UIW’s Ellen Nicholas Named Southland Women’s Golf Student-Athlete of the Year
FRISCO, Texas – UIW’s Ellen Nicholas is the 2021-22 Southland Conference Women’s Golf Student-Athlete of the Year, the league announced Wednesday alongside the academic all-conference teams.
The junior from West Sussex, U.K., completes a sweep of the league’s top honors after being named the Southland Woman’s Golfer of the Year. Nicholas finished the 2021-22 season with three Southland Golfer of the Month accolades and five individual medals, most recently at the Southland Women’s Golf Championship.
The first student-athlete in program history to advance to the NCAA regionals, Nicholas turned in a 218 (+2) at the conference championship. She capped her performance with a tournament-low round of 70 (-2) in the final round to secure a runner-up finish for the Cardinals. A member of the 2020-21 Southland Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Nicholas boasts a 3.30 GPA in sport management.
Nicholas was joined on the top squad by teammate Hannah Cash and fellow first-team all-conference mates in Augusta’s Natalia Yoko and HBU’s Elise Parel. Delaware State’s Ana Ferreyra-Heit was voted to the all-academic first team.
UIW and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi led the way with three academic all-conference nods each, followed by HBU with a pair of honorees. Augusta and Delaware State rounded out the teams with one selection apiece. Half of the 10 honorees own a cumulative GPA of 3.74 or higher, and the average GPA of the teams is 3.70.
The all-academic teams are voted on by a head coach, sports information director and an academic/compliance staff member from each Southland Conference institution. Student-athletes must possess a 3.0 cumulative GPA and completed one full academic year at the nominating institution to qualify for All-Academic selection.
The Southland Conference awards committee, which consists of one administrator from each of the eight member schools, votes for the student-athlete of the year. 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.
2021-22 Southland Women’s Golf All-Academic Team
Student-Athlete of the Year: Ellen Nicholas, UIW
First Team
| Name |
School |
Class |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Natalia Yoko* |
Augusta |
Sr. |
Jakarta, Indonesia |
Digital Marketing |
3.59 |
| Ana Ferreyra-Heit |
Delaware State |
Gr. |
Mar del Plata, Argentina |
Business |
3.80 |
| Elise Parel*2 |
HBU |
Jr. |
Kingwood, Texas |
Interdisciplinary Studies |
3.37 |
| Hannah Cash* |
UIW |
So. |
Windsor, England |
Communication Arts |
3.60 |
| Ellen Nicholas^* |
UIW |
Jr. |
West Sussex, U.K. |
Sport Management |
3.30 |
Second Team
| Name |
School |
Class |
Hometown |
Major |
GPA |
| Aysis Azarcon |
HBU |
Jr. |
Grand Prairie, Texas |
Kinesiology |
3.74 |
| Estefania Hurtado2 |
UIW |
Jr. |
Medellin, Columbia |
Biology |
3.91 |
| Maria Beltran |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
Jr. |
Rosario, Argentina |
Finance |
4.00 |
| Lucie Charbonnier |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
So. |
Peron, France |
Business |
3.68 |
| Lucy Martinez2 |
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi |
Jr. |
Aguascalientes, Mexico |
Accounting |
4.00 |
^ Student-Athlete of the Year
* Automatic Academic All-Conference selection
2 Two-time Academic All-Conference selection