Liberty's Ervin Chang and Gabe Lench joined elite company on Thursday when the pair were named to the 2019 PING All-America honorable-mention team, which was announced by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA).
With their selections, Chang and Lench become the second and third All-Americans in program history. Liberty's Robert Karlsson was named to the GCAA PING All-America third team in 2012.
A total of 30 players were named to the PING All-America first, second and third teams. Chang and Lench were part of the 32 players who were selected to the All-America honorable-mention team.
The honor is another accolade in a long list for the successful pair during the 2018-19 season. Both golfers were named to the ASUN All-Conference first team and honored on the PING All-Region East team. Yesterday, Chang and Lench were also selected to the VaSID All-State first team.
Chang also was named the ASUN Men's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the ASUN Male Student-Athlete of the Year.
The pair helped the Flames during one of the most historic seasons in program history. Liberty was consistently ranked inside the Golfstat top 25 national rankings all season, including a program best No. 18 in March. Liberty finished the year ranked No. 22 in the final Golfstat national rankings.
The Flames earned the program's eighth NCAA Regional appearance in the last nine years. Liberty finished in fifth place at the NCAA Athens Regional, pushing the program to the national championship for the second time in school history.
Liberty finish 20th at the 2019 NCAA Men's Golf National Championship, the team's second best finish at the national championship.
Chang finished his junior season with a 71.71 stroke average, which ranks fourth-best in program history.
Chang was named to the ASUN Men's Golf All-Conference first team, and he was selected the ASUN Men's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He led the team with eight top-10 finishes and played 19-of-35 rounds at par or better (54.3 percent) this season.
Lench paced Liberty with a 71.62 season stroke average, marking the second best single-season stroke average in program history. Lench joined Chang on the ASUN Men's Golf All-Conference first team and the ASUN Men's Golf Championship All-Tournament team.
The lone senior in Liberty's starting lineup in 2018-19, Lench posted six top-10 finishes, including sharing medalist honors with teammate Alexandre Fuchs at the Intercollegiate at The Grove.
Lench became the first player in program history to advance to the final day of stroke play at the NCAA Men's Golf National Championship where he finished tied for 24th place with a 6-over par 294 (75-73-69-77).
2019 PING All-America Team
First Team Steven Fisk, Georgia Southern Will Gordon, Vanderbilt Cole Hammer, Texas Viktor Hovland, Oklahoma State Collin Morikawa, California Bryson Nimmer, Clemson John Pak, Florida State Justin Suh, Southern California Matthew Wolff, Oklahoma State Chun An Yu, Arizona State
Second Team Peter Kuest, BYU Andy Ogletree, Georgia Tech Chandler Phillips, Texas A&M Trent Phillips, Georgia Isaiah Salinda, Stanford Matthias Schmid, Louisville Sandy Scott, Texas Tech Alex Smalley, Duke Brandon Wu, Stanford Cameron Young, Wake Forest
Third Team John Augenstein, Vanderbilt Chandler Eaton, Duke Austin Eckroat, Oklahoma State Blake Elliott, McNeese State Philip Knowles, North Florida Patrick Martin, Vanderbilt Stefano Mazzoli, TCU Mac Meissner, SMU Luke Schniederjans, Georgia Tech Scott Stevens, South Carolina
Honorable Mention Eric Bae, Wake Forest Zach Bauchou, Oklahoma State Albin Bergstrom, USF Ervin Chang, Liberty Steven Chervony, Texas Parker Coody, Texas Pierceson Coody, Texas Kyle Cottam, Clemson Sebastian Crampton, California Quade Cummins, Oklahoma Lee Detmer, Wake Forest Kyler Dunkle, Utah Michael Feagles, Illinois Alex Fitzpatrick, Wake Forest Stephen Franken, NC State Noah Goodwin, SMU Austin Hitt, North Carolina Tripp Kinney, Iowa State Gabe Lench, Liberty KK Limbhasut, California Kaito Onishi, Southern California Spencer Ralston, Georgia Rhett Rasmussen, BYU Garret Reband, Oklahoma Jovan Rebula, Auburn Billy Tom Sargent, Western Kentucky Henry Shimp, Stanford Benjamin Shipp, NC State David Snyder, Stanford Davis Thompson, Georgia Patrick Welch, Oklahoma Trevor Werbylo, Arizona
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