Central opens women’s golf title defense
PELLA—Last year’s accomplishments are this year’s motivation for the Central College women’s golf team.
The Dutch regained the American Rivers crown last fall and the accompanying NCAA Division III Championships berth, their first under coach Tabitha Schumacher and the program’s 11th conference title overall. They did so in decisive fashion, outdistancing the 54-hole conference tournament field by 42 shots.
But three of the five players who made the trip to the NCAA tourney in Florida last May have graduated, including the co-winners of Central’s Maurine Timmer MVP Award, Delaney Underwood and Thea Lunning, along with Madison Clark. Lunning and Underwood both posted top-three finishes at the conference tourney.
“You can look back and see we accomplished a lot last season,” coach Tabitha Schumacher said. “That’s super exciting but moving forward, we have new captains and new leadership. It’s exciting that we went to nationals but only two players on (this year’s) team got to go. So we have some players on the team who are hungry to make it back to nationals and know that’s a possibility. They worked very hard this summer to make it a reality.”
One of those leaders, and a key performer since day one, is three-time all-conference honoree Mackenzie Biggs (senior, Bloomington, Ill., Normal HS). She was fifth in the league tournament and averaged 80.1 for the fall.
“She’s been in our top five her whole career and is a really strong player,” Schumacher said. “She’s been working a lot on the short game. We lost two players who could shoot in the mid- to upper-70s every round so the big thing for us is trying to find that player who can come in with those sub-80 rounds. I think Mackenzie’s up for the challenge.”
Also back is the surprise winner of the American Rivers tournament, conference MVP Lydia Grond (junior, Hull, Boyden-Hull HS), who wasn’t even in the lineup for the team’s first meet last season and entered the tourney as Central’s No. 5 player. She finished the fall with a 79.4 stroke average. Grond displayed promise for this season by flashing more of that potential in her final round of the NCAA tournament, carding one of the team’s best rounds of the week, an 83 on a demanding Mission Inn Resort and Club course. The score was later erased when the round was scratched for the entire field, but the memory of her play that day was not, said coach Tabitha Schumacher, who sees Grond as far more than a one-hit wonder.
“Lydia made a huge, huge improvement from year one to year two and played really well the last day at nationals,” Schumacher said. “For her, it’s just continuing to keep that confidence and know that she can continue to play that way.”
But there are three spots to fill. Schumacher thinks she has the answers among her returning players, although there are four newcomers contending as well. Getting long looks are returnees Peyton Bytnar (senior, Bettendorf), Rachel Sohn (senior, Sutherland, South O’Brien HS), Parker Stout (junior, Lowden, North Cedar HS), Avery Woods (senior, Long Grove, North Scott HS) and Jaden Smith (Marengo, Iowa Valley HS).
“I think any of them could have that chance,” Schumacher said. “The two that really stand out to me, though, are Peyton (Bytnar) and Rachel (Stout). They’ve been working hard and playing really well.”
Bytnar, a three-time letterwinner, has extensive varsity experience, twice competing in the conference tourney and placing 12th in 2021. She averaged 83.2 last fall.
Stout, who received the team’s Most Improved Player Award last year, averaged 85.4 in the fall, nearly 11 shots better than the previous season.
The potential answer at the fifth spot isn’t as obvious.
“It’s definitely a little bit more uncertain,” Schumacher said.
She’d love to have a player work the same kind of magic that Grond did in emerging as a top player and isn’t ruling it out as she hasn’t seen her players in action for a few months.
“With us having such a long off-season, as a coach, I don’t always know,” Schumacher said. “In all the past years, if you’d have told me to guess who would make the top five, I would have gotten it wrong. It’s one of those things where, is someone ready to make that jump again and, as a coach, you hope so.”
Even though there will be some newcomers to the varsity, the returning players all have tournament experience as Central regularly brings at-large individual entrants.
“It’s not like I’ve only brought five players to every tournament and now I have three who have to step up but never played in a tournament before,” Schumacher said. “Everyone gets the same opportunity to play when we go to a tournament. They’re playing the same course and everything’s the same. And there are times where I’ve brought individuals who have done better than the players on the varsity. Knowing that they can have that confidence is important as well.”
Schumacher expects the conference tournament scoreboard to be more tightly bunched, with the University of Dubuque again the chief threat, along with Wartburg College.
“There are more teams getting closer to the top,” she said.
Early season results will be revealing and Central opens the season Saturday and Sunday at the Kohawk Fall Invitational Saturday and Sunday at the par-72 Pheasant Ridge Golf Course in Cedar Falls. But Schumacher is hopeful that the Dutch can make a run at another conference crown.
“It’s going to be closer,” she said. “I think last year we came in knowing that we were the team to beat. This year, I think we can do it, we just have to prove it. We’ve got to work hard to get there.”
