SEWARD, Neb. – For the second year in a row, the GPAC Women’s Golf Championship will be staged at Spencer Golf and Country Club in Spencer, Iowa. The 2024 event is slated to play out this coming Monday-Tuesday (April 22-23) at that location. Head Coach Brett Muller’s squad will be looking to build upon an encouraging performance at the Kaitlyn Erickson Invite, a tournament that wrapped up the 2023-24 regular season. The Bulldogs bring back three competitors who competed at the 2023 conference tournament.
2024 GPAC Women’s Golf Championship
April 22-23 | Spencer Golf and Country Club (Spencer, Iowa) | Tee times: 8 a.m. / 9 a.m.
--Live Scoring: https://www.golfgenius.com/ (GGID = 24WGPAC)
--GPAC Women’s Golf homepage
--Format: 36 holes on day one / 18 holes on day two
By the numbers
· At the 2023 conference championships, Concordia placed 10th while carding a three-round total of 365-372-368–1,105 (+241) in Spencer. Four Bulldogs competed in all three rounds: Lauren Havlat (88-94-87–269; T-17th), Emery Custer (88-91-93–272; T-25th), Logan Eschliman (90-91-96–277; T-30th) and Mya Nurse (99-96-92–287; T-40th). As a result, Havlat earned All-GPAC honors in concluding her Concordia Golf career and Custer was named the 2022-23 GPAC Newcomer of the Year. The reigning GPAC team champion is Briar Cliff, which shot 351-347-344–1,042 last spring.
· The 2023-24 Concordia Women’s Golf season to date has included nine official varsity events. This spring, the Bulldogs have placed third at the Graceland Invitational, seventh at their own Concordia Invite, third at the College of Saint Mary Invite and third at the Kaitlyn Erickson Invite. Based on season scoring averages, there is a defined top five in the lineup: sophomore Emery Custer (86.2), fifth-year Logan Eschliman (91.6), sophomore Maddie Lewis (91.6), senior Mya Nurse (92.9) and senior Jennifer Gillotti (94.2). The team scoring average stands at 358.5 with a low round of 341 coming at the Lila Frommelt Classic back in the fall. The season low individual round of 81 is shared by Custer (Buena Vista Invite) and Lewis (Frommelt Classic).
· Nurse led the way with a season low individual round of 83 in Monday’s action at the Erickson Invite. Her efforts helped the Bulldogs achieve a team spring low total of 347. The tournament shifted from Wilderness Ridge Country Club on day one to Pioneers Golf Course on day two. Concordia had battled into a tie for second place on the team leaderboard when Tuesday’s round was wiped out by inclement weather. In backing Nurse, Custer placed 10th with an 84 while Gillotti (89) also cracked the 80s. The Bulldogs shared third place with Mount Marty and beat out GPAC competition in Mount Marty (fifth), Doane (sixth) and Hastings (seventh).
· Custer, Eschliman and Nurse will all carry previous GPAC tournament experience into action next week. Eschliman is in her fifth season of college golf and played GPAC tournaments in 2020-21 (31st place), 2021-22 (36th place) and 2022-23 (30th place). Meanwhile, Nurse played in GPAC tournaments in 2021-22 (36th place) and 2022-23 (40th place). Custer experienced her first conference tournament last year as a freshman and placed 25th. As for Gillotti and Lewis, both student-athletes became members of the women’s golf program after beginning their Concordia careers with other sports – softball for Gillotti and volleyball for Lewis.
· Over the previous five seasons, the program has recorded GPAC place finishes of 10th in 2022-23, fifth in 2021-22, third in 2020-21, third in 2019-20 and seventh in 2018-19. Back in 2016-17, Amy Ahlers made history by becoming the first Bulldog in program history to win the GPAC individual tournament title. Ahlers shot 83-76-77-83–319 for the tournament. As the GPAC champion, Ahlers qualified for the national tournament. Ahlers was inducted into the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame this past fall. Another program great, Kendra Placke turned in year-by-year conference tournament place finishes of fifth, sixth, seventh and third, respectively. Placke graduated with program records for lowest career scoring average (80.7) and lowest single season scoring average (79.8 in 2021-22).
NAIA Women’s Golf National Championship
National qualifiers that come out of the conference championships will continue their seasons with the 2024 NAIA Women’s Golf National Championship set to be played in Silvis, Ill., May 14-17. For more information on the national tournament, click HERE.