any sport in Oredigger history. 

Few student-athletes at any level of intercollegiate athletics have been as involved as Clark has in Butte. A two-sport athlete, Clark was an honorable mention all-conference volleyball player last fall. She served as the co-president of Montana Tech's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee from 2022-25, was vice president of the campus' metallurgy club, Club Met, and was active in the Society of Women Engineers and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, all while operating her own portrait and lifestyle photography business and excelling in the classroom. 

In the classroom, Clark finished her undergraduate degree in metallurgical and materials engineering last spring with a 3.90 grade-point average and carries a 3.87 GPA in her graduate studies, which she will complete this summer. Her research, "Identification of Phases of Efficient Direct Reduction of Briquettes from DRI Fine," won the Chancellor's Award for Scientific Insight at the 2025 TechXPO Design Showcase. 

Clark was thrice an All-American in the heptathlon in outdoor competition and earned three more accolades in the pentathlon indoors in her career. She was an eight-time national qualifier in her career, scored more than 200 career points at Frontier Conference championship meets (helping the Oredigger women to four straight outdoor conference titles from 2022-25), and holds program records in the indoor high jump, pentathlon, and 4x400-meter relay and outdoor 200m dash, high jump, and heptathlon. Montana Tech recognized Clark as its 2024 Montana Athlete in Service award winner. 

She becomes just the second Oredigger to be named Academic All-America multiple times, joining football's Derek Pearse, who also did so last season and this. 

Clark will begin her career with Nucor Steel in Huger, S.C. this autumn. 

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. After CSC announces the Academic All-District teams, membership selects the Academic All-America honorees. 

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. 

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2025-26 CSC NAIA Women's Cross Country/Track & Field Academic All-America Teams

FIRST TEAM
Name, School, Yr., GPA, Major
Noel Bass (1,4), Taylor University, Sr., 3.97, Elementary Education
Haley Bellamy (2), Central Methodist University, Sr., 3.57, Biology
Alina Boshchuk (1,4), University of the Cumberlands, Gr., 4.00, Business Administration
Abby Clark (1), Montana Technological University, Gr., 3.90/3.87, Materials Science and Engineering
Lexi Clarke, Saint Xavier University, Sr., 4.00, Sociology/Psychology
Heather Durrant, University of the Cumberlands, Jr., 3.96, Exercise and Sport Science
Jaynie Halterman, Taylor University, So., 4.00, Philosophy and Intercultural Studies
Ellen-Mary Kearney (1), Milligan University, Sr., 3.87, Exercise Science
Adrianna Rodencal (2), Concordia University, Nebraska, Sr., 3.79, Biochemistry
Jaida Rowe (2), Hastings College, Sr., 3.95, Biology

SECOND TEAM
Shelby Buwalda, Dordt University, Sr., 3.88, Biology
Addie Draper (2), Taylor University, Jr., 3.99, Sustainable Development
Emersyn Funk, Taylor University, Sr., 3.98, Computer Science - Digital Media/Systems
Madigan Kelly, Lewis-Clark State College, Sr., 3.67, Elementary Education
Olivia Mathis, Saint Xavier University, Sr., 3.55, Accounting/Finance/Business Management
Sophia Noriega, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, So., 4.00, Mechanical Engineering
Casey Olson, Dakota State (S.D.), Sr., 3.98, Professional Accountancy
Hanna Reuter, Marian University, Sr., 4.00, Psychology & Philosophy
Katie Vogt, Doane University, Sr., 3.70, Engineering
Katie Woods, Marian University, Sr., 3.61, Nursing

CSC Academic All-America® Team Member of the Year: Jaynie Halterman, Taylor University

1 – Academic All-America® first team in 2024-25
2 – Academic All-America® second team in 2024-25
4 – Academic All-America® first team in 2023-24