OGDEN, Utah – The Big Sky Conference office officially announced its 2016 all-conference golf team Thursday afternoon, with Northern Arizona University's Kim Cifuentes, Kaitlyn Saum, Morgan Messick and Sofya Anokhina all earning recognition for their performances during the spring season.  

The Lumberjacks had the second-most selections of any team in the conference, with this year's Big Sky Champs Idaho finishing with five. Cifuentes and Messick earned honorable mention accolades while Anokhina and Saum both nabbed second-team honors.  

Anokhina had one heck of an inaugural season in the Lumberjack blue and gold, recording the best scoring round average on the team at a 75.43 clip and leading the team in first round scoring average (75.10), last round scoring average (74.70), par-4 scoring (4.23) and par-5 scoring (4.98). At the conference tournament this week, Anokhina placed first on the team and 13th-overall with a 4-over-par 220 score.

Saum finished her sophomore campaign with a 21st place finish at conference, but opened the tournament shooting an impressive 1-under 71 to set the tone for the team and help the Lumberjacks log a 290 team score—a score ranked third-best in school history. Her performance at the conference tournament was a season-best, three day score.  

One of the team's leaders, junior Kim Cifuentes, also pieced together a good season for the NAU squad, tallying the most birdies on the team (67) which ranked in the top four percent nationally. Cifuentes notched three top-20 finishes this spring as well, en route to a 76.43 scoring average for the year.

Messick, who joined the team for the spring semester, showed flashes of greatness in 2016, with one coming yesterday in the final round of conference competition. Messick tied for the top score on the day for the Lumberjacks during the third round at Boulder Creek Golf Course, turning in a 1-over 73.  The freshman from Tucson also had the second-lowest last round scoring average at 75.67.