Laney Frye Earns SEC-All Freshman Honors

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – With senior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen having already won Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year last month at the league tournament, two more Wildcats earned SEC honors with Friday’s full release of the 2020-21 conference awards.
 
Laney Frye was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team after leading the Wildcats in most statistical categories and junior Ryan Bender was tabbed to the SEC Community Service Team for her leadership and dedication to helping others.
 
Following the conclusion of stroke play at the SEC Championship in Birmingham, Alabama, Svejgård Nielsen was named SEC Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year for her exemplary work in the classroom and her excellence on the course.
 
Frye was one of eight freshmen to make the SEC All-Freshman Team and the second straight Wildcat to earn the honor. Jensen Castle, now a sophomore, made the team last season in addition to All-SEC First Team distinction. Frye also becomes just the fourth UK women’s golfer to make the SEC All-Freshman Team.
 
The SEC awards are voted on annually by the league’s coaches. Two different All-SEC teams were selected, comprising 16 players. South Carolina’s Kalen Anderson was named SEC Coach of the Year, Pauline Roussin-Bouchard from South Carolina, the No. 1 player in the country, was tabbed SEC Player of the Year, and Alabama’s Benedetta Moresco won SEC Freshman of the Year.
 
A full list of the SEC awards is at the bottom.

Frye has led the NCAA postseason-bound Wildcats as a freshman this season. Heading into next week’s NCAA Columbus Regional at the Scarlet Course at the Ohio State University Golf Club, she owns a team-best 73.5 18-hole stroke average and a team-leading three top-20 finishes. Of those three standout performances, two saw her finish in the top 10.
 
Frye, ranked No. 83 nationally in the latest Golfstat rankings, leads UK with 11 rounds of par or better, tied for the third most in single-season school history. The team has used her score in 24 of 27 rounds, and she has been the top finisher for UK in four of nine tournaments.
 
A two-time team state champion and the 2018 Kentucky High School Athletic Association state champ, Frye was always expected to come in and make a significant impact on a talented team but has exceeded even those lofty hopes.
 
Frye hit the ground running with a sixth-place, 3-over-par performance in the season-opening Blessings Collegiate Invitational. She matched that score at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic in March to tie for seventh and then set a career low at the SEC Championship with a 54-hole score of 1-under par. She was named SEC Co-Freshman of the Week on March 24 for her performance in the Liz Murphey.

Much to her surprise, Svejgård Nielsen was presented with the SEC Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year at the SEC Championship in mid-April. She became the third player in program history to win the award and the first since 2009.
 
Academically, Svejgård Nielsen has shined. Even with English as her second language, she has excelled while majoring in agricultural and medical biotechnology with a 3.711 grade-point average. Picking up a minor in neuroscience recently, she earned a perfect 4.0 GPA this fall while balancing athletic competition and the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Svejgård Nielsen is a two-time Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar Team member, a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member and has made the university’s Dean’s List five times. Earlier this season she was inducted into the UK Athletics Frank G. Ham Society of Character, which annually honors Wildcats who have shown an extraordinary commitment to academic excellence, athletic participation, personal development and career preparation while serving as a role model.
 
Currently a junior academically, Svejgård Nielsen plans to attend medical school or chiropractic school following graduation. She aspires to become a doctor with interests in brain or heart surgery and chiropractic medicine.
 
On the course, Svejgård Nielsen has played well down the stretch of the season. One of the most experienced golfers on a deep and talented Kentucky roster, Svejgård Nielsen has appeared in 25 events with 70 rounds of competition in her three seasons of athletic eligibility so far. She leads UK with nine career top-20 finishes and three top-10 showings, including winning the MSU Greenbrier Invitational in her debut tournament in 2018 as a sophomore (she did not have a freshman season). She carries a 75.1 career stroke average.
 
In the 2020-21 season, Svejgård Nielsen has shown admirable perseverance. After battling consistency issues for the first half of the season and going without a top-20 showing for the first six tournaments, she turned it on for the most important time of the year with top-20 finishes in each of the last two regular-season tournaments leading up to the SEC Championship.

Bender made the SEC Community Service Team for the first time in her career after displaying admirable leadership off the course throughout her career.
 
The junior has given back to her hometown in Louisville, Kentucky, on a number of occasions by tutoring and mentoring children at the Berrytown YMCA. There she helps kids with their homework, participates in engaging activities and serves dinner.
 
Bender is an annual participant in the UK’s God’s Pantry program to help pack and distribute lunches to students across the city. She has read to children through the Read Across America program, was a Breakfast with Santa volunteer and bowled with Special Olympic athletes
 
The annual SEC Community Service Team recognizes the superior community service efforts of the league’s student-athletes. The SEC Community Service Team consists of one student-athlete from each SEC institution, as nominated by the school’s personnel. The SEC names a community service team for each of its 21 league-sponsored sports.
 
Although Bender has not competed in an event this season, she has played in eight events in her Kentucky career with a career-best finish of 25th place.
 
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
 
ALL-SEC FIRST TEAM
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, South Carolina
Julia Johnson, Ole Miss
Ingrid Lindblad, LSU
Ana Pelaez, South Carolina
Brooke Matthews, Auburn
Celina Sattelkau, Vanderbilt
Benedetta Moresco, Alabama
Latanna Stone, LSU
 
ALL-SEC SECOND TEAM
Megan Schofill, Auburn
Annabell Fuller, Florida
Kennedy Swann, Ole Miss
Caterina Don, Georgia
Jenny Bae, Georgia
Lois Kaye Go, South Carolina
Mychael O’Berry, Auburn
Courtney Dow, Texas A&M
 
COACH OF THE YEAR
Kalen Anderson, South Carolina
 
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, South Carolina
 
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Rikke Svejgård Nielsen, Kentucky
 
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Benedetta Moresco, Alabama
 
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Cory Lopez, Arkansas
Laney Frye,  Kentucky
Carla Tejedo Mulet, LSU
Benedetta Moresco, Alabama
Paula Kirner, South Carolina
Maisie Filler, Florida
Elina Sinz, Auburn
Anna Foster, Auburn
 
COMMUNITY SERVICE TEAM
Mary Mac Trammell, Alabama
Kajal Mistry, Arkansas
Chandler Rosholt, Auburn
Lauren Waidner, Florida
Caroline Craig, Georgia
Ryan Bender, Kentucky
Kendall Griffin, LSU
Macy Somoskey, Ole Miss
Ela Grimwood, Mississippi State
Julia Bower, Missouri
Lois Kaye Go, South Carolina
Mikayla Bardwell, Tennessee
Brooke Tyree, Texas A&M
Virginia Green, Vanderbilt