By Daniel Schoettler
Correspondent
In the aftermath of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s golf team earning a spot at Nationals, team members and the coach are reflecting on a successful season.
“Things came together really nicely for us as a team,” head coach Andrea Wieland said. “We had a plan and the girls stuck to the plan, and it worked out for us.”
This is the team’s first trip back to the Nationals since 1999. The team recorded a conference meet score record of 942 at the Reedsburg Country Club to claim the automatic bid for the NCAA Division 3 Championship, which starts May 8 at Mission Hills Resort Golf Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.
Sophomores CheyAnn Knudsen and Ashley Hofmeister made their marks on the meet finishing first and second. Knudson finished as the second straight medalist for UW-Whitewater with a new school record of 233, and Hofmeister only finished one stroke behind her.
“We were really confident, obviously,” Hofmeiseter said. “Obviously, everyone has had good and bad weekends during the fall season, we knew it was our turn to play together.”
Hofmeiseter added that the fact that they were confident in each other and the fact that they believed in each other was the biggest key.
Knudson became the program’s fifth ever medalist since 1999.
“I had a blast this weekend and I was playing really well,” Knudsen said. “I came off a week of not playing so hot, so it felt good to be swinging good again and confident in my swings.”
After the tournament, senior Haley Jefferson received the other big honor for the team earning a spot on the WIAC All-Sportsmanship team.
“She has put a lot of time into her golf game,” Wieland said of Jefferson. “She is a really good leader for our team, good student, and she had a good showing as an individual at the tournament as well and was very deserving.”
The Warhawks had two top 10 finishers – junior Maddie McCue had a 236 and sophomore Kelly Storti finished with a 239.
In the three-round tournament, the team shattered the conference 54-hole record by 21 strokes. The conference record was the only record that went down as the team also beat the school record from the 1985 National Championship team by 40 strokes.
“We broke a lot of records this year,” Wieland said. “We’re not looking back, but looking forward and we are super excited to go represent the university.”
UW-Whitewater’s last NCAA championship appearance was in 2004. “It will be different, we haven’t been through this before where we’re preparing to go to Nationals over the winter and off-season,” Hofmeister said. “It will definitely be a learning experience, our plan to work out as a team and get stronger over the off-season, keep working on our swings and come out as strong as we did and carry that over.”
