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Washington's Sanders named men's golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year

May 1, 2016
Washington Athletics

SALT LAKE CITY – University of Washington senior Jonathan Sanders has been named the 2016 Pac-12 Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year, announced by the Pac-12 Conference. These awards have been established to honor collegiate student-athletes that are standouts both academically and in their sports discipline.

Sanders, who hails from Chatsworth, Calif., is maintaining a 3.47 grade point average in political science and is scheduled to graduate in May, 2016. He is one of 10 finalists for the 2016 Byron Nelson Award given to the graduating senior who best exemplifies Byron Nelson. The selection committee considers equally the nominee’s entire collegiate academic and golf career, as well as his character, integrity and good citizenship while in college.

Sanders has a 72.20 scoring average and is currently 77th in Golfweek’s player rankings. He’s posted three career wins, one of only seven Huskies to achieve the milestone, including medalist honors at the 2014 NCAA Raleigh Region. A two-time All-Pac-12 second team member, Sanders also picked up second team Pac-12 All-Academic team honors following the 2015 season.

In order to be eligible for the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, student-athletes must be a senior (in athletics eligibility) on track to receive a degree, have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher, participate in at least 50% of the scheduled contests in the sport and have a minimum of one year in residence at the institution. Each Pac-12 institution may nominate one individual per sport, and the winners are selected by a committee of Pac-12 staff members at the conclusion of each sport’s regular season.  The athletic accomplishments of the nominees are a consideration in the voting for the award.

A Scholar-Athlete of the Year will be named in each of the Pac-12’s 23 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, women’s beach volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s gymnastics, men’s rowing, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling.

The Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards were established during the 2007-08 academic year.

Also nominated for Scholar-Athlete of the Year were Kolton Lapa, ARIZONA; Max Rottluff, ARIZONA STATE; Shotaro Ban, CALIFORNIA; Philip Juel-Berg, COLORADO; Dominick Francks, STANFORD; Lorens Chan, UCLA; Brandon Kida, UTAH.