Toledo sophomore Barend Botha and graduate transfer Lukas Clark received First Team All-Mid-American Conference honors and sophomore Jamie Tofte Nielsen was named Second Team All-MAC for the 2021-22 men’s golf season, the league office announced on Friday.
The trio’s honors mark the first time since 2002 that three Rockets have received all-conference honors in the same season. In that season, Brad Heaven, Sean McTernan and Alan Murray each were named to the first team.
From left to right, Barend Botha, Lukas Clark and Jamie Tofte Nielsen each received All-MAC honors.
A native of George, South Africa, Botha received first-team honors for a second-straight year after pacing the Rockets with a career-low 72.5 stroke average and 17 rounds of par or better.
Botha tied for fifth place in the recent MAC Championships to earn All-Tournament Team honors. He also registered other top performances with a career-best fourth-place showing after shooting a career-low seven-under 209 at the Grandover Collegiate (Oct. 23-24) and carding a seven-under 209 at the Quail Valley Collegiate (Oct. 17-18). Botha also finished under par at South Alabama’s Mobile Bay Intercollegiate (Feb. 21-22) and Washington’s Husky Invitational (Sept. 20-21).
Clark ranked second on the team with a 73.0 stroke average after joining Toledo last fall following four seasons at Penn State. The Holland, Penn., native joined Botha on the MAC’s All-Tournament squad after posting a season-best fifth-place finish at last week’s MAC Championships. Clark recorded two additional top-10 showings by tying for seventh at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate with a season-low four-under par 212 and tying for eighth at the Purdue Fall Invitational (Oct. 11-12) with a two-under par 214.
A Wittbek, Denmark, native, Nielsen ranked third on the team with a 73.5 scoring mark and capped off his 2021-22 campaign by tying for first place at the MAC Championship before losing on the second hole of a playoff. He also produced top 10 outings at the Grandover Collegiate (six-under par 210/5th) and the Quail Valley Collegiate (career-low eight-under par 208/T-6th) as well as finishing at two-under par at the Husky Invitational.
