GCAA Release 

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Three Saint John's University golf student-athletes earned Golf Coaches' Association of America (GCAA) All-America Scholar recognition, sponsored by Srixon/Cleveland Golf, last week.

Senior David Schneider (Albany, Minn.) earned his second consecutive honor, while juniors Preston Kopel (Sauk Rapids, Minn./Foley) and Max LaBine (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral) received their first. 

The SJU golf program has now had an All-America Scholar each of the last 21 years, for a total of 35 during that span. 

To be eligible for All-America Scholar, student-athletes must be either a junior or senior with a season scoring average under 79.0, a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher and have participated in 50 percent or more of the team's events during the season. 

The new guidelines for the 2019-20 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed sophomores for the first time and lowered the participation requirement to 40 percent of the team's competitive rounds. 

A two-time GCAA All-American and GCAA All-Central Region selection, Schneider graduated in May with 3.67 GPA in biology. He led SJU with a 74.2 scoring average in 17 rounds and four top-10 finishes in the fall portion of the 2019-20 schedule. Schneider was All-MIAC three times and ended his career tied for ninth in school history with a 75.2 scoring average in 87 rounds. He registered 16 top-10 finishes during his four-year career, including six in the top five.

An economics major with a 3.98 GPA, Kopel earned 2020 CoSIDA Academic All-District honors and the 2019 NCAA Elite 90 Award, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at the NCAA Championship. He also received the 2019 MIAC Elite 22 Award, which is given to the student-athlete with the highest GPA among the top-10 finishers at the MIAC Championship, last fall.

Kopel led the Johnnies by tying for third at the 2019 MIAC Championship and ended the fall schedule with a 75.1 scoring average, including a team-leading four rounds at par or better. He begins his senior season with a 75.9 average in 59 career rounds.

The first wave of GCAA All-America Scholar recipients includes pre-spring semester grades. A psychology major, LaBine qualified for the distinction thanks to a solid spring semester and will be announced as an honoree in July. He tied for 13th out of 120 golfers with a two-round total of 148 (+5) at the SJU Fall Invitational and finished with a 76.9 scoring average in eight rounds last fall.