The Gulf South Conference announced that Lee’s Luke Gaddis and Union’s Ayla Young Cook were named as the 2025 GSC Champion Scholar-Athletes for men's and women's cross country.

Gaddis, a senior from Gainesville, Ga., earned the GSC Champion Scholar-Athlete Award with a 4.00 grade point average while majoring in biology (pre-physical therapy). Gaddis is the first-ever back-to-back recipent of this award and Lee's second men's cross country runner to win the award. 

Cook, a senior from Gilbert, Ariz., earned the GSC Champion Scholar-Athlete Award with a 4.00 grade point average while majoring in cell and molecular biology. She is the fourth Union women's cross country runner to receive the award, the first since Anna Tankersley in 2021.  

This is the seventh year that the Gulf South Conference has presented the Champion Scholar-Athlete Award. The award is given out at the final site of each GSC Championship event and awarded to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA among teams participating. Each student-athlete GPA is based on the most recently completed term, and the individual must have a minimum of 48 credit hours to be eligible for the award. Student-athletes are only eligible to win the award once per academic year.