Blue Hawks wrap up first half of NSAA Fall Championships, women set new records

Sean Seefeld – Dickinson State Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Carrington, N.D. – The Blue Hawk golf team headed to CrossRoads GC for the North Star Athletic Association Fall Championships over the weekend. The two rounds were highlighted by an abundance of low scores. The Blue Hawks women saw great success this weekend surpassing their school record set previously this fall by 11 strokes the first round with a team score 302 (+14) and a second-round team score of 298 (+10). The 600 (+24) score was good enough for a second-place finish 24 strokes behind leaders Bellevue University.

The women were led by Ellia Soydara who finished 3rd with an overall score of +1 and a two day total of 145 (71,74), senior Elly LeBlanc finished 7th with a score of +5 and a two day total of 149 (73,76), Brooklyn Materi bounced back after a +7 round 1 to an even par round 2 to finish in 8th place and a two day total of 151 (79, 72), sophomore Cheyenne Jacobs carded a two day total of 155 (79,76) and finished T-10th, the women were rounded out by freshman Jori Haugen who finished with a two day total of 160 (81,79) to take home 13th place.

Head Coach Thadd O'Donnell had this to say about the historic performance, "The women's team had an outstanding tournament. They can go lower, but they have put two scores (together) that no (Blue) Hawk team has ever done and that is a great accomplishment."

On the men's side the Blue Hawk men had their hands full as they tried to overcome the 22nd ranked team in the nation, the Bellevue Bruins. The Blue Hawks carded a first day score of 290 (+2) backed by freshman Jayce Johnson's -3 (69) and senior Trevor Berry E (72).

The second day saw its struggles as the men carded a 300 (+12) aided by junior Tyus Thomas -1 (71). The men were led by Jayce Johnson who finished 10th +3 (69, 78), Blake Barner +4 (73, 75) to finish T-11th, Tyus Thomas +4 (77, 71) T-11th, freshman Torrin Ellis +8 (76,76) T-17th, and Trevor Berry +8 (72,80) T-17th. The Blue Hawk men finished 4th +14 (590), 1 stroke behind 3rd in the Mayville State University Comets and 22 strokes behind the University of Jamestown Jimmies.

No team was going to catch the nationally ranked Bellevue Bruins as they fired a red-hot two-day total of -26 (550). The Bruins finished with the top 3 positions on the leaderboard and 1 round above par throughout the tournament.

Head Coach Thadd O'Donnell said this about the Blue Hawk performance, "The men put a very good round together on the first day then just could not follow it up on the final round. The men are still looking for that consistency. We can get there, it is our mindset we need to work on."

The NSAA Fall Championship scores will carry over into the Spring Championship to determine the all-conference honors and medalists.

The Blue Hawks will now set their eyes on Hawley, Minn. for the Mayville State Invitational October 1st & 2nd to cap off the fall season.