Texas Wesleyan’s women’s golf team was ranked 13th last November in the Women’s Golf Coaches’ Top-25 Poll of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Head coach Kevin Millikan said 13th out of around 150 schools is pretty good.
“If we have a solid showing in the spring we’re going to be just fine,” said Millikan, who is also Wesleyan’s assistant athletic director.
Millikan said that a goal for his team this season is to win the Sooner Athletic Conference championship. The Lady Rams’ first tournament of 2017 is the Claud Jacobs Intercollegiate in Victoria, Texas on Feb. 19-20, according to ramsports.net.
“We definitely have the type of players and the team to do that,” Millikan said. “If we don’t win, to feel secure in the national bid, I would like to be ranked in the top 10 nationally.”
The Lady Rams have finished at a close second several times but haven’t finished in first since the spring of 2015, Millikan said.
Junior finance major Alex Schies also says that she would like to see her team move up in the rankings to have a more secure bid to nationals.
“As a team, we hope to win a tournament this year,” Schies said.
Sophomore business management major Elena Sinde said that while being ranked 13th shows the team is still being competitive with the other teams, the players still need to improve their game and their scores.
“We just need to keep it up,” Sinde said.
Sinde said that one of the team goals is making nationals this year so the Lady Rams can prove that they are a good team.
“If it’s possible, we can try to make it better than last year even though last year was so good because we got fourth at nationals,” Sinde said. “But I think we can still work hard and improve that result.”
Sinde believes that focusing on the goals that the team is working toward will be a big contributor to the team’s success.
“Keep your goals in mind so that it will be easier to achieve them,” Sinde said.
Sophomore exercise science major Jaci Trotter said she hopes for more team bonding this season.
“Another team goal is for more encouragement during tournaments,” Trotter said.
Millikan said hard work, bonding and working together as a group are all instrumental to the team being successful.
Another goal for Millikan is for the team to be just as good in the classroom as they are on the golf course.
“All four years that we’ve had the program, we’ve been an NAIA Scholar-Team,” Millikan said, meaning that the team’s collective GPA is above 3.0.
“I expect to keep that streak alive for the entirety of my career,” Millikan said. “I take a lot of pride in that; not just that they’re good at golf but that they’re doing a really good job in the classroom.”
