East Carolina (ECU) senior Frida Gustafsson Spang was named Second-Team All-America by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) according to a release by the association on May 25. The selection marks the first time that an ECU women’s golf player has been named an All-America on the field of play in program history.
The Kinna, Sweden native recorded 10 top-11 finishes and placed in the top-29 in all 12 events during her senior season, while posting a program-best 72.25 seasonal stroke average. She set new single-season standard with four tournament wins (UCF Challenge, 3M Augusta Invitational, Briar’s Creek Invitational and the American Championships) and became the all-time leader in wins with seven, following her 1-under par 215 in the American Championship. She was named league golfer-of-the-week three times (Feb. 10, Mar. 15 and Mar. 26) and participated in four consecutive NCAA Regionals.
“We are so excited for Frida,” said ECU Head Coach Kevin Williams. “This is a tremendous honor and the first time in the history of our program that ECU has had a student-athlete honors on the All-America team. She is extremely deserving of this honor and worked hard throughout her career, and its gratifying to see his hard work payoff.”
Spang was named The American 2016 Women’s Golf Player of the Year and was a unanimous first-team all-conference selection for the second-straight year. She became just the second golfer in program history to take home multiple player-of-the-year honors joining former Pirate Abby Bools (2008, 2010/co), which came as a member of Conference USA. Back in 2013, Spang became the first golfer in C-USA history to be named Player and Freshman-of-the-Year in the same season. She is also just the third Pirate golfer to garner four-straight all-conference nods joining Bools (2007-10) and Fanny Wolte (2011-14).
In her four years as a member of the golf team, Spang sported a 73.31 career average in 46 events, which is the lowest in school history. To go along with her seven win, she also tallied 12 top-5, 21 top-10 and 33 top-20 finishes, which included a tie for 19th in the 2016 Baton Rouge Regional.
Courtsey www.ecupirates.com