The Big Sky Conference’s women’s golf preseason poll has been released by the conference office, with Northern Arizona projected to place fourth this spring.
The Sacramento State Hornets landed at No. 1. The preseason poll was voted on by league head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own team.
The Hornets earned eight first-place votes en route to 98 points and a preseason favorite name tag. Sacramento State returns a highly talented group in which they placed all five of its competitors in the top 20 a year ago. Leading the way is senior Julia Becker, who placed third overall, followed by junior Nishtha Madan, who came in ninth. Corinne Viden, the reigning freshman of the year is back to round out the Hornets.
Idaho received three first-place votes as it was picked to finish second with 92 points. The Vandals are led by the reigning Big Sky Player of the Year, senior Sophie Hausmann. She is joined by senior Michelle Kim, who finished second overall at the championship. Valeria Patino and Laura Gerner also return for the Vandals to give the reigning champs four out of five returners.
Separated by three points, Portland State (75) and Northern Arizona (72) filled out the third and fourth spots. The Vikings return Windy Huang, Jasmine Cabajar and Valerie Hernandez — all of which placed in the top 20. Loren Skibba and Lexi Keene return for the Lumberjacks, who placed fourth last year.
“The preseason poll is an indication of how the teams played throughout the fall season,” said Lumberjacks head women’s golf coach Brad Bedortha. “This is pretty much what I expected, either third or fourth. Our athletes have been doing really well this spring so far, instilling some new practice plans, which have been well received. We are all excited for the spring season to begin and start competing.”
Southern Utah was voted fifth with 60 points, while Eastern Washington had 56 for sixth, followed by Northern Colorado with 53 for seventh.
Junior Poy Prasurtwong tied for 10th overall and junior Kyla Smith tied for 15th last year to lead the Thunderbirds. Sophomore Alexa Clark and junior Madalyn Ardueser both return for the Eagles after finishing tied for seventh and 12th, respectively. UNC returns all five of its competitors from 2018, including Nicole Polivchak who tied for 12th individually.
Four players who competed at the championship a year ago return for Montana State in 2019. The Bobcats received 35 votes for eighth place, as their top finisher Clare Dittmore returns.
Montana was selected ninth with 31 points. Senior Baylee Barckley and junior Teigan Avery return for the Griz, after they both tied for 20th last season at the championship. Weber State was voted to place 10th by the head coaches. The Wildcats have a new look this season with only one player on its roster in Kirsten Convoy that competed at the championship in 2018. Idaho State was picked to finish 11th with 10 points. The Bengals return three players who competed at last year’s championship.
The Big Sky Championship will take place at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nevada, from April 19 to 21.
SWIM AND DIVE
The Lumberjacks kicked off Day One of a two-day meet against Boise State on Friday Idaho and trail the Broncos by a score of 126-74.
Between the lanes, the Lumberjacks had three first-place finishes and five second-place results.
Northern Arizona’s first win of the meet came in the 500 freestyle as Monique King. won with a time of 4:58.17, which was almost three seconds faster than the runner-up. The visiting team’s second win of the meet came from Maddie Seidl in the 200 butterfly, where she beat out the fellow Lumberjack Niamh McDonagh. The final first-place finish for NAU came in the final event of the day, the 200 freestyle relay, in which the Lumberjacks claimed the top three places in the event. The winning team for Northern Arizona consisted of Elisa Rodriguez, Katy Smith, Alice Hick and Sam Seiber.
“Elisa and Monique had excellent days today, as well as our swimmers that competed in the fly,” Lumberjacks head coach Andy Johns said. “This meet isn’t about facing Boise State, but instead just competing against ourselves.”
On the boards, Northern Arizona’s Jenny Cheetham had the highest finish for the team as she placed third overall in the 3-meter event with a score of 269.85. The other two Jacks, Tatiana Kurach and Alyssa Jones, finished fifth and sixth overall.
“All three of the diver fought hard on every dive and competed,” NAU associate head coach Nikki Huffman said. “I knew coming in that we would be battling through some aches, and the travel today didn’t help either.”
Northern Arizona will be back in action Saturday as they finish up day two of the meet against Boise State.
MEN’S TENNIS
The Lumberjacks will start the 2019 spring season Saturday in Las Vegas against the University of Portland.
The Lumberjacks put together a solid fall season with one tournament victory and multiple deep runs. The NAU duo of Tim Handel and Ruben Montano got the lone tournament victory at the ITA Mountain Regional that took place in mid-October.
Portland is currently 1-1. The Pilots’ loss came against Washington 6-1, with the one victory coming against the Huskies from their No. 2 singles player Sema Pankin, 6-3 and 7-5. Portland blanked Portland State 7-0, taking two of the six singles matches in straight sets.
ACADEMICS
On Thursday, the football, volleyball, soccer and men’s and women’s cross country teams were honored with a combined 40 fall Big Sky All-Academic selections.
To be eligible for Big Sky All-Academic honors, a student-athlete must have met and/or exceeded the following minimum requirements: 1) Participated in at least half of the team’s competitions; 2) achieved a 3.2 cumulative grade point average at the conclusion of the most recently completed term; 3) completed at least one academic term at his/her current Big Sky institution.
The soccer team had a team-high 12 All-Academic selections, while the football team had eight honorees. Both the volleyball team and women’s cross country team had seven awardees, and the men’s cross country team placed six on the list.
NAU’s All-Academic selections soared past the minimum requirements, with an impressive 28 of 40 holding a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or better. Five of the Jacks — volleyball’s Ryann Davis, Brittni Dorsey and Abby Stomp, football’s Jake Casteel and cross country’s Jesselyn Bries — have perfect 4.0s.
Stomp also earned a second straight Google Cloud Academic All-District First Team selection in the fall.
Be the first to comment