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Wright Earns First-Team All-SEC Honor

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Wright Earns First-Team All-SEC Honor

BATON ROUGE – LSU’s Zach Wright continues to be recognized for his outstanding performance in leading the Tigers on and off the golf course during his senior season as he earned First-Team All-SEC honors by the league’s head coaches and was also named by the conference to the SEC Community Service Team on Wednesday afternoon.

Wright has been honored as an All-SEC performer for the second-straight season after receiving Second-Team All-SEC accolades for the first time in his career as a junior during the 2014-15 season.

This marks the seventh time in the last eight seasons since the spring of 2009 in which at least one LSU Tiger has been named a First-Team All-SEC performer as Wright joins the likes of former standouts John Peterson (2009, 2011), Andrew Loupe (2010, 2011), Sang Yi (2012), Curtis Thompson (2013) and Stewart Jolly (2014).

Eleven different Tigers have now accounted for 20 All-SEC awards in 11 seasons under head coach Chuck Winstead, including six different players earning eight First-Team All-SEC honors since the 2005-06 season.

Wright has performed like a true National Player of the Year candidate throughout the 2016 spring season while winning three tournament titles in his six starts since February. He heads into NCAA Regional play in two weeks as the No. 10-ranked player in college golf in both the latest Golfstat and Golfweek rankings released earlier this week.

Wright opened the spring by leading the Tigers to the team title at The Prestige at PGA West in record fashion while being crowned the individual champion with a career-low tournament score of 12-under par 201. He then won individual titles at each of the Valspar Collegiate Invitational with a winning score of 2-under 211 and tying for the top spot at the Tiger Classic in recent weeks.

A senior from Phoenix, Arizona, Wright recently tied for 18th place in his final SEC Championships as an LSU Tiger while finishing the event with a team-leading 71.38 scoring average in his 11 tournament starts during his final season in Baton Rouge. He leads the Tigers with six top-five, seven top-10 and 10 top-20 finishes in those 11 appearances in 2015-16.

That performance earned Wright a spot on the United States team that will compete at the 2016 Arnold Palmer Cup at Formby Golf Club in Merseyside, England, later this summer. He earned an automatic selection on Team USA in the Ryder-Cup-style collegiate event with his top-six ranking at No. 3 in the final Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking released by the Golf Coaches Association of America in April.

The GCAA also recently named Wright a semifinalist for the 2016 NCAA Division I Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award presented by Barbasol to be presented to the top player in college golf.

Wright has not only been a standout for the Tigers on the course during the 2015-16 season, but off the course as well as he has been named to the SEC Community Service Team for men’s golf for the second year in a row. He was recognized for his community service efforts for the first time following his junior season last spring.

2016 SEC MEN’S GOLF POSTSEASON AWARDS

FIRST-TEAM ALL-SEC
Lee McCoy, Georgia (SEC Championship Medalist)
Sam Horsfield, Florida
Michael Johnson, Auburn
Matthew NeSmith, South Carolina
Matthias Schwab, Vanderbilt
Robbie Shelton, Alabama
Greyson Sigg, Georgia
Zach Wright, LSU

SECOND-TEAM ALL-SEC
Will Gordon, Vanderbilt
Zach Healy, Georgia
Patrick Martin, Vanderbilt
Tyler McDaniel, Kentucky
Taylor Moore, Arkansas
Chandler Phillips, Texas A&M
Davis Riley, Alabama
Sepp Straka, Georgia

SEC ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Will Gordon, Vanderbilt
Sam Horsfield, Florida
Patrick Martin, Vanderbilt
Davis Riley, Alabama
Jacob Solomon, Auburn

SEC COACH OF THE YEAR
Chris Haack, Georgia

SEC PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Lee McCoy, Georgia

SEC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Sam Horsfield, Florida

SEC SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Euan Walker, Missouri

SEC MEN’S GOLF COMMUNITY SERVICE TEAM
Ross Bell, Mississippi State
Charlie Benell, Texas A&M
Hayden Buckley, Missouri
Forrest Gamble, Ole Miss
Brendan Gramley, South Carolina
Harrison Greenberry, Kentucky
Juan Carlos Serrano Guevara, Tennessee
Carson Jacobs, Vanderbilt
Jack Larkin, Georgia
Jake Mondy, Auburn
Taylor Moore, Arkansas
Ryan Orr, Florida
Robby Prater, Alabama
Zach Wright, LSU