PENSACOLA, Fla. — Lee University swept the 2022 Gulf South Conference Commissioner’s Trophy awards on Thursday evening, as Beck Burnette and Celine Ritter were both recognized. 

PREVIOUS WINNERS

The duo was honored as part of the league’s annual award banquet which recognized this the year’s GSC Top Ten honorees.

Burnette is the first men’s winner from Lee in school-history and just the third golfer in GSC history to be recognized, joining 2018 men’s winner Chandler Blanchet from West Florida) and West Georgia’s Franziska Bream who won in 2019.

Ritter meanwhile joined elite company becoming the eighth individual to win back-to-back Commissioner Trophy honors, in a list that includes GSC Hall of Famer Morgan Johnson, who won  the award in 2012 and 2013. Ritter is the only women’s cross country/track & field athlete to be recognized since the women’s award began in 1982-83.

ATHLETE BIOS

Overall, the Flames become the fifth school to capture both the men’s and women’s award in the same year, joining West Georgia (2019), North Alabama (2017), Valdosta State (1995) and Delta State (1992).

The Commissioner’s Trophy is the highest honor bestowed by the Conference and one of the most prestigious individual honors in Division II. The league initiated the men’s award in 1974-75 and added the women’s honor in 1982-83.