2011-12 Season Preview

The Mount Marty College golf program is entering its third year and is looking to continue making improvements from the last two years. Mount Marty competes in the Great Plains Athletic Conference in golf, and there is both a fall and a spring season. Head Coach Tom Schlimgen returns for his third season at the helm of the Lancer Golf program. Coach Schlimgen was a head golf coach at the high school level in Scotland, SD for more than 20 seasons. He coached a three-time state champion and his 1995 girls’ golf team was state runner-up, while his 1996 team finished third at the state tournament.

The Lancers will have nine women golfers and six men golfers competing for us this season. The men’s squad returns several golfers with varsity experience, led by each of MMC’s Most Valuable Golfers for the last two seasons in Junior Weston Swanson and Sophomore Chris Hoffman. The Lancers will be counting on these two golfers to lead by example and consistently shoot low rounds week in and week out. Each of the rest of the returning golfers has collegiate experience from last year which should allow them to know what to expect and how to improve. Juniors Chandler Edwards, Brett Springman, and Dylan Bales are all capable of playing well and shooting low scores. If they can improve on staying away from one or two bad holes each round they could really improve their overall averages. The Lancers lone sophomore is Alex Warnke. Alex played on the Varsity team almost all year long and should have a really good season for us this year as he con focus entirely on his golf game.

The Lancers Women Squad has six returners and three newcomers for this season. The seniors will be Micaela Rausch and Kaylea Karst. Micaela is the only female that has been with us all three seasons and she has been a steady performer all three years. Her ability to drive the ball usually puts her in a good position to score well. Kaylea started her career at DWU before competing to Mount Marty last season. She is a talented athlete with the capability to shoot low scores. Sophomores include Caitlyn Roth, Abby Bollinger, Emily Jo Bronemann, and Jennifer Nelson. Roth was named MMC’s Most Valuable Golfer as a freshman. Caitlyn spends a lot of time on her game and also set the MMC school record for best round with an 85 at GPAC #4 last season. Bollinger spent most of the year on our Varsity squad and played well when healthy, if she can stay healthy this season she should have a good year. Bronemann and Nelson came in with great work ethics and improved greatly throughout the season. If they can continue to improve they will push for Varsity experience. The three incoming freshmen will be Tara DesLauriers, Gina Ludens, and Whitney Boese. DesLauriers comes in with the most impressive resume as she was a member of three SD State Championship teams, she should be able to come in and help our varsity squad right away. Ludens and Boese both come from a good Bon Homme program and bring in a lot of talent. They will bring needed depth and competitiveness to MMC's squad.