VALDOSTA, Ga. – Not only garnering great success athletically this season, the Valdosta State Blazers also excelled in the classroom in 2019-20 despite the COVID-19 Pandemic.  
 
Click on the link to the right to see all of the academic accomplishments by the Blazers for the 2019-20 year.

VSU had one of its best spring semesters in recent memory with a 3.08 cumulative grade-point average, marking the highest department GPA in 26 years.  The semester was not without its challenges as classes moved to fully online midway through the semester due to the COVID-19 Pandemic in March.  Of the 14 VSU athletic sports, including The Red Hots Dance and Cheerleading teams, the Blazers set records with 11 athletic programs achieving a 3.0 or better.  Of the 210 student-athletes to achieve a 3.0 or better, 96 earned Dean's List honors.  

The women's tennis program earned a 3.65 GPA and won its fifth-straight semester GPA title, while men's cross country was second with a 3.56 GPA and women's soccer was third at 3.54.  Following the top three, volleyball, men's tennis, men's golf, women's cross country, softball, women's basketball, The Red Hots and Cheer teams all achieved a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or better for the semester.

Individually, 31 student-athletes earned a perfect 4.0 GPA for the semester with senior men's golfer Thomas Jespersen recording an outstanding 4.0 GPA in each of his eight semesters at VSU.  He was named the top Langdale College of Business Administration Graduate and, prior to COVID-19, he had been asked to serve as the LCOBA's Standard bearer for the spring graduation ceremony.  In addition, junior teammate Wesley Hanson earned his sixth semester of a 4.0 GPA.  In all, 11 Blazers earned a 4.0 for at least two semesters of their academic careers at VSU through the spring.  
 
The fall semester also had some outstanding performances academically, as the men's cross country team led the way with a 3.54 GPA, while women's tennis was second at 3.37 and women's soccer was third at 3.31.  In all, eight programs achieved over a 3.0 GPA for the fall semester, while 145 student-athletes earned a 3.0 GPA or better and 20 had a 4.0 GPA.  In addition, a total of 65 student-athletes were named to the Dean's List.  
 
Three Blazers earned Academic All-America honors as selected by CoSIDA this year as football long snapper Pippin Davis earned second team honors, while Hanson was a third team selection and softball senior infielder Logan Hill earned second team honors.  Hanson also was named the GSC Spring Men's Golf Champion Scholar-Athlete and earned Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholar honors long with sophomore teammate Chase Weathers.
 
Hill and men's basketball senior Clay Guillozet were named to the GSC Top Ten and Guillozet earned the prestigious honor of earning the Commissioner's Trophy Award which is the highest individual honor the Gulf South Conference awards.  Both Guillozet and Hill also were named to their respective sport's GSC All-Academic Teams.
 
The Blazers had three team earn their respective coaching associations' team academic awards as both men's and women's tennis teams earned ITA Team All-Academic honors, while volleyball earned the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award.