PROVO -- BYU's Rachel Newren, Jake Ellison and Daniel Summerhays were all named Honorable Mention All-Americans by the Golf Coaches Association of America this week. For both Newren and Ellison this was their second such honor while Summerhays earned his first All-American citation.
This is the second straight season Newren has made the Honorable Mention All-American team. She was an individual qualifier for the 2006 NCAA Championship after placing second at the NCAA West Regional. Newren finished tied for 16th at the Championship, the second best finish ever by any Cougar at the NCAA Championhsip. The junior from Salt Lake City raised the bar for BYU women's golf by breaking numerous BYU records this past season. She set the BYU single-season stroke average record at 74.54 and also had the lowest score ever at an NCAA Championship with 296, eight strokes better than the previous record. She is also the reigning Utah state amateur champion and a two-time All-Mountain West Conference selection.
Ellison, a junior from St. George, Utah, also earned All-American honors after his freshman season in 2003-04. He is the reigning Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and was had the best stroke average on the team in 2005-06 at 71.5. He had seven top 20 finishes including second-place finishes at the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate and the PING Cougar Classic. He has been ranked among the top 40 individual golfers in the nation all season and finished tied for 32nd at the NCAA Championship. He has also been selected to represent the United States in the upcoming 2006 Fuji Xerox U.S.A. vs Japan Collegiate Golf Championship at Sun Hills Country Club in Japan's Tochigi prefecture.
Summerhays returned from his LDS mission to Chile last summer and quickly returned to his pre-mission form this past season as he helped lead BYU to a 15th-place finish at the NCAA Finals. Summerhays was the 2003 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year and had a 72.15 stroke average during the 2006 season. The Sophomore from Farmington, Utah finished fourth individually at the MWC Championship and had six top 20 finishes on the season. Summerhays, a two-time Utah state amateur champion and 2001 U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist, finished tied for 9th at the 2006 NCAA Championship. He was also named academic All-District by the College Sports information Association of America.
Along with the All-American citations, the Cougars earned several regional honors as well. BYU head men's coach Bruce Brockbank was named the GCAA Southwest Region Coach of the Year. This is Brockbank's third region coach of the year honor. In May he also earned his third Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year honor. The Cougars won three tournaments and were ranked all season in the nation's top 10 before finishing 15th at the 2006 NCAA Championship.
He has helped lead BYU to three consecutive top 15 finishes at the NCAA Championship. Brockbank just completed his 13th season as the head coach at BYU and has three top 10 NCAA finishes and has coach 12 All-Americans.
Four Cougars were also named to the GCAA All-Southwest Region team. Making the 2006 team are: Ellison, Summerhays, senior Oscar Alvarez and junior Clay Ogden. BYU Freshman Natalia Jimenez was also named to the GCAA All-Scholar Team (Academic All-American) in just her first season at BYU.