LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola swimmers Zach Perkins and April Smith have earned national recognition for academic and athletic excellence, being named to the 2010 ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District VIII Men's and Women's At-Large Team, respectively, as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Wednesday.

Perkins, a senior on the 2010 Biola swim team, earned first-team all-district honors. Perkins maintains a 3.89 GPA while wrapping up work on a Political Science major. A team captain for the last two years, he placed 10th in the 50 free, 13th in the 100 free and swam on four Top-10 relay teams at the 2010 NAIA Championships in March. Perkins also set school records in the 50 and 100 free and continued to lower them throughout his career at Biola.

In the classroom, Perkins is part of Biola's tough Torrey Honors Institute. While at Biola, he has been selected for membership in the Epsilon Kappa Epsilon Honor Society and received five commendations from the Torrey Institute. Perkins has also been named to the Dean's List at Biola all seven semesters.

Smith, a junior, earned second-team all-district honors. She became Biola's first swimming national champion, placing first in the 200 breaststroke at the 2010 NAIA National Championships. She also placed sixth in the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke and set nine school records over the course of the season.

Smith has been named to the Dean's List three times at Biola and was named an NAIA Scholar-Athlete this year as well.

Perkins is now eligible for Academic All-America honors. If he were selected, he would become the first Biola male athlete to receive the honor.

The College Division District VIII teams include NCAA Division II, Division III and NAIA schools from  Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and British Columbia. The at-large category is comprised of a wide-variety of sports which do not have their own individual category and include swimming, lacrosse, golf, tennis, crew, rodeo, etc.

To be eligible for the national team, a student athlete had to have been selected to its District's first team. Initial nomination criteria at the District level includes being a varsity starter or key reserve, maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, reaching sophomore athletic and academic standing at his current institution and be nominated by their sports information director.

Since the program's inception in 1952, CoSIDA (the College Sports Information Directors of America) has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student athletes in NCAA Divisions I, II, III and NAIA covering all NCAA championship sports.

The Men's At-Large Academic All-America teams are scheduled to be released on Tuesday, June 8.