GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The CoSIDA Academic All-Americans have been released for men's cross country and track & field and two All-American distance runners/walkers see themselves earning Second Team All-American as Ben Hofstra and Luke Pohl made the list. Hofstra earns the honor for the second consecutive year, while Pohl is a first-time winner in his junior season. Both athletes were CoSIDA Academic All-District for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher while having significant success on the track. Both athletes were then thrown into the national pool where they were both voted as Second Team All-Americans. 
 
Ben Hofstra earns the honor for the second straight year after maintaining a 3.79 GPA as an Exercise Science major at CU. This season, Hofstra came back for a fifth year where he again qualified for the 5000m race walk at Outdoor Nationals in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Hofstra finished 10^th overall to end his career. 
 
Junior Luke Pohl finds himself as a CoSIDA Academic All-American for the first time in his career after posting a 3.89 GPA as an Audio Production major. Pohl had a record-breaking year as he broke the school record in Cross Country and finished fourth in the nation to go along with three NAIA All-American plaques in indoor and outdoor track & field in 2021-22.
 
Four talented student-athletes in competition and in the classroom – Arizona State University's Turner Washington, Ashland University's Trevor Bassitt, Carroll University's Steven Hermsen and Missouri Baptist University's Jordan Crawford – highlight the 2021-22 Academic All-America® men's track and field/cross country teams selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
 
Washington (Division I), Bassitt (Division II), Hermsen (Division III) and Crawford (NAIA) have been named the Academic All-America® of the Year award winner for their respective divisions. 
 
NAIA
 
A six-time All-American in the 5,000-meter race walk, Crawford won his first national title in the event with a time of 21:49.78 at the 2022 NAIA Outdoor Championships. The Douglasville, Georgia, native was a CoSIDA Academic All-America® first-team selection in 2021 and a second-team selection in 2020. An exercise science major with a 4.0 GPA, Crawford was also a member of the Spartans' seven-man team that finished 32^nd at the NAIA Cross Country Championships last fall.
 
The NAIA Academic All-America® program is financially supported by the NAIA national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2021-22 NAIA Academic All-America® program.
 
Four of the 20 members of the Academic All-America® NAIA men's track and field/cross country teams boast a perfect 4.0 GPA in their undergraduate work. The 10 members of the first team have an average GPA of 3.89, with the entire men's team holding a collective average GPA of 3.84.
 
Six student-athletes join Crawford as repeat selections on the Academic All-America® NAIA men's track and field/cross country team: Alex Helmuth (Taylor University), Ben Hofstra (Cornerstone (Mich.) University), Jacob Jennings (Concordia (Neb.) University), Kyle Manuel (Southeastern University), Cole Olsen (Lewis-Clark State College) and Clayton VanDyke (Lewis-Clark State College). 
 
For more information regarding the Academic All-America® program, visit https://academicallamerica.com/.

Track & Field Contact: Jesse Campbell 
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