|
Cardinal Roster
|
Cardinal Statistics
|
|
Cardinal Schedule
|
|
 |
 |
| Upcoming Events: Wed., Aug. 31: SMU women at Winona St. Sat.-Sun., Sept. 3-4: SMU women at UW-Eau Claire Invitational Sun., Sept. 4: Macalester at SMU men |
little noise at this year's conference championships
WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University men's golf coach Tom Farren will be the first to admit that he was a bit disappointed with his team's eighth-place finish at last season's Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships.
But … .
Farren's disappointment wasn't in the fact that his team finished eighth, it was in the fact that, despite putting up some of their best rounds of the season, eighth was the best the Cardinals could do.
"When you look at last year's (MIAC) championships, you can't just go by the final team standings," said Farren. "You have to look at what the scores were. And our scores (at the 2004 MIAC) were better than they were the year before — and as a team, we finished two places lower.
"It's a tough, tough conference we play in, and every year, the scores you need to put up to compete keep getting lower and lower," continued Farren. "You have to improve a bunch (individually) to improve a little (as a team)."
And Farren is confident that this year's team has done just that.
Led by All-MIAC performer Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn.) and junior Scott Savage (Mahtomedi, Minn.), Farren has the luxury of a talent-rich roster that goes deeper than any he's had in several years.
"We've got seven or eight guys who can shoot in the 70s on a regular basis, so there's going to be a lot of people battling for the three, four and five spots," said Farren. "I'm very optimistic. Obviously we're going to have to wait and see how things unfold, but the potential for us to make a real charge is certainly there."
POTENTIAL IS THE KEY WORD FOR THE SMU WOMEN as well, as Cardinal coach Dan Messmann returns four regulars from last year's squad — including senior Andrea Hanke (Jordan,, Minn.), who missed out on back-to-back all-conference honors by one stroke a year ago.
"Last year was a breakthrough season for us," said Messmann. "We turned in record-setting rounds as a team, we had an individual (Hanke) win a tournament, we played some very, very good golf."
The problem was, the Cardinals chose the wrong time to have an off-day.
"As good as our season was last year, we just weren't able to finish it off at the conference tournament – when it mattered most," said Messmann, whose team slumped to a seventh-place finish at the MIAC tourney. "That was a little disappointing."
Hanke averaged a team-best 83.0 scoring average a year ago, but struggled in the regular-season MIAC finale, shooting a second-day 91 to finish 11th — one shot off the all-conference cut.
"We've got high expectations for this year," said Messmann. "The potential is there — we know what Andrea and the rest of the returners can do, plus our newcomers are showing a lot of promise.
"If we can play with consistency, and stay away from the big numbers that haunted us, we should be able to turn a few heads this season."