2016-17 Golf Statistics (.XLS - may download to your desktop)
INDIANAPOLIS – As the sun sets on the fall season and temperatures start to dip, men’s and women’s golf student-athletes around the Great Midwest Athletic Conference have only started to heat up on the links.
If the inaugural Great Midwest Fall Invitational was any kind of foreshadowing of the talent and fierce competition on display, the spring will not disappoint with more of the same.
G-MAC Athletes of the Month for October Jordan Reese (Cedarville) and Alexa Rippy (Trevecca Nazarene) are no strangers to the spotlight and have established themselves as conference greats in their careers.
Trevecca Nazarene’s men and women have a lot at stake pursuing five consecutive conference tournament titles. And the Trojans’ come-from-behind victory at the G-MAC Fall Invitational on the men’s side and another women’s win suggests they aren’t ready to pass the torch just quite yet.
But the rest of the conference is making a name for themselves and this year’s G-MAC Championship could arguably be the closest we’ve seen in the league’s history.
TNU’s women remain dominant with a 333.25 scoring average in four events while a pair of Alderson Broaddus Battlers and a surging Malone’s program are forcing everyone to take notice.
It’s a small sample size through three events and varying lineups, but TNU’s Landon Cottrell, Reese Scobey and Larken Whittemore, are the top three scorers in the league heading to the spring. Trevor Lay and G-MAC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee member Garrett Evans are the only Trojans to play every round in the fall.
The Davis & Elkins men tied for first at the end of the opening round of the G-MAC Fall Invitational and have reeled off three consecutive team titles at the Wally Edgell DII West Virginia Championship, Bluefield State Invitational and Ohio Valley Highlands Cup Challenge, in order.
The Senators are red hot under the coaching of Ed Lothes with four players in a balanced rotation all within a two-stroke margin of their season scoring averages.
Junior Kollin Hopwood, senior Alistair Kyle, junior James Sutherland and sophomore Jack Gibson, have combined for 11 top-10 finishes. If 2015 spring G-MAC Championship medalist Alistair Cameron can catch fire (he made his season debut at the last tournament) and find his form, watch out.
AB’s Adam “James” Jeffries has a pair of runner-up finishes on his fall resume and is always seemingly in the hunt for medalist contention. Cedarville’s Reese was the G-MAC Fall Invitational medalist and is in the top five with Jeffries among G-MAC scoring leaders.
Like the men, the top three scoring leaders on the women’s side are from Trevecca Nazarene (Rippy, Rachel McMahan, Lexie Shaw). Rippy has been remarkably consistent once again as the Trojans start a new era without Kaylon King, Mikayla Dodson and Marlee Stecker.
AB’s Randee Seevers and Julia Heser are fourth and fifth among scoring leaders, respectively and the Battlers have quietly emerged with first, third and fifth-place team finishes. Seevers is the only G-MAC golfer outside of a TNU Trojan to break 80 following her 79 at the OVU Fall Classic.
On a similar path of success has been first-year league member Malone with a team title at the Phipps Memorial and runner-up performances at the G-MAC Fall Invitational and Rossin Memorial Invitaitonal.
Melanie Smith and Hannah Maczko have each carded rounds of 80, the team’s best throughout the fall. Smith has posted rounds of 80 twice and has four consecutive top-10 finishes moving into the spring. She leads all women's golfers in top 10 finishes so far this season. The Pioneers are second as a team in scoring average at 355.25 to only TNU.