OKLAHOMA CITY (May 21, 2020) – Oklahoma Christian golfers
Shaley Goad and
Abigail Rigsby were named Thursday to the Academic All-District 6 At-Large honor team by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Rigsby, a senior from Courtenay, British Columbia, received the honor for a second straight year, making her the first female OC golfer ever named to the Academic All-District list in multiple years. Goad, a junior from Wheeler, Texas, became the third OC golfer recognized on the Academic All-District list. Audrey Meisch was the first, making the list in 2015.
The CoSIDA honor recognizes student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom and is considered one of the most prestigious in collegiate athletics. To qualify for the honor, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.3 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale, have reached sophomore status athletically, have legitimate athletic credentials and have been at the nominating institution at least one calendar year.
For the 2019-20 academic year only, selections to the Academic All-District At-Large teams used career – instead of season – athletic accomplishments, as many spring sports (including golf) had their seasons ended prematurely or cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Academic All-District awards are divided into eight geographic districts and four divisions. OC student-athletes compete for awards against their counterparts from other Division II schools. District 6 includes universities that are members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic and Lone Star Conferences – a total of 35 schools. Sports information directors from those universities vote for the Academic All-District team. OC competes in the LSC in all sports except men's and women's swimming, in which the university competes in the RMAC.
Sports that fall under the "At-Large" umbrella for CoSIDA award purposes are beach volleyball, bowling, lacrosse, rifle, crew, skiing, fencing, swimming, field hockey, tennis, golf, gymnastics, water polo and ice hockey. One swimmer for OC's women's team, Jamie McGarrigle, joined Rigsby and Goad on the Academic All-District list.
Goad, the runner-up at the Heartland Conference Championship in 2019, started on OC's squad that qualified last year for the NCAA Division II Championship. She has seven career top-10 tournament finishes, including five top-three showings, and a career scoring average of 77.96 over 61 rounds.
She is a two-time recipient of the Women's Golf Coaches Association's All-America Scholar honor and received the Division II Athletic Directors Association Academic Achievement Award in 2019. She's been on either the Heartland or Lone Star Conference's academic honor roll in each of her six college semesters.
A Nutrition and Exercise Science major with a 3.87 GPA, Goad also serves as a representative for women's golf on OC's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, as does Rigsby, who was the OC SAAC's secretary in 2019-20.
Rigsby, a Mathematics major with a 3.72 GPA, is a three-time All-Heartland Conference selection (2017, 2018, 2019) and a two-time NCAA national qualifier (2017, 2019). She owns three career wins and has posted 17 top-10 collegiate finishes in addition to winning three Heartland Conference player-of-the-week honors. Her career scoring average of 75.76 (over 75 rounds) ranks second on OC's career list.
Last August, she became the first female ever to compete in qualifying for the Oklahoma Open men's championship tournament.
She is a three-time WGCA All-America Scholar and twice has received the Division II Athletic Directors Association Academic Achievement Award. She made the Heartland's President's Honor Roll six times in as many semesters and the LSC's Commissioner's Honor Roll in both semesters in 2019-20.
Both Goad and Rigsby plan to return to play for the Eagles in the 2020-21 season.
Rigsby and Goad now will advance to the ballot for the CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large team, which will be selected through a vote of sports information directors from NCAA Division II schools in the U.S. and Canada. That list will be announced in mid-June. No OC golfer ever has made the Academic All-America team.
