Big South Announces 2024 Women's Golf Annual Award Winners
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (
www.BigSouthSports.com) -- High Point’s
Ella Perna was voted the 2024 Big South Women’s Golfer of the Year, while teammate
Anna Howerton was voted Freshman of the Year by the league’s head coaches and announced this past Tuesday afternoon as part of the Women’s Golf Championship Awards Ceremony. HPU’s
Julia McLaughlin was selected as the Newcomer of the Year, and Charleston Southern head coach
Chan Metts was voted Coach of the Year by the panel. Gardner-Webb junior
Neza Siftar was voted Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the Big South’s sports information directors.
Perna (Durham, N.C.) entered the Big South Championship as the conference leader in stroke average at 73.19. She has the third-most Top 10 finishes in the league this season with five, and tied for 11th in the conference’s postseason event with a 10-over 226. A three-time Big South Golfer of the Week honoree in 2023-24, Perna tied for runner-up at the Charlotte Invitational with a 1-over 217, tied for third with a 2-over 218 at the River Landing Classic and tied for fourth at the Golfweek/AGT Intercollegiate -- which included a collegiate-low of 4-under 67. Perna’s best 54-hole score was a 2-under 214 at the UNCG Collegiate. Perna is High Point’s second consecutive Big South Golfer of the Year recipient, and the program’s second overall winner.
Howerton (Winston-Salem, N.C.) is the second-ever High Point golfer to receive Freshman of the Year honors. She was the conference’s highest-ranked golfer entering the conference championship at 370, and held the third-leading stroke average at 74.12. Howerton earned Big South Freshman of the Week honors four times in 2023-24, and finished solo third at the Big South Championship with a 3-over 219 for her fourth Top 10 finish of the year as well as a spot on the Big South All-Championship Team. Howerton captured medalist honors at the UNCG Collegiate in October with a 15-under 201 (66-67-68), in which her first round 66 broke the school 18-hole record, and is tied for the lowest in the Big South this season. She earned Big South Golfer of the Week recognition for her winning performance.
Metts capped his first season as Charleston Southern’s head coach by winning the conference’s Match Play Championship -- the Buccaneers’ first Big South title since 2010. He led the two-seeded Bucs to a wire-to-wire finish in the stroke play portion of the Big South Championship for the squad’s ninth Top 10 finish in 10 events in 2023-24. CSU also won the Pinetree Women’s Intercollegiate this spring and placed in the Top 5 five times overall. Metts coached
Odette Font Garcia to two Medalist trophies during the year (Pinetree Women’s Intercollegiate and Big South Championship), in addition to five total All-Conference selections.
McLaughlin is the first Big South Women’s Golf Newcomer of the Year, which recognizes the top non-freshman transfer playing in the Big South for the first time. In her first season with the Panthers, McLaughlin (Princeton, N.J.) tied for fifth in the Big South Championship at 7-over 223 to earn a spot on the All-Championship Team, had the 10th-lowest stroke average entering the postseason at 75.54, and was the Big South Golfer of the Week for her sixth-place effort at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic in September.
Siftar (Ljubljana, Slovenia) carries a 3.82 GPA studying International Business. She ranked fifth in the league in scoring average (74.54) prior to the conference championship, and is the Big South leader with eight Top 10 finishes following her 10th-place standing at the Big South Championship.
Also announced this past Tuesday afternoon were the Big South Women’s Golf All-Conference and All-Freshman teams, which are listed below. Both squads are based on performance during the regular-season and conference championship.
2024 Big South Conference Women’s Golf Award Winners
All-Conference Team
First-Team
Ella Perna, High Point
Anna Howerton, High Point
Caroline Engelbredt, Charleston Southern
Neza Siftar, Gardner-Webb
Preaw Nontarux, USC Upstate
Second-Team
Madyson Gold, UNC Asheville
Odette Font Garcia, Charleston Southern
Katie Stephens, Charleston Southern
Madison Freeman, Charleston Southern
Suwarin Yord-In, USC Upstate
Honorable Mention
Danielle Suh, High Point
Rylie Kosney, USC Upstate
Julia McLaughlin, High Point
Eugenie Varet, Charleston Southern
Claudia Salvador, UNC Asheville
All-Freshman Team
Anna Howerton, High Point
Constanca Mendonca, Winthrop
Macy Johnson, Radford
Supatta Puttanavarat, USC Upstate
Grace Addison, Radford (tie)
Bre Hoese, Longwood (tie)
All-Academic Team
Elsie Verhoeven, Charleston Southern
Neza Siftar, Gardner-Webb
Danielle Suh, High Point
Emma Landis, Longwood
Taylor Reaves, Presbyterian College
Shea Smith, Radford
Madyson Gold, UNC Asheville
Suwarin Yord-In, USC Upstate
Emilie Marceliussen-Dahl, Winthrop
Golfer of the Year
Ella Perna, High Point
Freshman of the Year
Anna Howerton, High Point
Newcomer of the Year
Julia McLaughlin, High Point
Coach of the Year
Chan Metts, Charleston Southern
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Neza Siftar, Gardner-Webb
All-Championship Team (Top 5 finishers plus ties)
Odette Font Garcia, Charleston Southern (Medalist)
Preaw Nontarux, USC Upstate
Anna Howerton, High Point
Madyson Gold, UNC Asheville
Emma Landis, Longwood
Suwarin Yord-In, USC Upstate
Julia McLaughlin, High Point