29 Jun 2022 Hipshire, Chaigneau named academic All-America

SEARCY – Harding had decathlete Matt Hipshire and pole vaulter Dorian Chaigneau named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Men’s Track and Field and Cross-Country team on June 22.

Hipshire was a Second Team honoree, and Chaigneau was Third Team.

The duo was Harding’s sixth and seventh Academic All-Americans for the 2021-22 school year, joining Cooper Carroll (football), Cody Smith (baseball), Allison Carpenter (women’s tennis), Lindy Carpenter (women’s tennis) and Abbey Bryan (women’s golf).

Hipshire, a native of Ferris, Texas, earned his fourth Academic All-America honor. He is the third Harding student-athlete with four citations. The others were Jonathan Dandy and Lucas Goodspeed, also Harding track athletes.

Hipshire earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in May 2021, and is pursuing a Master of Business Administration in management and business ethics.

In 2022, Hipshire broke Harding’s indoor heptathlon record with a score of 4,892 at Wichita State and broke Harding’s outdoor decathlon record with a score of 6,561 at BYU. He was the Great American Conference decathlon champion, scoring 6,436 points.

Chaigneau, a native of France, is a media production major with a 3.31 GPA.

In May, Chaigneau won his second career pole vault national championship. At the outdoor national event, Chaigneau won by clearing 5.50 meters or 18 feet, ½ inch, becoming only the 14th Division II pole vaulter ever to clear 18 feet or higher. Chaigneau was also the 2021 indoor national champion. He won the GAC pole vault championship in both 2021 and 2022.