The Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) has named Georgia Southern's Abby Newton, Haley Yerxa and Meiqi Gao All-American Scholars.
Newton, who was an Academic All-District selection by Collegiate Sports Communicators, earned the honor for the third consecutive season, while Yerxa and Gao received their first accolades.
A two-time, first-team All-Sun Belt selection, Newton competed in all 11 events and led the Eagles with a 73.93 scoring average, which ranked 12th in the league. The Statesboro native earned her first collegiate win at the Mimosa Hills Intercollegiate (73-71-72=216 E) and posted three top-5 outings and six top-20 finishes. Newton carries a 3.90 grade point average in finance and is a two-time WGCA All-American Scholar and two-time selection to the Sun Belt Commissioner's List.
Yerxa earned a spot on the Collegiate Sports Communicators Women's Academic All-America At-Large team as a second-team member, becoming the first women's golfer in Georgia Southern history, the 23rd Georgia Southern student-athlete and eighth female in the long history of the Academic All-America program be honored. A graduate transfer from Florida Gulf Coast, Yerxa was named the Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year and second-team all-conference. She played in 10 events for Georgia Southern, recording a 74.96 scoring average. She tied for 16th at the Sun Belt Conference Championship and collected two top-5 finishes and six top-20 showings, including a runner-up outing at the Ford Invite. A 2022 CSC Academic All-District selection at FGCU, Yerxa graduated with a 4.0 grade point average and carries a 4.0 at Georgia Southern while working toward her Master's degree in biomedical engineering. The Ottawa, Ontario, native is a two-time WGCA All-American Scholar and was a two-time ASUN All-Academic selection.
Gao played in eight tournaments this past year with a 78.05 round average. The sophomore from China's best round was a 70 in the Yale Invitational and her best finish was 17th at the Ford Invitational.
A total of 1,401 women's collegiate golfers were recognized with this prestigious honor. The criteria for selection to the All-American Scholar Team are some of the most stringent in all of college athletics with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.50.
