Five Wildcats Named Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholars
Jul 24, 2019 | Men's Golf
MANHATTAN, Kan. – K-State had a Big 12 Conference-leading five golfers named as Srixon/Cleveland Golf All-America Scholars as announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) Wednesday.
K-State seniors JC Campbell, Jeremy Gandon and Roland Massimino, along with juniors Jake Eklund, Ben Fernandez, were among 20 Big 12 Conference golfers and 269 Division I players to earn the award. To be eligible for the award, an individual must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least three full years at the collegiate level, participate in 50-percent of his team's competitive rounds, have a stroke average under 76.00 and maintain and minimum cumulative GPA of 3.2.
In addition to a slew of individual honors and records, the quintet combined to lead the 2018-19 Wildcats to the program's lowest annual stroke average (286.5) and the second-best season ending ranking (61) while qualifying three individuals for NCAA Regional play, another program-best. K-State also set new program marks for rounds par or better (18), won its first team tournament title since 2012 and shot a collective 43-under for the spring.
"This group of guys really raised the standard for our team on the course and in the classroom," K-State head coach Grant Robbins said. "I'm really proud of them for the work they put in – this was our scoring lineup for a good portion of the year, and three of them advanced to NCAA Regionals as individuals."
"It's also a testament to the support that our team gets from the academic staff, led by Bill Banks. They put our team in position to achieve at a very high level."
Gandon, who finished his career with the best scoring average in program history and qualified for back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances, and Massimino, a top-10 finisher at the Big 12 Championship, repeated as honorees from a season ago.
Eklund and Fernandez return as senior anchors to a young, but talented Wildcats crew that includes Will Hopkins, who competed in eight events as a freshman last season, and Kyle Vance, who saw seven starts as a true freshman in 2017-18 before being limited last year by injury. The Wildcats also return a pair of redshirt freshmen in Ryan Bender and Jared Strathe, and welcome five newcomers, including NJCAA top-five finisher George Clark from Indian Hills Community College.
K-State seniors JC Campbell, Jeremy Gandon and Roland Massimino, along with juniors Jake Eklund, Ben Fernandez, were among 20 Big 12 Conference golfers and 269 Division I players to earn the award. To be eligible for the award, an individual must be a junior or senior academically, compete in at least three full years at the collegiate level, participate in 50-percent of his team's competitive rounds, have a stroke average under 76.00 and maintain and minimum cumulative GPA of 3.2.
In addition to a slew of individual honors and records, the quintet combined to lead the 2018-19 Wildcats to the program's lowest annual stroke average (286.5) and the second-best season ending ranking (61) while qualifying three individuals for NCAA Regional play, another program-best. K-State also set new program marks for rounds par or better (18), won its first team tournament title since 2012 and shot a collective 43-under for the spring.
"This group of guys really raised the standard for our team on the course and in the classroom," K-State head coach Grant Robbins said. "I'm really proud of them for the work they put in – this was our scoring lineup for a good portion of the year, and three of them advanced to NCAA Regionals as individuals."
"It's also a testament to the support that our team gets from the academic staff, led by Bill Banks. They put our team in position to achieve at a very high level."
Gandon, who finished his career with the best scoring average in program history and qualified for back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances, and Massimino, a top-10 finisher at the Big 12 Championship, repeated as honorees from a season ago.
Eklund and Fernandez return as senior anchors to a young, but talented Wildcats crew that includes Will Hopkins, who competed in eight events as a freshman last season, and Kyle Vance, who saw seven starts as a true freshman in 2017-18 before being limited last year by injury. The Wildcats also return a pair of redshirt freshmen in Ryan Bender and Jared Strathe, and welcome five newcomers, including NJCAA top-five finisher George Clark from Indian Hills Community College.
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