Blair Leads Big Sky Women’s Golf All-Conference Teams
FARMINGTON, Utah (April 29, 2020) – After an unusual 2019-20 season with the Big Sky Championship being cancelled, the conference office has announced the women’s golf individual winners and all-conference performers for the 2020 season.
For the first time in 10 years, the Big Sky Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors have been awarded to the same golfer. Sacramento State’s freshman Tess Blair has earned both individual awards for the first time since Northern Arizona’s Stephanie Kim in 2010. The South Jordan, Utah native was outstanding throughout her rookie season and sat at the top of the Big Sky in Golfstat national rankings at No. 140, in adjusted score versus par at 0.91, and in Golfweek rankings coming in at No. 176.
Joining Blair on the all-conference first team is senior teammate Nishtha Madan. Madan has earned Big Sky All-Conference honors all 4 years as a Hornet. Madan earned third team honors in 2017, second team nods in 2018 and 2019, and now her first all-conference first team honor in 2020. Eastern Washington’s Madalyn Ardueser joins Madan as a first-time all-conference first team honoree.
Idaho’s Valeria Patino and Southern Utah’s Chanikan (Pluem) Yongyuan each earned consecutive all-conference first team accolades. Patino was named to the all-conference second team in 2018. Yongyuan was the Freshman of the Year a season ago.
Sacramento State leads all schools with five honorees amongst the first, second, third, and honorable mention golfers. Corinne Viden and Sofie Babic were named to the second team, while Sydney Smith picked up honorable mention accolades.
Northern Arizona received three all-conference honors. Ashley Croft and Aleksandra Chekalina were tabbed to the third team and Eliska Kocourkova was named honorable mention.
Eastern Washington’s Alexa Clark joined Ardueser as an all-conference honoree. Clark, a second team honoree in 2019, was slotted as an honorable mention selection to give the Eagles two all-conference honors. Kamonwan (Poy) Prasurtwong joined Yongyuan as an all-conference selection for Southern Utah’s second all-conference honor. Prasurtwong is a four-time all-conference honoree. Prasurtwong was named to the first team in 2017, the second team in 2018, the third team in 2019, and earned honorable mention in 2020.
Portland State and Idaho earned two all-conference spots each. Both Valerie Hernandez and Jasmine Cabajar were named to the second team for the Vikings. For the Vandals, Wei-Chia (Vicky) Tsai was slotted to the second team and No-Hsin (Eddie) Hsu picked up third team honors.
Weber State, Montana State, and Northern Colorado round out the all-conference teams with one selection each. Kirsten Convoy earned all-conference third team nods for the Wildcats. Kelly Hooper, a third team honoree in 2018 for the Bobcats, repeated the honor in 2020. Northern Colorado’s Marisa Hisaki was named honorable mention for the Bears.
2020 Big Sky Women’s Golf All-Conference Teams
Player of the Year – Tess Blair, Sacramento State
Freshman of the Year – Tess Blair, Sacramento State
First Team
Tess Blair, Sacramento State
Chanikan (Pluem) Yongyuan, Southern Utah
Nishtha Madan, Sacramento State
Madalyn Ardueser, Eastern Washington
Valeria Patino, Idaho
Second Team
Valerie Hernandez, Portland State
Wei-Chia (Vicky) Tsai, Idaho
Jasmine Cabajar, Portland State
Corinne Viden, Sacramento State
Sofie Babic, Sacramento State
Third Team
Ashley Croft, Northern Arizona
Kirsten Convoy, Weber State
Kelly Hooper, Montana State
Aleksandra Chekalina, Northern Arizona
No-Hsin (Eddie) Hsu, Idaho
Honorable Mention
Alexa Clark, Eastern Washington
Kamonwan (Poy) Prasurtwong, Southern Utah
Eliska Kocourkova, Northern Arizona
Sydney Smith, Sacramento State
Marisa Hisaki, Northern Colorado