DALLAS – After a historic intercollegiate career, WKU Women's Golf senior Mary Joiner was named the Conference USA Scholar Athlete of the Year for women's golf in 2020-21, the league announced Wednesday afternoon.
"Mary has been an instrumental part in changing the status of our golf program," said head coach Adam Gary. "She has raised the bar athletically and academically while literally rewriting the record book. A new standard has been set for future players to strive for. I feel very fortunate to have Mary join Ellinor Haag in winning this award while I've been their coach."
The awards, voted on by the conference's 14 Faculty Athletics Representatives, are presented to the top student-athletes in each conference-sponsored sport based on academic achievement (GPA), athletic achievement and service over the course of their intercollegiate career.
Joiner is the sixth student-athlete from The Hill to receive the award since WKU joined C-USA in 2014. She joins Mary Lever (2015, Cross Country), Ellinor Haag (2016, Women's Golf), Kendall Noble (2016 & 2017, Women's Basketball), Morgan McIntyre (2018, Track & Field) and Jessica Lucas (2018, Volleyball) in the exclusive club.
In her five years at WKU, Joiner completed three degrees: a Bachelor's in Financial Management (May 2019), a Master's in Business Administration (August 2020) and a Bachelor's in Business Data Analytics (May 2021). She graduated with her undergraduate degrees while maintaining a 3.89 GPA and posted a perfect 4.00 GPA for her MBA program.
Joiner was a three-time All-Conference selection in C-USA, named to the First Team in 2018 and 2021 and the Third Team in 2019. She was also a member of the C-USA Women's Golf All-Academic Team in 2018. She earned the second-most weekly awards for women's golf in league history with eight and is the winningest female golfer in C-USA history with six individual victories.
After using her fifth year of eligibility under the NCAA's blanket waiver, Joiner played 144 career rounds of intercollegiate golf, tying for seventh in NCAA Women's Golf history for career rounds played.
Joiner's name is atop the WKU Women's Golf records in several locations including the lowest 18, 36 and 54-hole scores. She also holds four of the top six season stroke averages in program history, including the top two. Her career stroke average of 73.92 is better than any other Lady Topper in program history by nearly an entire shot.
In addition to her academic and athletic achievements, Joiner also served as one of the women's golf representatives on WKU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for all five years of her career.
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