Andrew Frame joined the NIU men's golf coaching staff as an assistant coach in the fall of 2011 after completing a memorable playing career as a Huskie. Now entering his 11th year on NIU's staff, Frame works with both the men’s and women’s programs as associate head coach.
His experience as an NIU golfer has helped bring new talent - regionally, nationally and internationally - to both programs as the women posted their best ever finish at the Mid-American Conference Tournament in 2017, taking second place. The men’s program posted a fourth-place finish in 2015, giving the Huskies their best team finish at the MAC Tournament since 1985.
Huskie Lena Gautier finished the 2015 season as an All-MAC selection after placing fourth overall. The sophomore led the team in stroke average at 77.1, the lowest single season average in program history. Gautier won the Diane Thomason Invitational on Oct. 5, 2014 to become the first medalist for the program since 2009. She was also an All-MAC honoree in 2016. In 2017 and 2018, Brielle Ward was an All-MAC Second Team pick.
Off the course and in the classroom, three members of the NIU women’s golf team - Samantha Coyne, Connie Ellett and Taylor Ellett - were named to the 2015 Women’s Golf Coaches Association Division I All-American Scholar Team. In 2018, NIU had four student-athletes - Kelly Anderson, Brielle Ward, Isabella Samudio, and Lauren Ingle - named All-American Scholars by the WGCA.Â
With the men, Frame helped lead the Huskies to seven top-10 team finishes and three top-five finishes with the emergence of transfers Joo-Young Lee and Jordan Wetsch. Both golfers earned MAC Golfer of the Week honors in 2014-15 after each finished fifth in respective tournaments throughout the season.
During the summer of 2015, Lee won the Ohio Amateur Championship, joining the likes of PGA Legend Arnold Palmer and 2003 British Open Champion Ben Curtis on the list of former winners while Wetsch qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship in Olympia Fields. In 2016, Lee was a First Team All-MAC selection, as well as a Golf Coaches Association of America All-Midwest Region honoree after tying for second at the MAC Championship that season.
Under his guidance, NIU won it’s first Mid-American Conference men’s golf championship since 1985 in 2023 when it bested Ball State by four strokes at Canebrake Club in Athens, Ala. The Huskies were sixth after the first round, then posted the best round by an NIU team at the MAC Championship with a nine-under par 279 to move into first place going into the final round. NIU held off a charge from Ball State and Kent State to win the team title.Â
The Huskies had four top-three finishes in the spring of 2023. NIU had a pair of golfers earn First Team All-MAC honors for the first time in a single season in program history in senior Tommy Dunsire and sophomore Ben Sluzas. NIU had a total of five MAC Golfer of the Week awards in the season. Sluzas was named Golfer of the Week a league-high three times with Dunsire and Ian Bruchhauser earning the honor once.
The Huskies also set a pair of NIU scoring records in the 2022-23 season. Dunsire set a new NIU 18-hole scoring record with a 64 in the second round of the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational on Oct. 16. On April 14, NIU set a team 18-hole scoring record with a 13-under par 275 in the second round of the Hawkeye Invitational. The Huskies tied that mark on May 15 in the first round of the NCAA Regional at Salem, S.C.
As a player, Frame's resume boasts the most competitive rounds played (131) of any golfer in NIU history, as well as the school's sixth lowest career scoring average (75.3). On the roster from 2006-11, Frame established himself as a model of consistency year in and year out for the Huskies. The Manteno, Ill. native also tied for 72nd at the 2010 US Public Links Championship.
