Four Polar Bears named Academic All-Conference in Women's Golf for 2017-18
By Tim Glon
ADA — Four Ohio Northern student/athletes were named Academic All-Ohio Athletic Conference in women's golf for 2017-18.
Senior Raven Venegas (Lima/Shawnee), juniors Alaina Mikolajewski (Piqua) and Caitlin Silva (Hilliard/Bradley) and sophomore Taylor Daniel (Columbia City, Ind.) all received the honor.
The award winners must be a sophomore or higher in class standing, maintain varsity status and have a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.50.
Venegas is a law student at ONU and transferred after playing three seasons at Walsh University.
She earned All-Conference accolades with a 13th place finish at the 2018 OAC Championships and was second on the team with an 85.7 stroke average.
Mikolajewski is a criminal justice major and has played in 21.5 rounds in her three seasons as a Polar Bear.
In six rounds this season, she averaged 101.5 strokes per round, which is 18.5 shots better than her freshman average.
Silva is now a two-time Academic All-Conference award winner and is majoring in early childhood education.
She was third on the team this season with an 87.9 average for 16 rounds.
In 47.5 career rounds, Silva has an 89.89 average, which ranks her seventh all-time in ONU history.
Daniel is an art education major and made major strides as a sophomore in 2017-18, trimming her average by more than five strokes this season.
In 14 rounds this year, Daniel was fifth on the team with a 94.1 average, 5.7 shots better than her freshman average of 99.8.
The Polar Bears posted a 27-18 overall record this season and finished fifth at the 2018 OAC Championships under fifth-year head coach Chad Bucci.