William and Mary junior Andrew Strait (Henrico, Va.) was named the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District first team on Thursday, earning a spot on the ballot for Academic All-America honors for the first time.  Strait was one of two Tribe juniors named to the District 3 squad, along with tennis' John Banks (Charlotte, N.C.), joining Duke as the only school with two or more honorees.

Strait, who was also named the CAA Men's Swimming Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second time in 2012-13, is a mathematics major.  He was recently awarded the Bruce Davidson Memorial Award, as the top rising senior men's athlete from all of W&M's teams in both academic and athletic achievement.  At the 2013 CAA swimming championships, he won three individual championships (both breastrokes and the 200 IM) as well as helped the Tribe win its third-straight 800 free relay.  Strait was named the co-Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet, after helping W&M earn a program-record second-place finish.  He is the latest in a long line of Tribe men's swimmers honored for their academic prowess, including 1999 Rhodes Scholar Paul Larsen '99 and the last Academic All-District honoree, Austin Baraki '10.

The Academic All-District teams are divided into eight geographic districts across the United States and Canada.  To be nominated, a student-athlete must have sophomore standing at their college, a GPA over 3.3 on a four-point scale, and be a starter or important reserve.  The first-team selections from each of eight districts advance to the Capital One Academic All-America Team ballot, where first-, second-, and third-team All-America honorees will be selected later this month.  William and Mary's district includes schools from Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.  The at-large category for honors athletes from multiple sports including fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling.

2013 CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District 3
Andrew Strait, W&M (Jr., Swimming, Mathematics)
John Banks, W&M (Jr., Tennis, Economics)
Sean Bailey, Austin Peay (Sr., Tennis, Corporate Communications & French)
Kosta Blank, UNCW (Sr., Tennis, Management Information Systems)
Ryan Hawkins, VT (Jr., Swimming, Architecture)
Brandon Kingston, NCST (Sr., Swimming, Biological Sciences)
Anthony Lin, Duke (Sr., Fencing, Neuroscience & Computer Science)
Brinson Paolini, Duke (Sr., Golf, Psychology)
Matt Snyder, Virginia (Grad., Wrestling, Kinesiology)
Brent Sterling, Tennessee (Sr., Swimming, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)