Bearcats finish second at Midwest Fall Classic

JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Northwest senior Paige Hoffman chips onto the green on Tuesday at the Midwest Fall Classic at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Halfway through the first year of the Lathan Croy era as head women’s golf coach at Northwest Missouri State, the program has as much momentum as it has ever had in its history.

“We’ve had an incredible fall season,” Croy said. “Obviously the broken records are a great thing and always fun to celebrate — but just the overall consistency of this group and how they come in and work hard at practice every single day. They are a joy to be around. They are fun. They get along. It makes for a great experience, not only for me as a coach, but for them as players. We had a great fall in terms of scoring on the golf course, but also a blast as a team. I think that it was a really, really special (fall) and I’m excited for the spring.”

Program records have been falling in virtually every meet and with a second-place team finish at this week’s home meet at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park, the Bearcats have finished second in three of the six meets this fall as they prepare for the spring season and the bigger meets of their season.

“It is definitely different being at home,” Northwest senior Paige Hoffman said. “I think yesterday, for a good portion of the front nine, I was just trying to remind myself that we were playing in a tournament and not just a fun day of practice. What is really special about this week is seeing everyone’s families come out and support them. That is the best thing about being at home.”

With seven MIAA schools among the 12 teams in Maryville for the Midwest Fall Classic, Central Missouri won the team title with a 624 while Northwest was second with a 635 and Nebraska-Kearney was third with a 644. The other MIAA participants were fourth Arkansas-Fort Smith, fifth Washburn, sixth Central Oklahoma with Missouri Western eighth, just behind Truman State.

Central Missouri’s Libby Green put the tournament out of reach on the first day with a 6-under 66. She was 6-over on the second day, but that was enough to win the tournament by seven strokes.

All five Bearcat golfers improved their standing in the tournament from Monday to Tuesday.

Hoffman finished the first round tied for seventh with a 76, and despite the cold and windy conditions, shot a 75 — the best day-2 score of the tournament — to climb to second overall.

“Today, for me, was a matter of managing the wind,” Hoffman said. “It is usually windy out here at Mozingo, so we have experience with it.”

She narrowly edged out teammate Madilyne Schlaepfer who had a 75 on Monday and was tied for fourth overall, but shot a 77 on Tuesday and moved up the leaderboard to finish third overall.

“I just had to take it one shot, one hole at a time,” Schlaepfer said. “I’m usually not very good at that, so today I was able to break that down more and really focus on that. I think that really helped me.”

It is the first time this season that Northwest has put two in the top-5 with Hoffman second and Schlaepfer third.

“Those two are our leaders,” Croy said. “They are our anchors. We rely on them pretty heavily and they are a great example for the younger ladies that we have on this team. They show how hard you need to work in order to be successful at this game. … I couldn’t ask for two better leaders for this team.”

Freshman Alexis Bartley finished the tournament with seven birdies including five on Tuesday as she shot an 84 and 77 for a 17-over and tied for 16th place.

Junior Kayla Moline shot an 84 and 87 to finish tied for 36th. Freshman Lauren Briggs shot an 85 and 87 for a 172 and took 40th in the 74-golfer field.

Northwest will look to continue its momentum into the spring season.

“We have a far-reaching goal to make regionals in the spring,” Hoffman said. “This is just one more step on that journey to get that done.”