Trio of Golfers Named Academic All-District by CSC

COLUMBIA, S.C. – A trio of South Carolina golfers were selected to the Academic All-District® Men’s and Women’s At-Large Teams by College Sports Communicators the organization announced. Sophomore Nathan Franks, senior Mathilde Claisse and sophomore Louise Rydqvist all earned spots on the at-large teams.

The honor recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for their combined performances in the athletic realm and in the classroom. The CSC Academic All-America® program separately recognizes honorees in four divisions — NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III and NAIA.

Academic All-District® honorees advance to the CSC Academic All-America® ballot. First, Second and Third-Team Academic All-America® honorees will be announced June 21.  The at-large men’s CSC Academic All-District® Team can be found here and the women’s here.

Franks sports a 3.540 GPA as an accounting major. The Roebuck, S.C., native led the team with a 72.00 scoring average in his second season on campus. He also led Carolina with a pair of top-five finishes in 10 starts.

Claisse and Rydqvist just helped the women’s team at Carolina tie its best finish in program history at the NCAA Championship (May 19-23) as the Gamecocks made match play for the second time ever and T-5^th (finished fifth in 2012 and T-5^th in 2016). Carolina finished in the top-five in all 12 of the team’s events this season, a new program record, and finished the year ranked No. 4 in the final Golfstat Team Rankings.

In the classroom, Claisse had a 3.764 GPA as a finance major. She’s a three-time WGCA All-America Scholar with six semesters on the Dean’s List (3.5 or higher GPA) and one on the President’s List (4.0 GPA). Claisse recently graduated. Rydqvist, a management entrepreneurship and marketing major, sports a perfect 4.0 GPA. She’s earned a spot on the President’s List her first three semesters of college.

Claisse put together the best season of her career with a 72.97 scoring average, five top-20 finishes and her first career win at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate (Feb. 27-March 1). She T-12^th at the NCAA Athens Regional and finished T-21^st at the NCAA Championship with a 72-hole total of 287 (-1) and a pair of under par rounds. Claisse leaves Carolina with the fifth-lowest career scoring average all-time (73.64). Rydqvist, an All-American last season as a freshman, finished the season with a 74.15 scoring average. She had four-top 20 finishes in nine stroke play starts, including a trio of top-10s. Rydqvist paced Carolina at the NCAA Athens Regional with runner-up medalist honors thanks to a career-best, 54-hole score of 209 (-7).

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