The UW Oshkosh women’s golf team traveled to Reedsburg from Oct. 6 to Oct. 8 where they placed sixth of eight teams in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship, shooting 1,058 strokes during the three-round event, the team’s last of the season.
Headlining the team over the weekend was senior Ava Downie, who shot a 248. Downie’s performance put her in 11th place of all competitors for the championship, her career best at the event.
Head coach Tyler Cassmeyer found Downie’s outing to be very encouraging when putting her whole season in perspective.
“During the season she didn’t have the best time score wise that she wasn’t happy with,” Cassmeyer said. “And she definitely took over this past weekend in more of a leadership role.”
UWO was able to produce four other top-50 performances this weekend trailing Downie with a trio of sophomores, Hailey Matenaer, Kylie Herrin and Taryn Endres finishing well and junior Sydney Bornhorst joining them.
Matenaer shot a 259 over the weekend, placing her 24th overall. While Herrin, Bornhorst and Endres all finished near each other on the leaderboard with finishes in 42nd, 44th and 45th place in that order.
These scores allowed a sixth place finish for the Titans, two spots higher than their last place finish last year, which Endres said the team found to be a huge positive.
Coach Cassmeyer credits the team’s improved mental strength to be a major factor in their improvements on the course.
“My approach this year was the mental game, trying to keep them calm on the course,” Cassmeyer said. “I’m sure every collegiate program does the same drills we do [physically] but I take pride in shaping the mind and making it stronger up there.”
The Titans will be without their two seniors Ava Downie and Alyssa Dreher next season. Endres is confident in herself and her teammates’ ability to fill in the leadership those two provided.
“We have two juniors and a good group of sophomores to keep us moving forward. We are hoping to have some freshman commits as well to help us along.” Endres said.
When it comes to which individual will step up, coach Cassmeyer says that remains to be seen.
“I can’t force someone to be a leader. I’m just going to push them all,” Cassmeyer said. “We’re going to work this offseason and see who shines and who steps up.”
When it comes to putting in work this offseason, Cassmeyer intends to put more effort as a team than UWO teams of the past.
“When I asked what they do in the offseason, they said they don’t really do much and they just kinda go on their own,” Cassmeyer said. “I’m like, whoa, we’re going to change that.”
Within the next few weeks Cassmeyer says they will be starting an offseason training that they haven’t experienced yet.
Cassmeyer is also eyeing to schedule more spring matches for the team to play in than in years past. His goal for the team is to play in matches throughout the month of April if the weather permits.
