The Minot State University Golf team begins its spring season with the women’s team competing in the CSU Pueblo Invite on March 21-22 and the men’s team opening at the Washburn Invite on March 22-24.
The Beavers are ready to compete after a long offseason with the fall schedule canceled and opens their spring season in earnest. Head Coach Kyle Knutson, junior Anya Ross, and junior Andrew Makarchuk joined us to preview the 2021 spring golf season.
Although one of the team-favorite road trips to Las Vegas is not on the schedule this year, the Beavers are excited to compete for a berth in the NSIC Championships which were canceled last year. The conference championships run from April 16-18 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Both teams feature a mixture of newcomers and returners and look to build and learn at the same time during the course of a five-event schedule for the men’s team and a four-competition regular-season schedule for the women’s team.
The women’s team was picked to finish 5th (97 points) in the NSIC in a vote amongst coaches and the men’s team was selected to finish 7th (35 points) in the preseason coaches poll.
MSU WOMEN’S GOLF NOTES
The Beavers feature three first-years and two transfers joining the roster. Juniors Anya Ross and Kaitlynn Criswell are the only returners from the 2020 team that went on such a successful run to end the season.
Ross and Criswell’s experience at the NCAA level and in big-time tournaments will be invaluable to the new faces on the Beavers team. Criswell’s top performance saw her finish in 5th-place at the MJGA Invitational and Ross has two seasons of growth added to her game after her first couple of years in the program.
“This year will be a little different for women’s our program,” head coach Kyle Knutson said. “We had six seniors graduate who had been an integral part of our program the past four years. This year’s team will not have the experience we have enjoyed the past few seasons, but we have had our returning players step up and take on that leadership responsibility, and we are really excited about the new players we have in our program. It is going to be fun watching our team grow this year and to watch their improvement as we start to compete again.”
MSU MEN’S
GOLF NOTES
The Minot State men’s golf team looks to hit the ground running on March 22 in the Washburn Invite. Senior Cody Reynolds; junior Andrew Makarchuk; and sophomore Travis Smith return as three of the experienced members of the team looking to lead the Beavers into a new season.
The men’s golf team had its 2020 postseason canceled due to the pandemic but have been working hard in the offseason looking to duplicate some results from last season. The Beavers won the Bemidji State Invitational with Reynolds leading the way as he shot 72 on both days of action to tie for 2nd place.
“We have an exciting men’s team this year where we have a mix of more experienced players and some really talented young players who are looking to get acclimated to college golf,” Knutson continued. “For us to have a successful season, we will need our veteran players to lead the way and we are going to need to find a younger player or two who steps up and plays like a veteran. With how this past year has gone, our guys are excited about getting back out on the course and competing again.”
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