The Ferris men’s and women’s golf teams have their sights set on the GLIAC championship.
Following the mens’ tied-second place finish at the Bill Blazer Memorial and the womens’ finishing second at the UMSL Spring Invite, both teams have only one more step to take before the post-season.
Unfortunately, both teams have had the displeasure of experiencing Michigan weather, which prevented the teams from being able to get out on grass.
“It’s gonna be a challenge anytime you’re from the north and you’re going south to play tournaments… against teams who have been outside for three months,” head coach Sam Stark said. “You just have to embrace that. You have to find it as another chip on your shoulder and not an excuse.”
WOMENS
Since the women began playing in early March, they have yet to finish below sixth place in any of their tournaments. Following their second place ranking after day one of the UMSL Spring Invite, the women stayed strong and kept their second place ranking
This finish only continues the dominant performances brought forth by the women. Helping lead the team are juniors Dani Staskowski and Alayna Eldred, the oldest and most experienced players on the team.
Eldred gave her assessment of where the team stands heading into the GLIAC championship.
“I’m very pleased with where our team is at,” Eldred said. “Region wise, we’re in a much more comfortable position than we were last spring, which is really exciting to see. We have three freshmen that are really making an impact on the team right now and kind of rotating in and out of the lineup, and they’ve been really huge for us this year especially. We’re definitely trending in the right direction, which has been awesome to see.”
Eldred added that she’s not satisfied with her game so far during this spring season and that she’s set on ending her “vendetta” of not qualifying for nationals.
One standout fact regarding the women’s team is that it is comprised of six freshmen.
“Their developments been enjoyable to watch,” Stark said. “Its been fun to see them do the things that I know they’re capable of but they’re not quite sure that they’re capable of. They’re just reaching a bit beyond what they’ve ever done before… The best part of the college experience is seeing that come to fruition and see that lightbulb go off.”
Stark thinks being able to rotate the freshmen in and having them perform at a high level already is a way to show potential recruits what Ferris has to offer.
The women’s team will make their run for GLIAC championship glory starting on Friday, April 21, and will end on April 23.
Mens
Since beginning in early March, the men have played in five multi-day outings and have placed in the top ten in four of them. Most recently, the men placed second (T-2nd) in the Bill Blazer Memorial.
The men’s team did not get to enjoy much of a break, as they had two tournaments in a five day span.
“This has been a bit of a gauntlet week for us,” Stark said. “With Easter break, we decided to pretty much take a whole week to play two tournaments. We just finished up in Nashville Sunday through Tuesday. [We had] practice rounds on Thursday in Ohio and then [had] two tournament rounds Friday and Saturday. So this is really the crux of our season. It’s the time of year when we need to be doing our best and our guys are getting closer and closer to that as we head towards the GLIAC championship.”
Leading the men’s team is freshman Caleb Bond. Bond shot a tournament leading 141 through both days at the Bill Blazer Memorial.
Stark raved about Bond’s performance as of late.
“[He] really started to come into his own at the end of the fall season, and he’s just continued that in the spring,” Stark said. “He finished second place individually in a really good field last week at Findlay’s tournament in Kentucky. He then followed it up with actually his first collegiate victory this Monday and Tuesday in Nashville on [a] good field. He’s really starting to kind of lead us golf wise.”
The men’s team will begin GLIAC championships on Friday, April 14, and it will run until April 16.