Mackenzie Kush/ Winonan
The Winona State University men’s golf team used strong efforts from junior Mitch Holm and freshman Jonathan Lindquist to earn a third place finish in the NSIC Championship in Ashland, Nebraska.
As a team the Warriors earned third place. Winona State finished just six strokes behind Minnesota State, the tournament champion, and Sioux Falls. The Warriors beat St. Cloud State by one stroke.
Holm shot a final round of 75 to defeat Minot State’s Kowan O’Keefe to win the individual championship by one stroke at eight-over par.
The junior held on from a two-stroke lead after the third round, which helped him win medalist honors in the final round. He is the fifteenth Winona State golfer to earn medalist honors.
Holm said, “It felt great to win the individual conference title. I’m proud of the way I battled this past weekend and kept myself in contention the whole time.”
“One bad hole and I didn’t let it get to me and pushed me to the title,” Holm added. “I wanted to play well at this tournament, and I did it, which makes me feel great.”
Lindquist finished in fourth place, tying with Augustana’s Tyler Jensvold with a final round score of 72 and earned all-tournament honors as well.
Junior Nick Hernandez tied for 32nd place with a final round score of 80, and junior Jake Olsonoski finished in 34th.
Holm said, “The team did pretty solid this year. A third place finish at conference was a good boost for going into next year knowing what we need to do to improve to the top as a team.”
Meanwhile, the women’s golf team finished 18th after the first round of the Central Region Spring Preview at Rivercut Golf Course in Springfield, Mo. on April 13-14.
Junior Katya Hoffman shot an opening round of 85 to lead the Warriors.
Sophomore Marissa Geyer turned in a first round score of 86 for Winona State as well.
Geyer shot a team best of 82 on the second day and led the Warriors overall with a score of 168.
Hoffman was the team’s second-best finisher with a score of 171 after both rounds.
The women will compete in the NSIC Championship at Dacota Ridge Golf Course in Morton, Minn. on April 25-26.
Geyer said, “Personally, my hitting was going well for me, but not my short game. As a team, we all struggled, but I think we all played smart. It was a very difficult tournament for our team.”
Geyer said the team could use some work on the short game as well as the mental game before the conference meet.
Geyer said she feels sad as the season comes to a close.
“It was a weird season since we had two tournaments over spring break and only two after spring break. Since it is so spread out it feels like the season was really short,” Geyer said. “I want our team to do well on this last tournament so our seniors can leave on a good note, and we can all feel good about our golf games.”
