WACO, Texas – Baylor men's golfer
Johnny Keefer has been selected as the Big 12 Conference Men's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second-straight season, announced Wednesday by the conference office.
In addition to being the first men's golfer in Big 12 history to win the award in back-to-back seasons, he joins Baylor women's golfer Laura Lonardi as the only Bears to win the award in consecutive seasons.
With Keefer's second selection, BU men's golf has now claimed the Men's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year award in four of the last seven seasons. He joins Matthew Perrine (2017) and Colin Kober (2019), contributing to Baylor's 30 scholar-athletes of the year, which is second-most in the Big 12.
The men's golf program now has four Big 12 scholar-athletes of the year, tying women's golf and baseball for the most winners among Baylor programs.
An accounting from San Antonio, Texas, Keefer major enjoyed another successful season on and off the golf course leading the team in stroke average for a second-straight season (71.62), with a team-high 90.3% of his rounds counting towards the teams' score, his 19 rounds at par or better also paced the Bears, as did his five top-10 finishes.
The first Baylor player to compete in the final round of the NCAA Championship stroke play since 2017, Keefer was named to the Golf Coaches Association of America PING All-District South Team, in a season where he played 19.8% of his holes under par, which also led the team.
Carrying a 3.68 GPA, Keefer was also named to the Academic All-Big 12 First Team for a third time, in addition to being selected as a GCAA All-American Scholar and a College Sports Communicators All-District honoree.
The Big 12 Conference established its Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award in 2012-13. A recipient is named in each conference-sponsored sport. Every Big 12 institution nominates one individual per sport, with the winners selected by the league head coaches for that sport, who are not allowed to vote for their student-athletes. Scholar-Athlete of the Year nominees must be a junior or senior (athletic and academic standing), have a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or higher, participate in at least 20 percent of the team's scheduled contests and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution.
For more information on Baylor Men's Golf, follow @BaylorMGolf on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
BAYLOR'S BIG 12 SCHOLAR-ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
Baseball – Doug Ashby (2014), Logan Brown (2015), Richard Cunningham (2017), Kyle Hill (2019)
Equestrian – Rachel Van Allen (2018), Rachael Davis (2020)
Football –
Nick Florence (2012), Dillon Doyle (2022)
Men's Basketball – Freddie Gillespie (2020), Jared Butler (2021)
Men's Golf – Matthew Perrine (2017), Colin Kober (2019),
Johnny Keefer (2022 & 2023)
Men's Tennis – Patrick Pradella (2014), Jimmy Bendeck (2019)
Men's XC – Blake Niccum (2012), Jonathan Tijerina (2014)
Soccer – Dana Larsen (2012), Precious Akanyirige (2017)
Softball – Kathy Shelton (2013), Heather Stearns (2015)
Volleyball – Shelly (Fanning) Stafford (2018 & 2019)
Women's Golf – Laura Lonardi (2015 & 2016),
Elodie Chapelet (2021), Gurleen Kaur (2022)
Women's Tennis – Blair Shankle (2017)
Women's XC – Lindsey Bradley (2017)
BIG 12 SCHOLAR-ATHLETES OF THE YEAR BY SCHOOL
Iowa State-37
Baylor-30
Kansas State-25
West Virginia-25
Oklahoma State-23
Oklahoma-21
Texas-19
Kansas-18
TCU-18
Texas Tech-14
Denver-3
North Dakota State-2
Northern Colorado-1
South Dakota State-1
Tennessee-1
Alabama- 1
2022-23 SEASON AWARDS
Luke Dossey
All-American Scholar
Academic All-Big 12 First Team
CSC Academic All-District
Scout McNealy Award Winner
David Toms Award
Zach Heffernan
Academic All-Big 12 Second Team
Tyler Isenhart
All-American Scholar
Academic All-Big 12 First Team
CSC Academic All-District
Johnny Keefer
Men's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year
All-American Scholar
Academic All-Big 12 First Team
CSC Academic All-American
GCAA PING All-Region South Team
Drew Wrightson
Academic All-Big 12 First Team
Big 12 All-Tournament Team
CSC Academic All-American
