DALLAS – Two Lady Topper golfers earned Conference USA superlatives as voted on by the women's golf coaches, the conference announced on Wednesday afternoon. C-USA Individual Champion Catie Craig was named the Most Improved Golfer of the Year while Sydney Hackett was selected as the Freshman of the Year. Both golfers were also selected to the Third Team All-Conference list.
This is just the second and third time in WKU Women's Golf history that golfers have claimed a league superlative. Emily Alexander was also tabbed Most Improved Golfer in 2016 for C-USA.
It is the fifth time under head coach Adam Gary that two Lady Toppers have been named to an All-Conference team in the same season.
Craig was not even in the WKU lineup at the conference championships in 2022 but went on to win the 2023 C-USA Championship medalist honors, defeating numerous golfers in the conference ranked in the Golfstat Top 250.
The Sautee Nacoochee, Ga., native started the 2022-23 year in and out of the lineup, only playing in the Lady Topper lineup once this fall. She improved her stroke average by nearly three shots year over year, from 77.4 in her freshman season to 74.6 her sophomore season, leading WKU in stroke average for 2022-23.
Craig added an additional individual win at the Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational in February. She is the second Lady Topper to ever win two individual titles in a single season, joining WKU Women's Golf great Mary Joiner. She finished in the top-25 in seven of her 11 appearances on the year and was the team's top finisher on five occasions.
As a freshman, Hackett averaged 74.7 shots per round in her debut campaign for the Lady Toppers, the second-best average on the team. She won her very first collegiate tournament at the USA Intercollegiate, defeating a large field and breaking WKU's 54-hole score record by shooting 10-under 206. Her and Craig combine to be the second-ever pair in WKU history to win individual titles in the same season.
In her 11 starts for WKU, Hackett logged seven top-25 finishes and three inside the top five. In the fall, she was ranked inside the Golfstat top 250, one of the only Lady Toppers in program history to ever accomplish the feat.
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