By: Jeff Evans, Assistant AD for Athletic Communications
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University men's golf team was well-represented on the 2025-26 GNAC Men's Golf All-Conference team with five players earning awards and Luke Bennett being selected as the Coach of the Year for the eighth time.
Junior Conrad Brown led the award winners earning GNAC Player of the Year honors, junior Rex Wilson was voted the Newcomer of the Year and freshman Henry Kippenhan shared the conference Freshman of the Year honor. Senior Peter Dionne-Yahr and junior Christopher Zamani were also First Team All-GNAC selections.
2025-26 GNAC Men's Golf All-Conference Awards:
With next week's NCAA West/South Central Regional Championships still ahead of him, Brown is amid one of the best seasons in GNAC history. His league-leading scoring average of 70.8 strokes per round is the second-lowest in conference history as he looks to join record-holder Jordan Lee of WWU (70.3 in 2022) and Simon Fraser's Chris Crisologo (70.9 in 2018) as the only players in GNAC history to eclipse the 71 strokes per round average for a season. The junior from Burlington became the ninth different player in program history to garner the league's top men's golf award.
Brown has finished in the top 10 in eight of his nine events, including most recently a 7th-place finish at the GNAC Championships. He made headlines during the fall portion of the season, topping a field of 95 competitors in playoff fashion to win the Cal State Monterey Bay Otter Invitational. Brown also has three top 5 finishes to his name, including a tie for 4th at the Chico State Wildcat Classic in September and a 2nd-place finish at the Tim Tierney Pioneer Shootout in March. He earned a conference-leading three GNAC Player of the Week awards throughout the campaign and has been the league's top-ranked player on Clippd all season currently standing at No. 52 in Division II entering the regional tournament.
Wilson, a transfer from the University of Utah, became the eighth player in WWU history to earn the GNAC Newcomer of the Year award. He was pivotal in leading the Vikings to their record 12th GNAC Championships team title last week in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, tying for second place to also earn first-team all-conference honors. Wilson shot an even-par 213 (70-69-74) on the championship links, lowering his season scoring average to 72.3 strokes per round which ranks fourth in the conference. In his first year with the Vikings, Wilson competed in all nine events and 26 rounds, with his season being highlighted by a win at the 36-hole Visit Stockton Invitational in February.
Joining Brown and Wilson on the all-conference first team were senior captain Peter Dionne-Yahr and junior Christopher Zamani. Dionne-Yahr became the ninth player in conference history to earn first-team all-GNAC for the third time. He holds a 2025-26 stroke average of 72.8, ranking him 7th in the conference. He is also sixth all-time in the conference with a career stroke average of 72.90. Zamani had a strong showing at his first GNAC Championships, matching Dionne-Yahr with the lowest round of the tournament – a 5-under-par 66 in the opener. He is sixth in the GNAC in 2025-26 with a scoring average of 72.8 strokes per round, making the all-conference team for the first time.
Kippenhan became the fourth Western Washington player to take home GNAC Freshman of the Year recognition and the first since the Lee in 2019. The first-year player from Jackson High School in Mill Creek was a key contributor among the Viking lineup throughout the campaign while earning Second Team All-GNAC honors. He played in 14 rounds and five events, currently holding a stroke average of 74.4 strokes per round.
Now in his 12th season in charge of the men's golf program at his alma mater, Bennett was voted by his peers as the league's top coach once again. The Vikings, ranked first in the NCAA West/South Central Region ahead of next week's national tournament, posted a season team scoring average of 286.8 strokes per round – 2.3 strokes per round lower than the next-closest team.
That dominance shone through at the GNAC Championships, where all five of WWU's players finished in the top-12 and the Vikings won the event by 18 strokes with a three-round score of 3-over-par 855 (274-279-302). WWU's opening round score of 274 was one stroke off the GNAC Championships single-round team record. Under Bennett's guidance, WWU will be making its 27th consecutive appearances at the NCAA Championships.
GNACSports.com contributed to this news release
