CHICAGO – Sophomore Baylor Larrabee and freshman Josh Kim have secured first-team All-Big Ten Men’s Golf honors, with Kim being named the league’s Freshman of the Year in a unanimous decision, as announced by the Big Ten on Wednesday.
Larrabee, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2025, has secured all-league honors for the second-straight season – he was a second-team honoree last season. Kim has captured first-team honors in his first collegiate season after having won his first collegiate medal on Sunday at the Big Ten Championships, hosted at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Oregon. This marks the first time in program history in which UCLA has had the conference’s Freshman of the Year in back-to-back seasons.
Both Kim and classmate Tyler Loree were two of five student-athletes named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. In addition, fourth-year head coach Armen Kirakossian was recognized as the Big Ten Coach of the Year for the second-consecutive year.
The Big Ten Conference recognizes 10 student-athletes as first-team honorees and 10 student-athletes as second-team selections.
“Any time you’re honored by your conference, being named in that top 10 selection, that is a big deal,” Kirakossian said. “I’m really happy for Baylor and Josh to be recognized there and they have had great years up to this point. I know that we will have some golf left, but we know that these guys have worked hard to get to this point. They’ve had great seasons. For Josh and Tyler to be recognized as two of the top five freshmen in the conference, that’s encouraging as well. Making that transition into the freshman season is never easy in a lot of ways, and both of those guys have really stepped up for us. For most of the spring, they’ve played within the top three in our lineup, and that can be a big burden to carry as freshmen. We’re happy to see the success they’ve been having. It’s a testament to our team, that we have been fairly young this season. It’s cool to have Baylor and Josh get named Freshman of the Year in back-to-back seasons. And with Tyler being named as one of the top freshmen in the conference, all of this is exciting for the future of our program.”
Kim and Larrabee have registered the Bruins’ two best scoring averages this season – Kim with a 70.7 average in eight tournaments, and Larrabee with a 71.1 scoring average in all 11 tournaments. Kim shot a season-best 8-under 202 at the Big Ten Championships from May 1-3, finishing in first place by four strokes. He has totaled two top-10 finishes and nine rounds under 70.
“For Josh to be named the Freshman of the Year is awesome,” Kirakossian said. “That award is a great honor, and it is a testament to all of his hard work. It can be difficult sometimes to make that jump from junior golf and high school golf into college. It took Josh a little while to catch his groove. He only played in one fall tournament. In the spring, he’s played in everything. Through November and December, he kept working on his fitness, his strength, and his golf swing, and he got settled at school. He has come out this spring making a massive impact, and I am really glad to see him get recognized. To win the conference championship, that’s such a big deal. He went up against some very experienced players in a really intense environment. His lead got cut down on Sunday and then he birdied 16 and 17 to solidify the win, so we are just really proud of Josh.”
Larrabee has tallied four top-10 finishes during his sophomore season with 12 rounds under 70. Larrabee and Loree were tied for seventh place last weekend at the Big Ten Championships, carding 2-under 208. He had a third-place finish in late January at the Southwestern Invitational in Westlake Village, Calif., and had a fourth-place finish in the fall at the Fighting Irish Classic.
Loree has posted a scoring average of 72.2, through 10 tournaments during his freshman campaign. Along with Larrabee, he tied for seventh place last weekend at the Big Ten Championships. He shot 2-under 208 at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club, including a 4-under 66 score in the second round on Saturday. He has totaled seven rounds under 70, with three of those rounds in the Bruins’ last two tournaments.
Kirakossian, in his fourth season as UCLA’s head coach, has guided the Bruins to two tournament wins and one second-place finish this season. In addition to capturing the program’s second-consecutive title at the Big Ten Championships last weekend, UCLA won the Fighting Irish Classic at the University of Notre Dame in fall (first out of 16 teams). The Bruins finished in second place in late March at The Goodwin, hosted by Stanford University (second out of 30 teams).
Kirakossian is the fifth head coach in the history of UCLA’s men’s golf program to secure conference Coach of the Year acclaim. He has become the second head coach at UCLA to have earned conference Coach of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons. Eddie Merrins was named the Pac-10 Conference Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1983. As an assistant coach at Arizona State, prior to his time at UCLA, Kirakossian was recognized as the Strickland Award Winner in 2019 as the top assistant men’s golf coach in the nation.