Tuesday, April 28, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. – Western Washington’s Jenn Paul and Saint Martin’s Jennifer Liedes were named GNAC co-Players of the Year on Monday.

Paul and Liedes were separated by 0.4 of a stroke in their season averages and both tied for third at the GNAC Championships last Tuesday. They were also the only two golfers to be ranked in Golfstat’s top 100 in Division II.

Liedes was the GNAC Newcomer of the Year in 2013-14 after transferring from the University of Washington. This is her second-straight year she was named to the first-team.

Paul led the GNAC in low-round average at 76.3 strokes per round while also leading the conference with four top-five finishes. Paul was also honored as the 2014-15 GNAC Freshman of the Year.

Capturing Coach of the Year honors was the Vikings Bo Stephan. The WWU coach led the team to its fifth-straight GNAC Championship title Tuesday after beating the field by 14 strokes. This is Stephen’s fourth honor in the past five seasons.

The duo of Paul and Liedes were two of five golfers that made the GNAC first-team along with Paul’s teammates, Kristen Hansen and Brooke Branigan, and Northwest Nazarene’s Samantha Miller.

Last season’s Freshman of the Year, NNU’s Miller, is a repeater on the first-team holding the title as the Crusaders only first-team women’s golfer in school history. Miller, who held the lead at the GNAC Championships after the first day of play, had the sixth lowest average in the conference and took home the individual title at the NNU invitational the end of March.

Hansen made the first-team for the third-straight year after being named the conference Player of the Year in 2013-14. The junior won the GNAC Championship individual title last Tuesday, finishing with a pair of 76’s at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.

Branigan was named to the first-team again after her runner-up GNAC Championship performance last year. The sophomore finished the season with a top-five conference average and captured one top-10 performance.

Branigan and Liedes were two of 11 that were honored as academic all-conference golfers Wednesday. Also named academic all-conference was second-team honorees Anna Bourland and Haley Shackelford.

The Vikings Bourland, last season’s GNAC Championship individual winner, was third on Western Washington’s team in scoring average and fourth in the GNAC. MSUB’s Shackelford finished in the top 10 in both GNAC scoring and at the GNAC Championships Tuesday.

Shackelford was one of three Yellowjackets on the second-team, joined by freshman Sammy Walter and senior Mariah Cleveland.

Walter, who won MSUB’s Freshman of the Year honor, and Cleveland tied for 10th at the conference championship after leading the Yellowjackets in low-round average this season. Shackelford, Walter and Cleveland combined for nine of MSUB’s 15 top-10 finishes of the year.

Rounding out the second-team was WWU’s Audrey Orem and SFU’s Breanna Coxen. Orem was one of five WWU golfers to compete in every single round the team played in this season and finished the year with the seventh-lowest average in the GNAC. Croxen was the Clans lone nominee as the freshman led SFU with an 81.4 average and two top-five finishes, including one at the GNAC Championships.

In all, five Vikings made the first or second team while Stephan was honored as the Coach of the Year.

No golfers were eligible for the Newcomer of the Year award in 2014-15.

FIRST-TEAM: *Samantha Miller, Northwest Nazarene (So., Hillsboro, OR); *Jennifer Liedes, Saint Martin’s (Jr., Olympia, WA); *Brooke Branigan, Western Washington (So., Bellingham, WA); **Kristen Hansen, Western Washington (Jr., Spokane, WA); Jenn Paul, Western Washington (Fr., Bellingham, WA).
*First-Team Repeater **Two-Time First-Team Repeater

SECOND-TEAM: Mariah Cleveland, Montana State Billings (Sr., Laurel, MT); Haley Shackelford, Montana State Billings (So., Gillette, WY); Sammy Walter, Montana State Billings (Fr., Billings, MT); Breanna Croxen, Simon Fraser (Fr., New Westminster, BC); Anna Bourland, Western Washington (Sr., Bainbridge, WA); Audrey Orem, Western Washington (So., Bellingham, WA).

Co-GNAC Players of the Year – Jenn Paul, WWU & Jennifer Liedes, SMU
GNAC Freshman of the Year – Jenn Paul, WWU
GNAC Newcomer of the Year – None
GNAC Coach of the Year – Bo Stephan, WWU