ORU men picked third, women second in Summit League pollsd

TULSA, Okla. – The Oral Roberts men’s golf team was picked third in the 2020 Summit League Preseason Poll and received one first place vote, it was announced Thursday.

The Pioneers, who won the league title for the first time since 2014, received all seven first-place votes while North Dakota State and Oral Roberts each received one. The Bison wound up in second with 56 points while the Golden Eagles were third with 50 points.

South Dakota was fourth with 41 points while Omaha (34) edged South Dakota State (33) for fifth. The Jackrabbits were in sixth with Purdue Fort Wayne (22), Western Illinois (16) and North Dakota (10) rounding out the seven through nine spots in the poll.

2020 Men’s Golf  Preseason Poll

First-place vote in parentheses

#SummitMGF Preseason Notes

• The 2019 Summit League Championship for Denver was the first for the program since its inaugural season as a league member in 2014
• Since the 2008 season, the men’s preseason No. 1 has gone onto win the league championship just four times (2011, 2013, 2014, 2016)
• Denver’s Cal McCoy will look to defend his 2019 Championship MVP honor as he is one of three players returning from last year’s four-man playoff. Also returning from that trio is McCoy’s Pioneer teammate, Esteban Missura, and North Dakota State’s Andrew Israelson
• Those three were joined on the All-Tournament Team by Cody Burrows and Dustin Hasley of Oral Roberts
• Israelson is the only three-time All-Summit League performer back in 2019 after claiming first-team honors for the second-straight season
• McCoy and Israelson are the only first-team returners, but Hasley, South Dakota’s Tate Arends and Omaha’s Witchayapat Sinsrange make up a trio of All-Second Team returnees
• Reigning Coach of the Year Erik Billinger from Denver guided the Pioneers to the top team scoring average in the fall at 285.2

The Oral Roberts women’s golf team was selected second in the 2020 Summit League Preseason Poll, it was announced Wednesday.

The Pioneers, who have represented the league in the NCAA Tournament during each of their six seasons as a league member, received all eight of the first-place votes they could receive while Oral Roberts followed in second place with 53 points. DU and ORU both return three All-Summit League performers from 2019 to their respective rosters.

South Dakota State, who received the other first-place vote, took third with 49 points and North Dakota State was fourth with 48 points. South Dakota who took fifth with 36 points. Purdue Fort Wayne was picked to finish, totaling 22 points while Omaha (19), North Dakota (18) and Western Illinois (15) rounded out the poll.

2020 Women’s Golf  Preseason Poll

First-place vote in parentheses

#SummitWGF Preseason Notes

• This is the seventh-consecutive season the Denver Pioneers have topped the preseason poll. DU returned to the winner’s circle at the 2019 Summit League Championship after seeing its four-year postseason run as league champions come to an end in 2018.
• Four of five 2019 All-Summit League first-team selections return for the 2020 spring campaign, including three-time honoree Teresa Toscano from South Dakota State. Toscano was an all-second team performer in 2017 and first-team performer in 2018 and 2019. She is joined by Denver’s Mary Weinstein and Camille Enright and Oral Roberts’ Sarah Bell.
• Much like the first team, four selections from the All-Summit League second team also return, including two from Oral Roberts (Isabella Caamal and Beatriz Garcia). Denver’s Alyson Bean also returns along with North Dakota State junior Taylor McCorkle.
• Four of the top-six finishers from the 2019 Championship in Newton, Kan., will take another shot at the title in 2020, including Weinstein, who is the reigning Championship MVP
• Weinstein closed out her trophy chase with a Summit League Championship single-round record of 65 (-7) to win the event by seven strokes.
• During the 2019 fall season, newcomer Anna Zanusso topped all league golfers with a 72.1 stroke average, which included a title in her second collegiate event at The Golfweek Conference Challenge (205; -11).
• The Pioneers posted the top team scoring average during the fall, turning in a 290.6 average, which was almost nine strokes lower than their 2018 fall stroke average.
• In the history of the league, only three programs have ever won the women’s golf championship: Oral Roberts (15), Denver (5) and North Dakota State (2)

** Minimum nine rounds played