VALDOSTA, Ga. – Valdosta State men's cross country standouts Brishen House and Logan Kraus each earned College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District honors, the organization announced this week.  
 
The 2020-21 Academic All-District Men's Track & Field/Cross Country Team, selected by CoSIDA, recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances in the competitive realm and in the classroom. The CoSIDA Academic All-America program separately recognizes honorees in four divisions – NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.
 
First-Team Academic All-District honorees advance to the CoSIDA Academic All-American ballot, First, second and third Academic All-American honorees will be announced on August 11.
 
The duo marks the first Blazer men's or women's cross country student-athletes to earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors.  House, a junior from Valdosta, Ga., earned the prestigious Gulf South Conference Top Ten honor this year and was a finalist for the Commissioner's Trophy.  He became the tenth different Blazer male-student athlete to earn GSC Top Ten honors and third in the last four years.  House became the 21^st overall VSU student-athlete to earn the award and the first Blazer in cross country to earn the honor. 
 
House has had an outstanding career for the Blazers on the course as he earned All-GSC honors in 2020, finishing 16^th at the conference meet.  He also earned Steel's Diamond Blazer Athlete of the Week four times during the 2020 campaign.  House has a 3.52 grade point average in Computer Science with a minor in AFROTC.  He is a team captain and earned the Dean's List in the spring of 2021 and the AFROTC Academic Honor Award.  
 
For his career, he was named the VSU Most Valuable Runner (2019 and 2020) as the award goes to the most outstanding male cross country runner at Valdosta State.  House also earned the Blazer Award in 2018 and earned USTFCCCA Academic All-America honors in 2019.  He also earned the VSU Student-Athlete Academic Spotlight award in 2019, while earning GSC Academic Honor Roll accolades in 2018, 2019 and 2020.  He has been a member of the Dean's List each of his semesters at VSU.  House also is involved in the VSU Air Force ROTC program which prepares undergraduate students to become officers in the United States Air Force and Space Force. 
 
Kraus, a sophomore athletically hailing from Melbourne, Fla., earned USFTFCCCA All-Academic honors in 2019 as a freshman and was named GSC Freshman of the Week (Sept. 11, 2019).  He earned GSC Academic Honor Roll accolades and named to VSU's Dean's list both semesters.  
 
He earned the VSU Student-Athlete Academic Spotlight Award in 2019.  He is a member of ROTC and graduated cum laude with a 3.81 grade-point average in criminal justice.  This past season, Kraus had the third fastest time since 1982 in an 8K distance at VSU with a time of 26:00.0.  He also is a member of SAAC for VSU and has been named to the GSC Academic Honor Roll each season.