Kylie Bridenhagen/Winonan

The Winona State women’s golf team has had an impressively strong fall competitive season.

As a team, they placed in the top ten in all but one of their invitational meets.

Individually, seniors Paige Schmidt and Samantha Koste have lead the team while the underclassmen have improved their game at many of the meets.

At the first invitational of the year—the Husky Triangular–Schmidt won her first college golf tournament, and has added two more top ten showings to her career since then.

She placed fifth at the Mustang Invitational and eighth at the Gustavus Fall Invitational at the end of September.

Her fellow senior teammate, Koste, took home a third place finish at the Husky Invitational earlier this season.

The Husky Invitational proved to be the greatest invite to the team, where the team’s younger golfers all finished in the top 25. Erin Schneider placed 14th, Jessica Reagan was tied for 16th, and Kayley Borkowski was 19th.

Both Koste and Schmidt agree that they have gotten better since the beginning of the season in early September, but have room for improvement for the upcoming spring season.

Koste said she has become “more consistent and more accurate with hitting the greens and making putts.” Before the season ends, she is working to mentally prepare herself to become better. “I try to stay calm during the round,” she said.

Her main goal for the final fall meet is to focus on her game play. “The weather is supposed to be cold—possibly snowing—so I have to concentrate and focus on making a good swing.” She would like to hit and not worry about the future or previous holes.

Schmidt also agrees that her game play has progressed since the first tournament, “I have hit more of the fairways and greens during regulation.” She is hoping to improve her short game, like chipping, before the season is done.

Her number one goal going into the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Championships? “Be consistent.”

The NSIC Championships are broken up into two tournaments, with two rounds of play at each of these times. The first two rounds of the fall season were played this past weekend in Brainerd, Minnesota. The final two rounds will be played after the spring season has concluded.

On day one, after the opening round, Winona State found themselves again sitting among the top ten teams.

They finished the day in ninth place with a total of 377 shots.

Koste was on top, shooting 89 after the opening round. Schmidt and Schneider were both second for the team with 94.

Kelly Blegan shot 100, and Katie Blegan rounded out the team shooting 110.

After the final round, Schmidt shot 94 for the day. Her combined score was 178, which placed her in the top 20 individually—tied for 16th overall.

Koste finished her tournament with a 94 the second round and a combined score of 183, putting her in tied for 25th place.

Kelly Blegan was third for the team. She played eight shots better than her first round. With her combined score of 192, she earned a tied for 37th place.

Schneider shot 107 the second day, and was tied for 48th overall with 201. Katie Blegan shot 98 for her final round, putting her in tied for 51st at the end of the day.

Overall, Winona State had a combined team score of 368, which was nine shots better than their first round game play.

Over the two days of golf action, Winona sits in eighth place overall at the halfway point of these NSIC Championships.
Augustana is the leading team with 646 strokes.

The individual leader, also from Augustana, is Allie Ostrander with 155. She shot 75 the first day and 80 after the final round the second day.

Look for the results of these championships after the season has concluded this spring.

Contact Kylie at [email protected].