PORTLAND, Ore. – From start-to-finish Western Washington’s Conrad Brown has had an impeccable 2025-26 season and he was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Player of the Year with Wednesday’s announcement of the all-conference teams.
 
Brown, a junior from Burlington, Wash., became the ninth different player in program history to garner the league’s top men’s golf award. His teammates Rex Wilson and Henry Kippenhan were named the GNAC Newcomer of the Year and co-Freshman of the Year, respectively, while Viking head coach Luke Bennett claimed his eighth-career men’s golf GNAC Coach of the Year award. Montana State Billings’ Aubrey Kelley was the other major award winner, being voted as the co-Freshman of the Year alongside Kippenhan.
 

2025-26 GNAC Men's Golf Special Award Winners
Player of the Year	Conrad Brown, Western Washington
Coach of the Year	Luke Bennett, Western Washington (8th of career)
Newcomer of the Year	Rex Wilson, Western Washington
Co-Freshman of the Year	Henry Kippenhan, Western Washington; Aubrey Kelley, Montana State Billings

 

First-Team All-Conference
Name	School	Year	Hometown (Previous School)
@ Rasmus Tamker	Saint Martin's	Junior	Stockholm, Sweden (Gray’s Harbor Coll.)
Rex Wilson	Western Washington	Sophomore	Burlington, Wash. (Utah)
Pete Netrnilweerachot	Montana State Billings	Sophomore	Chon Buri, Thailand (Assumption College Sriracha)
!* Conrad Brown	Western Washington	Junior	Burlington, Wash. (Burlington-Edison)
%$ Denby Carswell	Simon Fraser	Junior	Burnaby, B.C. (Stratford Hall)
%$ Peter Dionne-Yahr	Western Washington	Senior	Kent, Wash. (Kentwood)
Christopher Zamani	Western Washington	Junior	Sammamish, Wash. (Linfield)
@ Brendan O’Brien	Simon Fraser	Junior	Victoria, B.C. (Oak Bay)

 

Second-Team All-Conference
Name	School	Year	Hometown (Previous School)
@ Kasey Gaff	Northwest Nazarene	Junior	Stockton, Calif. (St. Mary’s)
@# Justin Bjornson	Simon Fraser	Junior	Surrey, B.C. (Pacific Acad.)
Parker Sawatzky	Saint Martin's	Sophomore	Olympia, Wash. (Capital)
Dylan Christensen	Northwest Nazarene	Senior	Tremonton, Utah (Bear River)
Henry Kippenhan	Western Washington	Freshman	Mill Creek, Wash. (Jackson)
% Maxwell Corcoran	Simon Fraser	Sophomore	Ottawa, Ont. (West Carleton)
% - 2024-25 First-Team All-GNAC | @ - 2024-25 Second-Team All-GNAC | $ - 2023-24 First-Team All-GNAC # - 2023-24 Second-Team All-GNAC | * - 2022-23 Second-Team All-GNAC | ! – 2021-22 Second-Team All-GNAC

 

With next week’s NCAA West/South Central Regional Championships still ahead of him, Brown is amid one of the best seasons in GNAC history. His league-leading scoring average of 70.8 strokes per round is the second-lowest in league history as he looks to join record-holder Jordan Lee of WWU (70.3 in 2022) and Simon Fraser’s Chris Crisologo (70.9 in 2018) as the only players in GNAC history to eclipse the 71 strokes per round average for a season.
 
Brown has finished in the top-10 in eight of his nine events played, including most recently a seventh-place finish at the 2026 GNAC Championships. He made headlines during the fall portion of the season, topping a field of 95 competitors in playoff fashion to win the Cal State Monterey Bay Otter Invitational. Brown also has three top-5 finishes to his name, including a tie for fourth at the Chico State Wildcat Classic in September and a second-place finish at the Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout in March. He earned a conference-leading three GNAC Player of the Week awards throughout the campaign, and has been the league’s top-ranked player on Clippd all season currently standing at No. 52 in Division II.
 
Wilson, a transfer from the University of Utah, became the eighth player in WWU history to earn the GNAC Newcomer of the Year award. He was pivotal in leading the Vikings to their record 12th GNAC Championships team title last week in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, tying for second place to also earn first-team all-conference honors. Wilson shot an even-par 213 (70-69-74) on the championship links, lowering his season scoring average to 72.3 strokes per round which ranks fourth in the conference. In his first year with the Vikings, Wilson competed in all nine events and 26 rounds, with his season being highlighted by a win at the 36-hole Visit Stockton Invitational in February.
 
Kippenhan became the fourth Western Washington player to take home GNAC Freshman of the Year recognition and the first since the aforementioned Lee in 2019. The first-year player from Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Wash., was a key contributor among the Viking lineup throughout the campaign. He played in 14 rounds and five events, currently holding a stroke average of 74.4 strokes per round.
 
Sharing the honor for top freshman was Kelley, giving the Yellowjackets their first such award since Caleb Stetzner in 2017 and their fourth overall. Kelley tied for the top stroke average within the MSUB lineup this season, posting a mark of 74.5 strokes per round. He represented his team in 10 events and 25 total rounds played, earning a pair of top-five finishes along the way. Competing in his first GNAC Championships tournament last week, Kelley posted a three-round score of 224 (75-71-78) to finish in a tie for 15th place.
   
Now in his 12th season in charge of the men’s golf program at his alma mater, Bennett was voted by his peers as the league’s top coach once again. The Vikings, ranked first in the NCAA West/South Central Region ahead of next week’s national tournament, posted a season team scoring average of 286.8 strokes per

round – 2.3 strokes per round lower than the next-closest team. That dominance shone through at the GNAC Championships, where all five of WWU’s players finished in the top-12 and the Vikings won the event by 18 strokes with a three-round score of 3-over-par 855 (274-279-302). WWU’s opening round score of 274 was one stroke off the GNAC Championships single-round team record. Under Bennett’s guidance, WWU made it 27 consecutive appearances at the NCAA Championships.
 
Joining Brown and Wilson on the all-conference first team were fellow Vikings Peter Dionne-Yahr and Christopher Zamani. A senior, Dionne-Yahr became the ninth player in conference history to earn first-team all-GNAC for the third time. He holds a 2025-26 stroke average of 72.8, ranking him seventh in the conference. He is also sixth all-time in the conference with a career stroke average of 72.90. Zamani had a strong showing at his first GNAC Championships, matching Dionne-Yahr with the lowest round of the tournament – a 5-under-par 66 in the opener. He is sixth in the GNAC in 2025-26 with a scoring average of 72.8 strokes per round, making the all-conference team for the first time.
 
Rasmus Tamker of Saint Martin’s won the GNAC Championships individual title, landing himself on the all-conference first team for the first time. A second-team all-league pick last year, Tamker was the only player to go under par as he won the tournament with a 1-under-par 212 (69-69-74) last week. That brought his season stroke average down to 73.6, ranking him 12th in the league. Tamker earned an individual berth into the NCAA West Region Championships, and will compete alongside the Viking team and the Simon Fraser team next week in Stockton, Calif.
 
The Red Leafs had two players featured on the all-conference first team in three-time selection Denby Carswell and first-time pick Brendan O’Brien. Carswell joined Dionne-Yahr in the rarified territory of a three-year pick on the first team, with his three-year stroke average of 72.15 ranking him third all-time among GNAC players. His raw average of 72.0 strokes per round in 2025-26 ranked him third in the conference. O’Brien meanwhile was eighth in the GNAC with a scoring average of 73.0 strokes per round. That is the best mark of the junior’s career, as he bumped his overall average down to 73.37 strokes per round.
 
A stellar championship tournament by Pete Netrnilweerachot earned the Montana State Billings sophomore inclusion on the first team as well. Netrnilweerachot played his way to a tie for second place with WWU’s Wilson, shooting a three-round score of even-par 213 (69-69-75) at the championship course. A major contributor in the MSUB lineup all season, Netrnilweerachot ranked third on the team with a scoring average of 75.0 strokes per round.