Carleigh Silvers adds to honors with 'All-Big Sky First Team'
2012 All-Big Sky Conference Women's Golf Team
By JORDAN FREEMYER
UNCBears.com
OGDEN, Utah -- Recently crowned Big Sky Conference individual-champion Carleigh Silvers added another accolade to her resumé Monday when she became just the second Northern Colorado golfer named to the All-Big Sky Conference First Team.
Silvers, a junior, who earned a spot on last year's All-Big Sky Second Team, joined Jenny Henderson on Monday, who was one of the five best players in the league in 2008.
Sacramento State senior Julie Shutler was honored as the 2012 Big Sky Player of the Year -- an honor, which, like the 10 members of the all-conference teams, is based upon rankings provided by Golfweek.com.
Portland State's Tiffany Schoning and Britney Yada and Northern Arizona's Kaitlen Parsons joined Silvers and Shutler on the First Team.
Silvers put together a stellar season for the Bears in 2012, never shooting higher than 80 in any of her 25 rounds throughout the season. She recorded six top-20 finishes in her nine tournaments, including getting the win at last week's Big Sky Conference Championship.
Silvers shot a 3-under par 213 to win the Big Sky title, with a 3-under 69 coming in the final round, her best round of the season. Her next best score in a three-round tournament was a 224 (+8) at the UALR Women's Golf Classic in March, a score that netted her a tie for 17th.
Silvers also added a third-place finish at the Santa Clara Colby Invitational in October with a score of 152 (+8) in the two-round tournament, and she finished tied for sixth with a 226 (+10) at the Wyoming Cowgirl Desert Intercollegiate earlier that month.
Silvers, who averaged 76.08 shots per round (good for second among Big Sky players -- Shutler was first at 75.12) will lead the Big Sky-champion Bears into next week's NCAA West Regional at Colorado National Golf Club in Erie.
Play is scheduled to begin Thursday, May 10, and conclude Saturday, May 12.
The NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee announced late Monday the teams and individuals selected to participate in the 2012 Division I Women's Golf Championships, and a total of 378 participants were selected for regional competition.
Of those players, 126 will advance to the championship finals, with eight teams and two individuals moving on from each regional.
The championship finals will be held May 22 to 25 at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tenn.
Included in Northern Colorado's regional field are, among others, Baylor, Colorado (host), Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pepperdine, Stanford, Texas Tech and UCLA.
Among the individual qualifiers to the 2012 West Regional is North Dakota State's Amy Anderson, who earned a spot in last year's USGA Women's Open in Colorado Springs after she won a local qualifier in Medina, Minn.
Information from NCAA.com was included in this story.
2012 ALL-BIG SKY CONFERENCE WOMEN'S GOLF TEAM
First team
Julie Shutler, Sr., Sacramento State*
Carleigh Silvers, Jr., Northern Colorado
Britney Yada, Jr., Portland State
Kaitlen Parsons, So., Northern Arizona
Tiffany Schoning, Sr., Portland State
Second team
Olivia Weber, Jr., Montana
Stephanie Kim, Jr., Northern Arizona
Tara Green, Fr., Montana#
Lexie Hall, Fr., Sacramento State
Kelsey Chugg, Jr., Weber State
* - Player of the Year
# - Freshman of the Year
