Saint Leo University Student Wins National & Regional Golf Awards

From Saint Leo University: Saint Leo University golfer Marie Coors completed an impressive collegiate career by capturing a number of national and regional awards.

On June 7, Coors was named the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Women’s Division II At-Large Academic All-America® of the Year. CoSIDA began the Academic All-America®program in 1952 and, in the years since, has honored thousands of deserving student-athletes from numerous sports across all divisions. The at-large program for the CoSIDA Academic All-America® program includes the sports of fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo for both men and women; bowling, crew and field hockey for women; and volleyball and wrestling for men.
Coors is the second Academic All-America of the Year in Saint Leo history. Marcus Ruh was named the Academic All-America of the Year for DII Men’s Basketball in 2012-2013.

In mid-May, Coors won the individual national title at the 2017 NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship, held at the Findlay (OH) Country Club. In that championship tournament, Coors carded a seven-over 295 over 72 holes. She finished the season with a 72.16 stroke average over 32 rounds and had the lowest stroke average of any Division II women's golfer.
“My happiness is beyond words for Marie. No one deserves to be a national champion more than her,” said Tommy Baker, Saint Leo’s head women's golf coach. “For all her hard work and setbacks over her four years, this is the perfect ending to her college career… and I can't wait to see what she does next!”
The individual title is the first National Collegiate Athletic Administration (NCAA) national championship—team or individual—for Saint Leo in women's athletics and the third national championship in university history.

On June 12, Coors was named the Sunshine State Conference (SSC) 2016-2017 Female Athlete of the Year and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She was selected for the conference's top individual annual awards in voting conducted among the athletics directors, senior woman administrators, athletics communications directors, and faculty athletics representatives from the nine full-member institutions of the Sunshine State Conference. Coors is the first Saint Leo female student-athlete to receive either Athlete of the Year or Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in the SSC. She is only the fourth student-athlete to earn both SSC Female Athlete of the Year and SSC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in the same year in the 22-year history of the awards.

Showing her academic strength, Coors won the NCAA Elite 90 award for the 2017 NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championship for having the highest grade point average of any competitor in the national championship. Coors was also the recipient of Saint Leo’s Clara McDonald Olson Scholastic Excellence Award, presented to the member of the graduating class with the highest GPA attained over four years at Saint Leo University. In April, she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in economics.
In addition, she is one of 11 finalists for the prestigious Division II Honda Athlete of the Year award.
Coors is a native of Gross-Zimmern, Germany, and competed at Edith-Stein-Schule and the Frankfurter Golf Club before enrolling at Saint Leo.

Images Courtesy of SLU