Men's golf season begins with UW-Superior seeking back-to-back Conference titles

Men's golf season begins with UW-Superior seeking back-to-back Conference titles

Bookmark and Share

ST. PAUL, MINN. – The 2023 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) men’s golf season launches next week with dual matches and regular season tournaments teeing off.  The University of Wisconsin-Superior represents the defending conference tournament champion as the Yellowjackets aim to defend their title from a season ago and secure their fifth UMAC conference championship in the past six seasons.    
 
Paul Eberhardt will lead the UW-Superior men’s golf program for the ninth consecutive season.  The Yellowjackets roster will include a mix of returning competitors and new players in their 2023 campaign.  Headlining the list of returning golfers for UW-Superior is junior Nate Burke, who collected honorable mention all-conference accolades last season and finished ninth in the UMAC championship in 2022.  Burke boasted the seventh best individual scoring average for the season in the entire conference last fall with an average round of 80.  Fellow junior Ian Bundy will also anchor the Yellowjackets line-up as he was the top finisher from their team at the NCAA Division IIII national championship last spring and finished tied for 11th place in the UMAC championship last season.
 
Northwestern returns some key contributors from last year’s team that seeks to reclaim top honors in the conference.  Leading the list of Eagle golfers is sophomore Shane Seiffert.  The 2022 UMAC Rookie of the Year was a first-team all-conference performer last fall, finishing in second place overall in the UMAC championship and posting a season scoring average of 77.0, which placed him third in the UMAC.  Also returning for the Purple and Gold is senior Jackson Nyhus.  Jackson is a three-time all-conference selection and finished the 2022 season ranked 10th in the conference in scoring average (80.4).  Northwestern head coach Billy Aune, who begins his 29th season leading the Eagles, was voted by his peers as the 2022 UMAC Coach of the Year Award winner.  
 
Crown College and North Central University are poised to move up the UMAC standings this fall and battle for the UMAC championship.  Crown finished third in the UMAC tournament a year ago and welcomes back five of their golfers from last year’s team.  Key returners for the Polars include junior Titus Wookie and graduate senior Drake Dawson.  Drake was a first-team all-conference performer in 2022 and finished tied for 14th at the UMAC championship.  Wookie recorded a 13th place showing at the UMAC tournament.  North Central tallied a fifth place showing in the UMAC championship in 2022 and returns two of the top individuals in the conference.  The senior pair of Jake Sweeney and Ben Long represents one of the top duos on any UMAC team as Sweeney boasted the second best scoring average in the conference last season (76.9), finished the UMAC championship in eighth place, and has collected all-conference honors each of the past three season.  Long, a two-time all-conference honoree, secured fifth place in the UMAC championship in 2022 and posted the 4th best overall season scoring average in the UMAC (79.0). 
 
Bethany Lutheran and Minnesota Morris have their sights set on moving into the upper tier of the conference in 2023.  Sophomore Keaton Ginter represents the top returner for the Vikings of Bethany Lutheran as Ginter garnered honorable mention all-conference recognition a year ago and tied for 14th place at the UMAC championship.  The Vikings won three of the eight events they participated in last year.  Senior Dalton Koehler starts the season as the top competitor for the Minnesota Morris Cougars as Koehler finished second on the Cougar team a year ago at the UMAC championship and 28th place overall.  Northland College and Martin Luther College round out the UMAC squads workings towards the conference title as each team will look to improve upon their 7th and 8th place finishes respectively last season. 
 
All eight UMAC teams will participate in the UMAC Preview Event on Thursday, September 14, at Pebble Creek Golf Club, the site of the UMAC Championship tournament later in October.  A complete UMAC Championship preview with important tournament information and team-by-team breakdowns will be released the week of the conference championship in October.   
2023 UMAC CHAMPIONHIP
  • WHEN: Thursday-Saturday, October 5-7, 2023
  • WHERE: Pebble Creek Golf Club (Becker, Minn.)
  • FORMAT: Three-Round, 54-Holes
  • AT STAKE: Winning team secures the UMAC Automatic Qualifier to NCAA Division III Championship   
 
2022 CHAMPIONSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
  • UW-Superior eliminated a 16-stroke deficit after the opening round and posted a championship best team score of 311 in round two along with a 318 score in the final round to come back and claim the title by two strokes over Northwestern.
  • Northwestern posted team scores of 314 in each of the first two rounds to enter the final round with a lead of 13 strokes, before recording a 333 team score on the final day to finish in second place. 
  • Brady Raph from Minnesota Morris was the individual champion and medalist for the second consecutive year, owning a 221 three-day score, which had him finish +5 overall for the entire championship.  His second round score of 71 (-1) was the best individual round of the tournament.  He was selected as the UMAC Player of the Year for the 2022 season.
  • UW-Superior had three competitors finish in the Top 10 (T3rd, 6th, and 9th) while Northwestern had two student-athletes finish in the Top 5 (2nd and T3rd). North Central featured two individuals finishing in the Top 10 (5th, 8th) in the UMAC championship. 
  • UMAC Rookie of the Year Shane Seiffert from Northwestern was the runner-up for medalist honors with a 13-over total score of 229 for the three-day event. 
 
2022 TEAM SCORING AVERAGES
Team Rounds Average
Northwestern 13 318.4
UW-Superior 14 320.0
North Central 12 323.3
Crown 12 324.2
Bethany Lutheran 10 324.4
Minnesota Morris 12 33.24
Martin Luther 12 359.1
Northland 10 359.9

 
2022 INDIVIDUAL TOP 10 SCORING AVERAGES
Name Team Rounds Average
Brady Raph Minnesota Morris 11 73.7
Jacob Sweeney North Central 12 76.9
Shane Seiffert Northwestern  13 77.0
Ben Long North Central 12 79.0
Cody Stanisich  UW-Superior 13 79.0
Charles Martin UW-Superior 10 79.2
Nate Burke UW-Superior 14 80.0
Max Wilcox Northwestern 13 80.1
Kaleb Thingelstad North Central 11 80.4
Jackson Nyhus Northwestern   13 80.4