Carson Named The American Freshman-Of-The-Year

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – ECU freshman Kathryn Carson has been named the American Athletic Conference Women's Golf Freshman-of-the-Year the league office announced Friday afternoon. The conference also announced that the Pirates took home the AAC Team Academic Award for the third-straight year after posting a 3.839 cumulative GPA.

Carson is the fifth player in program history to earn freshman-of-the-year honors following Lene Krog (2006), Amber Littman (2008), Fanny Wolte (2011) and Frida Gustafsson Spang (2013) who all took home rookie accolades when ECU was as a member of Conference USA.

"Kathryn is very deserving of this award," said ECU Head Coach Kevin Williams. "She has made a big impact on our program in her freshman year and I'm very happy she is receiving this award. We are very excited what the future holds for her."

The Mooresville, N.C. native recorded six Top 20 finishes and place in the Top 22 in nine of 11 events during her freshman season, while posting a 74.22 season stroke average. In her first collegiate event, Carson fired a personal-best 2311 (5-under par) at the Minnesota Invitational where she carded rounds of 70, 69 and 72 for a share of 10th place. She followed that event with an 11th place finish at the Pirate Collegiate Classic after posting a 221 (5-over).

Carson claimed her best finish of the year at the UCF Challenge (t7th) after firing a one-over par 217 (71-78-68) to start the spring portion of the season. In three of her final four events, she picked up three Top 21 placements which included a share of 14th at the 2018 American Championships (others: River Landing/t21st, Charleston Invitational/t20th). In 10 of 32 rounds, she recorded par or better including a career-low round of 68 during third round action at the UCF Challenge.

For the third-straight year, the Pirates earned The American's Team Academic Excellence Award in golf for the 2017-18 academic year with a 3.389 cumulative GPA. In all, it's the programs fifth time ECU has captured the top team honor following the 2005-06 (3.575 GPA/Conference USA), 2006-07 (3.610 GPA/Conference USA), 2015-16 (3.768) and 2016-17 (3.840) seasons.

The Pirates (115-32-1), who are currently ranked No. 48 nationally by Golfstat, will have to wait until Wednesday, April 25 to see where they are selected to play in NCAA Regional action. The field will be announced live on the Golf Channel at 5:30 p.m. (ET).

American Athletic Conference Women's Golf Honors
Player-of-the-Year: Leonie Harm, Houston
Freshman-of-the-Year: Kathryn Carson, ECU
Coach-of-the-Year: Gerrod Chadwell, Houston
Team Academic Award: ECU (3.839 GPA)

Players Mentioned

Kathryn Carson

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