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Ingrid Lindblad, Garrett Runion Earn Top Honors As Stellar Golf Season Continues

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Ingrid Lindblad, Garrett Runion Earn Top Honors As Stellar Golf Season Continues

BATON ROUGE – Less than 24 hours after advancing from the NCAA regionals to the NCAA Women’s Golf Championships, the LSU Tigers were honored in the announcement Thursday of the Southeastern Conference awards as selected by the league coaches.

Fourth-year LSU Coach Garrett Runion was named the SEC Co-Coach of the Year, while for the second time in her three-year career at LSU, Ingrid Lindblad has been named the SEC’s Player of the Year.

Lindblad was also named a member of the first-team All-SEC squad, while Carla Tejedo was named second team All-SEC. Elsa Svensson was named to the All-SEC Freshman team. Alden Wallace was LSU’s representative on the Community Service Team.

Runion shared the coaches honor with Kalen Anderson of South Carolina.

Runion led the Tigers to its first Southeastern Conference championship in 30 years this past April, defeating Vanderbilt, Alabama and Florida in the three matches to win the title. The former LSU player and assistant men’s coach will take LSU to its second consecutive NCAA Championships for the first time since the 2011 and 12 seasons.

The Tigers won three times this season – the Jackson T. Stephens Cup in Roland, Arkansas in the fall and the Clemson Invitational to go with the SEC Championship in the spring. The Tigers averaged 290.37 this season and players posted six wins and 18 top 10 finishes during the year.

The coaching honor is the first by the SEC for the LSU women’s program since former coach Karen Bahnsen was honored in 1995.

Lindblad has had an amazing season in which she became the school’s all-time winner with nine collegiate titles, including a win in the SEC Individual competition for the first time by an LSU player in 31 years. She has the most wins by an LSU golfer, male or female, in the last 40 years of the program.

The Swedish junior won five times — the Stephens Cup in the fall and then proceeded to dominate in the spring, winning The Moon Golf Invitational, the Clover Cup, the Clemson Invitational and the SEC Championship with a 38-foot eagle putt on the par 5 54th hole.

Lindblad has averaged 70.20 for 30 rounds this season, topping her own mark from 2020 for season average and posted 23 rounds of par or under. Her 23 career top 10 finishes are second all-time at LSU.

In winning the award for the second time, Lindblad becomes the first multiple recipient of the POY award in LSU golf history and it marks the fifth time since the program began in 1979 that an LSU player has won the league’s top honor.

Lindblad joins Jenny Lidback (1986), Kristi Coats (1991) and Madelene Sagstrom (2015) as previous LSU winners of the award.

Lindblad is the No. 2 ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and is No. 2 in the Golfstat performance rankings. She is a finalist for the ANNIKA award and is making her third consecutive appearance on the All-SEC first team.

She becomes the fifth LSU golfer to earn first-team All-SEC honors on three occasions joining Ashley Winn (1995, 1996, 1998), Meredith Duncan (2000, 2001, 2002), Megan McChrystal (2009, 2010, 2011) and Sagstrom (2013, 2014, 2015).

Sophomore Carla Tejedo earned her first SEC citation by being named to the second team after a strong campaign that saw her finish fourth in the NCAA Stanford regional with a score of 5-under par 208. Tejedo was credited with her first collegiate win when she tied Lindblad for the title at the Stephens Cup.

The native of Spain had 13 rounds of par or under and three top 10s on the year and averaged a solid 72.37 strokes per round as she improved her average over one full stroke from her freshman campaign of 2020-21.

Elsa Svensson had a solid freshman campaign for the Tigers, in averaging 75.04 for her 27 rounds, many contributing to the Tigers four-player score in various tournaments. Svensson’s year was topped by a low round of 68 in the Illini Women’s Invitational.

Wallace, a senior from Shreveport, was named to the women’s golf community service team, for her efforts with the team in school and community activities.

LSU will begin play on May 20 in the NCAA national championship tournament.

All-SEC Women’s Golf Awards
First Team All-SEC
Ingrid Lindblad, LSU
Polly Mack, Alabama
Julia Lopez Ramirez, Mississippi State
Kajal Mistry, Arkansas
Hannah Darling, South Carolina
Benedetta Moresco, Alabama
Chiara Tamburlini, Ole Miss
Blanca Fernández García-Poggio, Texas A&M

SECOND TEAM ALL-SEC
Megan Schofill, Auburn
Annabell Fuller, Florida
Maisie Filler, Florida
Anna Foster, Auburn
Mathilde Claisse, South Carolina
Louise Rydqvist, South Carolina
Carla Tejedo, LSU
Tai Anudit, South Carolina

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Ingrid Lindblad, LSU

CO-COACHES OF THE YEAR
Garrett Runion, LSU
Kaylen Anderson, South Carolina

SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Benedetta Moresco, Alabama

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Julia Lopez Ramirez, Mississippi State

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Louise Rydqvist, South Carolina
Hannah Darling, South Carolina
Elsa Svensson, LSU
Julia Lopez Ramirez, Mississippi State
Adela Cernousek, Texas A&M
Natacha Host Husted, Ole Miss
Isabella van der Biest, Alabama
Bailey Davis, Tennessee
Natasha Kiel, Vanderbilt
LoraLie Cowart, Georgia

COMMUNITY SERVICE TEAM
Carolina Caminoli, Alabama
Ela Anacona, Arkansas
Ashley-Sinclair, Auburn
Clara Manzalini, Florida
Caroline Craig, Georgia
Laney Frye, Kentucky
Alden Wallace, LSU
Ellen Hutchinson-Kay, Ole Miss
Abbey Daniel, Mississippi State
Noelle Beijer, Missouri
Louise Rydqvist, South Carolina
Mikayla Bardwell, Tennessee
Brooke Tyree, Texas A&M
Jayna Choi, Vanderbilt