Official WGCA Release


CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Findlay’s successful program landed in the upper echelon of The Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) Preseason National Rankings that were released on Friday.
 
The Oilers were viewed as a top-10 team going into 2019-20 by the WGCA, earning a preseason billing of No. 9 with 195 points in the balloting.
 
The roster for head coach Dominic Guarnieri going into the new season is a little bit different after the graduation of two-time conference player of the year and NCAA DII All-American Makenzie Torres as well as starter Samantha Hatter, who was fourth in the conference in scoring average in 2018-19.
 
Findlay will feature three seniors with Meredith Wipper, Samantha Kellstrom and Mackenzie Keenoy, all starting their final year. Jill Schmitmeyer was in the starting lineup as a freshman and joins Danbi Kim with sophomore status.
 
Former Great Midwest Freshman of the Year Kristina Kniesly was among the league’s top scorers in 2018-19 and will be a junior. From Logan, Ohio, Lexis Fickel is the team’s lone newcomer to the group.
 
Wipper and Kniesly both logged two of the top six seasons in conference history with scoring averages of 76.20 and 76.27, respectively, in 30 rounds played. They were each back-to-back for second and third in the race for leading the league last year as well – only behind Torres.
 
Findlay’s team in 2018-19 decimated their own single-season team scoring record by shooting an average of 302.80 strokes per 18 holes. The Oilers won the conference championship for the second year in a row and went on NCAA Championship medal play in the quarterfinals for a very successful campaign.
 
Findlay has made the NCAA East Super Regional in each of the two years it has been a Great Midwest Athletic Conference member institution.