By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – Putting together a dominant season that culminated in the 2025 Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s golf medalist honor, Northwest Nazarene’s Benjamin Mulder was selected by the coaches as the 2024-25 GNAC Men’s Golf Player of the Year.
 

GNAC Men's Golf Special Award Winners
Player of the Year	Benjamin Mulder, Northwest Nazarene
Co-Coach of the Year	Krysta Schaus, Simon Fraser
Co-Coach of the Year	Luke Bennett, Western Washington
Newcomer of the Year	David Sibbett, Western Washington
Freshman of the Year	Maxwell Corcoran, Simon Fraser

 

First-Team All-Conference
Name	School	Year	Hometown (Previous School)
David Sibbett	Western Washington	SR	Tacoma, WA (Highline Coll.)
Benjamin Mulder	Northwest Nazarene	SO	Spokane, WA (Mead)
$ Denby Carswell	Simon Fraser	SO	Burnaby, BC (Stratford Hall)
Junsu Im	Simon Fraser	JR	Daejeon, South Korea (Hawaii Hilo)
$ Peter Dionne-Yahr	Western Washington	JR	Kent, WA (Kentwood)
Maxwell Corcoran	Simon Fraser	FR	Ottawa, ON (West Carleton Secondary
# Nick Ennis	Western Washington	SO	Everett, WA (Saint Martin's)
$ - 2023-24 First-Team All-GNAC | # - 2023-24 Second-Team All-GNAC

 

Second-Team All-Conference
Name	School	Year	Hometown (Previous School)
Kasey Gaff	Northwest Nazarene	SO	Stockton, CA (St. Mary's)
Rasmus Tamker	Saint Martin's	SO	Stockholm, Sweden (Gray's Harbor Coll.)
Brendan O'Brien	Simon Fraser	SO	Victoria, BC (Oak Bay Secondary)
Gavin Klein	Saint Martin's	SO	Bozeman, MT (Regis)
Michael Killmer	Western Washington	FR	Bakersfield, CA (Highland)
# Justin Bjornson	Simon Fraser	SO	Surrey, BC (Pacific Acad.)
Carter Sheets	Saint Martin's	SR	Richland, WA (Richland)
$ - 2023-24 First-Team All-GNAC | # - 2023-24 Second-Team All-GNAC

Mulder, whose scoring average of 71.2 strokes per round ranked second in the league, shot a 6-under-par 207 (69-69-69) last week at the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course to become the first man in school history to win the GNAC individual title. After being named the GNAC Player of the Week three times throughout the campaign, he becomes the first player in NNU history to claim the conference’s top honor.
 
Mulder was a model of consistency throughout the campaign, competing in all 28 rounds for the Nighthawks across 11 events in the fall and spring. Mulder made par or better in 19 of 28 rounds, collected three tournament victories, five top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes. He posted a season-low single-round score of 67 and was one of just four players in the league to average below par. Mulder earned a spot in the upcoming NCAA South Central/West Region Championships, where he will represent the Nighthawks on May 8-10 in Riverside, Calif.
 
Western Washington’s David Sibbett, who had the top scoring average in the league at 71.0 strokes per round, was selected as the GNAC Newcomer of the Year. Making his 2024-25 debut during the spring portion of the schedule, Sibbett made par or better in 10 of the 14 rounds he played this year on his way to the top of the conference scoring average list. He picked up a pair of top-five finishes and highlighted his season with a win at the prestigious Hanny Stanislaus Invitational on April 14-15 in Turlock, Calif. Sibbett and the Vikings will be competing at the regional championship event as well in two weeks. He is the seventh man in program history to claim the newcomer award and the first since 2022 winner Seth King.
 
Steady play throughout the 2024-25 season combined with a tie for second at the GNAC Championships earned Simon Fraser’s Maxwell Corcoran the GNAC Freshman of the Year award. Corcoran ranked seventh in the conference in scoring average at 73.1 strokes per round, the top number by a freshman. He helped fuel the Red Leafs’ GNAC Championships team title, carding a three-round score of 213 (77-68-68) in his debut at the Coeur d’Alene Resort to earn all-tournament recognition. Corcoran is the sixth SFU player to earn GNAC Freshman of the Year, with the most recent being teammate Denby Carswell a season ago.
 
Each leading their teams to the regional playoffs, SFU’s Krysta Schaus and WWU’s Luke Bennett were selected as the 2024-25 GNAC co-Coaches of the Year. Under Schaus’s guidance, SFU posted a three-round team score of 859 (301-278-280) to win its second GNAC Championships team title in the last three seasons by 10 strokes ahead of the Vikings. SFU’s team scoring average of 289.3 strokes per round was the lowest in the conference this year. In her first season leading both the SFU men’s and women’s program, Schaus became the third person in SFU history to win the GNAC Men’s Coach of the Year honor joining John Buchanan (2015) and Matthew Steinbach (2018, 2020). Bennett earned the honor for the seventh time in his career and made it four consecutive years being recognized by his peers as the league’s top coach.
 
Along with Mulder, Sibbett and Corcoran, four other men’s golfers earned placement on the all-conference first team. Carswell claimed the honor for the second year in a row, after notching the fourth-best scoring average in the GNAC at 71.9 strokes per round this season. Voted the league’s top freshman last year, Carswell followed up with a tie for second at the GNAC Championships as he matched Corcoran with a three-round score of 213 (76-68-69) Carswell was the Red Leafs’ leading scorer this year, making par or better in 19 of 28 rounds, earning a pair of top-five finishes and posting his season-low round of 68 at the conference tournament.
 
SFU’s Junsu Im also landed on the all-conference first team, after ranking fifth in the conference with a scoring average of 72.3 strokes per round. An integral member of the Red Leafs’ championship squad, Im ranked second on the team in scoring, made par or better in 13 of 24 rounds played and had one top-five finish. His season low-round score of 66 was the best on the team, and he tied for ninth at the GNAC Championships with a three-round total of 219 (79-69-71).
 
Like SFU, Western Washington also had three players on the first team as Peter Dionne-Yahr and Nick Ennis joined their teammate Sibbtt. Dionne-Yahr was sixth in the conference in scoring average this year with a mark of 72.6 strokes per round, and he competed in all 27 rounds and 10 events for the Vikings. Dionne-Yahr was second on the team in stroke average behind Sibbett, making par or better 14 times and notching a pair of top-five finishes. Dionne-Yahr tied for 13th place at the conference championship event with a three-round total of 222 (77-71-74), and claimed first-team all-conference for the second year in a row. Ennis meanwhile was at his best at the GNAC Championships, tying for second place with a three-round score of 213 (73-69-71). The transfer from Saint Martin’s earned all-conference for the second straight season, after being a second-team selection in 2023-24. He ranked 11th in the conference in stroke average at 73.9 this year.
 
Along with Mulder, NNU sophomore Kasey Gaff represented the Nighthawks on the all-conference team as a second-team selection. Gaff posted a scoring average of 73.1 strokes per round to rank eighth in the league, and tied for ninth at the GNAC Championships with a score of 219 (75-74-70).
 
Saint Martin’s was represented by second-team selections Gavin Klein, Rasmus Tamker and Carter Sheets. Klein posted a scoring average of 74.2 strokes per round and competed in 25 of 27 rounds for the Saints this spring. He made par or better in seven rounds and was the team's top finisher at the GNAC Championships in sixth place with a three-round total of 215 (70-74-71). Tamker finished his debut season at SMU ranked ninth in the GNAC with a stroke average of 73.1, and placed 11th at the GNAC Championships with a score of 220 (74-76-70). Sheets had the lowest individual round at the conference tournament this year with a 4-under-par 67, on his way to a seventh-place finish with a three-round score of 216 (78-67-71). Sheets finished the season with a scoring average of 74.9 strokes per round.
 
Simon Fraser also had a pair of second-team all-league golfers in sophomores Brendan O’Brien and Justin Bjornson. O’Brien finished eighth at the GNAC Championships with a score of 218 (71-75-72), and posted a season scoring average of 74.1 strokes per round. Bjornson tied for 13th at the conference championships with a score of 222 (77-73-72) and had a scoring average of 74.9 strokes per round in 2024-25.
 
Western Washington freshman Michael Killmer, who was a standout performer at the GNAC Championships, also earned a spot on the all-conference second team. Killmer logged a scoring average of 74.6 strokes per round in his collegiate debut season, which culminated with a fifth-place finish at the GNAC Championships with a score of 214 (76-70-68).
 
NCAA South Central/West Region Championships action kicks off on May 8 at Victoria Club. Live results for the event can be found online here.