April 23, 2004
Columbia, Mo. - Missouri Head Women's Golf Coach Stephanie Cooper has been named the 2003-04 Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year and Denise Knaebel and Maria Ohlsson earned spots on the All-Big 12 Golf squad, it was announced tonight by the Big 12 Conference office. The awards were presented at the Big 12 Championships in College Station, Texas, on Friday evening.
In only three years on the job, Cooper has led Mizzou to national prominence on the college golf scene. The Tigers have recorded 18 top three finishes during her tenure at Mizzou and won their first two tournaments under her tutelage this season. Cooper, who played at Mizzou from 1990-94, has led Mizzou to seven top three finishes in nine tournaments so far this year The Tigers are also getting it done in the classroom with five members named to the Academic All-Big 12 team. This is Cooper's first "Coach of the Year" honor since taking the reigns at Mizzou in 2001
"This honor certainly means a lot to me because it is voted on by the coaches around the league," Cooper said. "We have some tremendous coaches and some extremely talented players in Big 12 and I think that this honor is an indicator that people are taking notice of the positive strides our program is taking."
Knaebel, who was named to the five-person first team, and Ohlsson, who was named to the five-person second team, have both shot lights-out during the course of the 2003-04 season. Knaebel, who hails from Moberly, Mo., leads the Big 12 in stroke average at 74.2 strokes per 18 and earned Academic All-Big 12 Honors earlier this week. She has finished in the top 10 six times this season and has not finished out of the top 20 in nine tournaments played.
Ohlsson is fourth in the conference in stroke average at 74.9. She has recorded five top 10 finishes in 2003-04 with her best finish coming at the Las Vegas Collegiate Shootout, where she shot a one-under par 215 which is a Mizzou school record for 54 holes. Ohlsson is from Vetlanda, Sweden and is the younger sister of former Tiger standout Elin Ohlsson, who will graduate in May.
The Tigers were one of only two schools who had two players named to the All-Big 12 team. Mizzou will play in the second round of the Big 12 Championships tomorrow morning with tee times set for 8 a.m. CST. Live scoring will be provided at www.mutigers.com or at www.golfstat.com. For a complete wrap up of Saturday's second round, log on to www.mutigers.com late Saturday afternoon.