Lexi Brooks Earns Women’s Golf Student-Athlete of the Year Honor
Southland Conference
FRISCO, Texas – Record-setting 2017 Southland Championship medalist Lexi Brooks was named Women’s Golf Student-Athlete of the year along with the 2016-17 All-Academic team selections.
The Kingwood, Texas native won the Southland Conference Championship by six strokes with a tournament-record score of 210 (-3), leading the Huskies to their first team title and an automatic qualifier to NCAA Regionals. Brooks was an All-Conference First Team selection and led HBU with a 74.93 stroke average. She carded seven top-20 finishes, six top-10s and three top-fives this season. The sophomore tied for second place at the UTRGV Invitational and finished fourth at the SHSU Bearkat Women’s Invitational. She notched the team’s lowest round of the season with a 4-under par 68 at the Bearkat Women’s Invite, one of six rounds of par or better.
Brooks holds a 3.52 GPA with a major in nursing.
Central Arkansas led with two All-Academic picks in senior Brenda Gonzalez and sophomore Emma Svennson. Gonzalez posted a 3.91 GPA with a nutrition major while Svennson holds a 3.30 and is currently undecided. Both were All-Conference First Team selections this season. Svennson finished tied for fourth at this year’s conference championship (219, +6) while Gonzalez finished tied for sixth (221, +8).
Gonzalez set a UCA record for lowest-scoring round, shooting a 66 in the first round of the Texas State Intercollegiate. She is now a two-time member of the UCA Dean’s List (3.5 GPA for a semester) and three-time UCA Presidential Scholar (4.0 GPA for a semester).
Svennson led Central Arkansas with an average of 74.0 strokes per round and had four top-10 finishes on the year. She was the individual medalist at the Southern Miss Invitational in October 2016.
Olivia Le Roux of Lamar was named to her second All-Academic team. The junior from Brackenfell, South Africa holds a perfect 4.00 GPA with a major in biology. She was an All-Conference Second Team selection and finished tied for eighth at Southland Conference Championship. She also tied for first place at the Seton Hall Pirate Invitational in October before losing in a playoff. She finished top 10 in five of her nine events. She averaged 76.20 strokes per round over 25 rounds and was named to President’s List at LU.
Sam Houston State sophomore Jenna Phillips also earned a 4.00 with a major in management. The Austin, Texas native finished strong with five top-15 finishes to close out the 2016-17 season. In 10 tournaments this year, Phillips put together a 76.34 scoring average with a low round of 70 at the Web.com Intercollegiate in Ponte Verde Beach, Fla. in April.
The All-Academic teams are voted on by a head coach, sports information director and academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA, have completed one full academic year at the nominating institution and participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s competition to qualify for All-Academic selection. Nominees who were also named to the All-Conference First Team or CoSIDA Academic All-District team are automatically named Southland All-Academic.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the 13 member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. The Southland student-athlete of the year award is presented to one student-athlete who achieves excellence in both academics and athletics. All nominees must have earned at least a 3.2 GPA on a 4.0 scale, and demonstrated athletics achievement for at least two years at the nominating institution.
2016-17 Southland Women’s Golf All-Academic Team
Student-Athlete of the Year: Lexi Brooks, Houston Baptist
| Name |
Class |
School |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Brenda Gonzalez* |
Sr. |
Central Arkansas |
Laredo, Texas |
Nutrition |
3.91 |
| Emma Svennson* |
So. |
Central Arkansas |
Halmstad, Sweden |
Undecided |
3.30 |
| Lexi Brooks* |
So. |
Houston Baptist |
Kingwood, Texas |
Nursing |
3.52 |
| Olivia Le Roux2 |
Jr. |
Lamar |
Brackenfell, South Africa |
Biology |
4.00 |
| Jenna Phillips |
So. |
Sam Houston State |
Austin, Texas |
Management |
4.00 |
* 2016-17 First Team All-Conference Selection
2 Two-time All-Academic selection