With a combination of experience and new faces, the Creighton men and women’s golf teams are ready to begin action in the 2015 spring season.
The Creighton men’s golf team will begin its spring season on the road at the Colleton River Collegiate in Bluffton, South Carolina on March 9-10. The men’s team features 10 golfers with one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and five freshmen. Five men will make the travel squad each week and represent the Bluejays in their six road competitions.
Head coach Chris Wiemers is in his sixth year at Creighton and guides the men’s team in its second season of Big East Conference play.
The 2015 team features a solid mix of returners and new talent, including its lone senior, John Spellerberg.
“I think that our senior, John, has the potential to win multiple times, and I think he and I expect good things,” Wiemers said.
The fall season for the men featured six competitions. Coach Wiemers said that he saw a lot of positives in many of the individuals and the team this fall, which is one of the reasons for his optimism about the spring season.
“We developed some good young players, and received a good deal of experience,” Wiemers said. “We had a number of good tournaments. We didn’t finish as high as we had liked, but we were in the mix, which is critical.”
Both the men’s and women’s golf teams now have access to a new hitting facility at Omaha Country Club when golf courses aren’t playable due to poor weather conditions. Wiemers and Spellerberg both agreed that this new facility is giving them a leg up on teams more than before, but more importantly their competition that also struggles to get practice time outside before their first tournament.
“It’s an exciting time to be on the Creighton golf teams because we have that access in the winter to the new facility that we never used to have,” Spellerberg said. “It is going to be better for us to start faster.”
The Creighton women’s golf team begins its spring season on the road at the Grand Canyon University Invitational in Litchfield Park, Arizona on February 23-25. The women’s team features nine golfers with three seniors, two juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen. Like the men’s team, five women will make up the travel squad each week and represent the Bluejays in their six road tournaments.
Head coach Debbie Conry is in her 23rd year with the Bluejays. The make-up of this year’s squad is more experienced than last year’s team which featured only three upperclassmen, with no returning seniors. Conry said she is excited about this season because of the potential of this group.
“My young kids are pretty talented and my veterans are solid. It’s a great mix; I am very fortunate,” Conry said.
One returner from last season, senior Mary Cathryn Rau, said she is looking forward to her last season as a Bluejay. Rau, along with her fellow seniors Rachel Thompson and Katie Morel are the senior leaders on a team full of talented individuals.
“The seniors are the team captains and the leaders,” Rau said. “It’s not necessarily being the best and putting up the best score every round; it’s more just cheering people on and being encouraging. It’s using our experience the past four years to help out the other girls, especially the freshman who are new to college golf.”
The fall schedule for the women’s team featured five tournaments, including its final competition at the Creighton Classic. Conry said she was able to take away a lot of positives from the first half of their season.
“As a team, we improved our team stroke average by 10 shots. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased at the young girls’ play; they stepped up,” Conry said. “Our upperclassmen are great leaders, and I love my girls; we just need to keep getting better.”
Check out gocreighton.com for results following the conclusion of each tournament.