Center Valley, PA (July 27, 2021) – Senior Matthew Kraus of the DeSales University men's track & field team was awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship as announced by the NCAA in early July.
 
The NCAA awards up to 126 postgraduate scholarships annually, 63 for men and 63 for women. The scholarships are awarded to student-athletes who excel academically and athletically and who are in their final year of intercollegiate athletics competition. The one-time non-renewable scholarships of $10,000 each are awarded three times a year corresponding to each sport season (fall, winter, and spring). Each sports season, there are 21 scholarships available for men and 21 scholarships available for women for use in an accredited graduate program.

Kraus, a biology major, was a four-year member of the men's cross country and track & field team graduating this past spring with a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA.

He earned the NCAA's Elite 90 award twice at the 2020 NCAA Indoor T&F National Championships and the 2021 NCAA Outdoor T&F National Championships.  Kraus was two-time national qualifier in the 800-meters, finishing 11th at the Outdoor Championships this past spring and earning All-American honors at the Indoor Championships in 2020 after the event was cancelled two days prior to the start because of COVID-19.

He is a 3x Academic All-Distrist First-Team honoree and a 2x CoSida Academic All-American earning First-Team honors in 2020 and Third-Team honors in 2019.  Kraus has also been named Academic All-MAC five times and has earned All-MAC honors 15 times including being part of six MAC Championship relay teams in his career.
 
Kraus will be continuing his education obtaining his MD at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA.

Kraus becomes just the seventh student-athlete in DeSales University history to earn an NCAA Postgraduate scholarship joining George Bilicic Jr. (Men's Basketball – 1985), Vic Longo (Men's Cross Country – 2000), Andrew Ferretti (Men's Cross Country – 2010), Kenny Ridge (Baseball – 2012), Nate Noll (Men's Cross Country - 2014), and Gabe Lamm (Men's Cross Country - 2018).