SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s and women’s golf teams will begin their respective seasons on Saturday with the men competing at the Transylvania Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky and the women competing at the Saint Ben’s Invite in Sartell, Minnesota.
The captians for the men’s team this season are Ben Hauge (Jr., Ramsey, Minn.) and Blake Heiman (Sr., River Falls, Wisc.), while the women are captained by Ellie Brandt (Sr., Wayzata, Minn.) and Kennedy Sommerfeld (Sr., Litchfield, Minn.).
The men look to have another successful season with some new faces and a few returners trying to fill the void of the Gusties losing two of their top three golfers.
When asked about the expectations for the men’s team this year, head coach Scott Moe said, “We got a good recruit in Jacob Pederson (Fy., Minnetonka, Minn.), who as a freshman will come in and contribute right away. I look at having Max Savini (Sr., Ramsey, Minn.) back after he didn’t play last year, as he’ll jump right in and be one of our top contributors. Ben Hauge will be playing number one for us this year and I look to him to be one of our main guys this fall. We have other guys that are going to contribute for us but I see these guys as being our big players right away.”
The women will rely on a young team this season to carry the workload as three of their six-member roster consists of first-years.
“Through qualifying this year our first-years were two, three, and four in qualifying and I look for them to be big contributors right off the bat,” Coach Moe said. “I see Emily Kratz (Fy., Edina, Minn.) and Erin Ericson (Fy., Onalaska, Wisc.) getting some really low scores for us and I look for Sydney Regalado (Fy., Rosemount, Minn.) to be a solid, consistent player. I look at Morgan Bleyhl (Jr., Elk River, Minn.) and Ellie Brandt to play well for us as Morgan was our low qualifier in preseason. Kennedy Sommerfeld will get her chances to hop in the line-up as well throughout the season. Looking at all six I see all of them being contributors, but I really like the potential of our first-years.”
The men and women each have five matches in the upcoming fall season with the final one being the MIAC Championship. The men took home fourth place in the MIAC Championship last season and the women took home fifth.
When asked about his expectations for both teams for the fall season Moe said, “I think our women are going to be competing all year, but we might take a couple bumps early on as the first-years get used to the whole college golf experience, but I look for us to be peaking at the right time. As for the guys I look to be very competitive starting tomorrow down in Kentucky. It’s a great field down there at the Transylvania Invite but I look for our guys to be at the top of every tournament with a chance to win.