ARLINGTON, Texas – The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) released the 2025-26 WAC women’s golf season awards on Friday afternoon as Tarleton State’s Louise Depadt was named the WAC Women’s Golfer of the Year after winning back-to-back individual titles in the conference championship and leading the Texans back to the NCAA regionals for the second straight year.

Player awards and the all-conference teams were tabulated by using a formula that included pre-championship Clippd player rankings, adjusted regular season scoring average and placement at the 2026 WAC Women’s Golf Championship.

California Baptist’s Shuyi Cao was selected the WAC Freshman of the Year and Abilene Christian’s Rob Bennett and Tarleton State’s Isabel Jimenez were voted as WAC Co-Coach of the Year as voted by the league’s head coaches.

Depadt, a junior, led Tarleton State to back-to-back WAC championships both as a team and individually, becoming the first WAC women’s golfer to repeat as individual champion since 2011-12. Depadt carded rounds of 74-71-72 to finish with a final score of 1-over 217. Depadt collected two additional individual titles during the regular season, winning the Texas State Invitational (Feb. 2-3) and the Riverbend Intercollegiate (Mar. 9-10). Depadt totaled four top-two placements in seven tournaments played this season.

Cao earned California Baptist its third consecutive WAC Freshman of the Year award as the Lancer was the highest ranked WAC freshman in the Clippd rankings this season. Cao posted a season-best finish, and score, of seventh (1-over) in the Fresno Classic (Mar. 2-3), earning herself the WAC Women’s Golfer of the Week honor.

Bennett led the Wildcats to four top-three finishes in the 2025-26 season, highlighted by the home victory in the West Texas Classic where ACU finished first as team. The Wildcats shot a season-best 8-over at the Lady Clerico (Sept. 15-16) to claim a runner-up finish.

Jimenez guided Tarleton State to its second straight WAC women’s golf championship, as the Texans shot 25-over as a team, winning the tournament by 11 strokes over the rest of the field. Jimenez led the Texans to four top-five finishes throughout the regular season, with a season-best score of 9-over in the Texas State Invitational. Tarleton State will compete in the Waco Regional as the 11^th seed on May 11-13 at the Ridgewood Country Club.

Earning All-WAC First Team honors, along with Depadt, were Abilene Christian’s Ryann Honea and Maddi Kamas, Tarleton State’s Lou Deltombe and UT Arlington’s Tarini Bhoga. Joining Cao on the All-WAC Second team from California Baptist were Samantha Dizon and Pusanisa Ekkantrong. ACU’s Jiyu Han, UTA’s Nitisha Manikandesh and Utah Valley’s Chloe Jang also earned second team honors.

2025-26 WAC Women’s Golf Major Awards & All-WAC Teams
 
WAC Women's Golfer of the Year
Louise Depadt, Tarleton State
 
WAC Freshman of the Year
Shuyi Cao, California Baptist
 
WAC Co-Coach of the Year
Rob Bennett, Abilene Christian
Isabel Jimenez, Tarleton State
 
All-WAC First Team
Ryann Honea, Sr., Abilene Christian
Maddi Kamas, Gr., Abilene Christian
Lou Deltombe, Sr., Tarleton State
Louise Depadt, Jr., Tarleton State
Tarini Bhoga, So., UT Arlington
 
All-WAC Second Team
Jiyu Han, Jr., Abilene Christian
Shuyi Cao, Fr., California Baptist
Samantha Dizon, Sr., California Baptist
Pusanisa Ekkantrong, Jr., California Baptist
Nitisha Manikandesh, Sr., UT Arlington
Chloe Jang, Jr., Utah Valley