University of Minnesota-Duluth junior Heather Hamilton has been chosen to the Verizon® All-Academic District V Women's Cross Country/Track & Field first team for 2003.

Hamilton was one of 10 individuals to attain first team honors from District V, which includes all NCAA Division II, III and NAIA schools from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

A native of St. Paul, MN, Hamilton maintains a 4.00 cumulative grade point average as a psychology major and is a six-time NSIC All-Academic team honoree (cross country and indoor and outdoor track). She helped set six UMD indoor and outdoor records during the course of the 2002-03 season (indoor 500, 800 relay, 1,600 relay; outdoor 400 hurdles, heptathlon and 1,600 relay) and captured her third Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference outdoor 400 meter hurdle title this past May. Last week, Hamilton finished 10th in that same event at the NCAA II Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Edwardsville, IL. The 2002 NSIC Women's Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year, Hamilton was the recipient of the first-ever Shjon Podein Community Service Award (for exemplary leadership and noteworthy humanitarian contributions by a UMD student-athlete) in 2002-03.

Hamilton's name will now be placed on the Verizon® Academic All-America team national ballot. That team which will be announced later in June.