Youngstown State senior golfer Ryan Sam was one of five student-athletes voted to the 2026 Valeo Horizon League Men's Golf All-Academic Team for their combined performance on the course and in the classroom, the league office announced on Thursday.

Sam, a native of Canfield, Ohio, earns academic all-conference honors for the first time while becoming the program's first all-academic honoree since 2023. He maintained a 3.72 GPA as a senior finance major at Youngstown State.

Sam, YSU's lone senior and team captain in 2025-26, was selected to the All-Horizon League Second Team following his fourth and final collegiate campaign. He participated in all 12 tournaments and 36 rounds as a senior in 2025-26. Sam averaged a team and career best 73.2 strokes per round with a low round of 67 while earning two top 10 finishes and seven top 25 performances this past season.

Sam was one of three Penguins to set a new single-season school record with 36 rounds played in 2025-26. The senior's 73.2 strokes per round average ranks as the sixth-lowest single-season mark in program history. Sam was named the Under Armour Horizon League Men's Golfer of the Week on March 12 after finishing tied for second on the individual leaderboard with a career-best, six-under-par three-round score of 210 (70-67-73) at South Dakota State's Jackrabbit Invitational.

To be eligible for Horizon League All-Academic consideration, a student-athlete must have a cumulative grade-point-average of 3.20 or higher (based on a 4.00 scale), have completed at least one year at the member institution, having earned 24 semester-hour or 36 quarter-hour credits, and participate in 50 percent of the team's overall contests.

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