4/27/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV women's golfer Kaylee Benton was named the Mountain West Women's Freshman Golfer of the Year, and sophomore Mackenzie Raim and Benton were named to the All-MW First Team as the conference announced its 2015-16 Women's Golf All-Conference Teams and Freshman of the Year on Wednesday. Junior Alexandra Kaui was also named to the second team, earning the selection with her individual victory in the Mountain West Championship last week.
Benton becomes the seventh Rebel to earn freshman of the year honors in program history and the fourth under sixth-year head coach Amy Bush-Herzer. Benton is also the fifth UNLV freshman to be named to the conference first team while taking home conference of the year honors, joining teammate, sophomore Harley Dubsky (2015-16), Dana Finkelstein (2011-12), Therese Koelbaek (2007-08), Da Sol Chung (2005-06) and Sunny Oh (2002-03).
"Kaylee has had an amazing freshman year campaign," said Bush-Herzer. "She has worked extremely hard and elevated our team to a new level. I am very proud of her accomplishments."
Benton is currently ranked 43rd by Golfstat and 64th by Golfweek and has the second best MW score vs. par (0.79) and average score (72.70), which currently ranks as the fourth highest season scoring average in UNLV history. She has finished in the top 15 of eight tournaments this year, including four times in the top ten. She finished tied for eighth in the season-opening Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational, tied for tenth in the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational, second in the Bison at Boulder Creek II and tied for ninth in the DAC/SMU Invitational.
Raim ranks right below Benton in the Mountain West with the third best average score (73.27, the sixth best average in school history) and score vs. par (1.27). She is rated as the 73rd best golfer by Golfstat. She has placed in the top six in at three different tournaments this season: tied for fifth in the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown, sixth in the Bison at Boulder Creek II and fourth in the Mountain West Championship.
"Mackenzie has worked hard on all aspects of her game and has reduced her stroke average over the past year," said Bush-Herzer. "She set out this year to be named first team all-conference, and I am proud of her for achieving this goal."
Benton and Raim were joined on the first team by San Diego State senior Emma Henrikson, New Mexico sophomore Ingrid Gutierrez and San José State junior My Leander.
Kaui won last week's MW Championship at 4-under 212 (72-71-69). She won by five strokes for the largest individual winning margin in MW Championship history, topping the previous record of four that was shared by Koelbaek. She has a 73.79 scoring average and 1.87 score vs. par. Her three best finishes have come in the last five tournaments, including a tie for fourth at Bison at Boulder Creek II and fifth place in the DAC/SMU Invitational.
"It is great to see Alexandra's name back on the leaderboard and on the All-Conference team," said Bush-Herzer. "Over the last year she has gained more and more confidence, and we are excited to see what the future brings for her."
Kaui is joined on the all-conference second team by Colorado State freshman Katrina Prendergast, San Diego State junior Sirene Blair, San José State redshirt-senior Regan De Guzman and Fresno State freshman Kristin Simonsen.
UNLV returns to action next week on May 5-7 in the NCAA Stanford Regional. The NCAA Regional appearance is the 14th straight time the Rebels have received the invitation.
