- Bears return three of their top five from the 2021 spring season
- DMACC is coming off a successful fall season
- Bears return an All-American in Tyler Sansgaard
The DMACC men's golf team will begin the fall season with participation in the Ron Streck Invitational March 14 and 15 at Tulsa, Okla.
The Bears will play in the tournament despite having played just 27 holes thus far this spring.
"In spring golf every extra round you can get in is a benefit," DMACC men's golf coach Chris Seaboch said. "Ideally, I'd like to have three or four 18 hole rounds in before our first tournament, but there are some years when we have zero and some years we get four or five so we're kind of right in the middle."
Seaboch said his team has taken advantage of the Fareway Fieldhouse addition to the DMACC gymnasium. The new structure includes a hitting bay and putting green.
"We've been hitting full shots but what I think really helps us to get outside is the chipping and putting on the greens," Seaboch said. "We can chip and putt in our indoor facility but it just isn't the same. Full-swing wise, we've had a great indoor season and I think it helps us to chip and putt but to get outside is really beneficial."
The Bears are coming off a 2021 fall season that saw them win the Quad Cup at Lake Okoboji and place second or third in five other tournaments.
"We were right there in every tournament," Seaboch said. "But with our program trending up the last five years or so come new expectations so we do expect more out of our guys this year."
DMACC, which finished seventh in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Championship in 2021, and will return three veterans from that team in Covid-19 freshmen (CoFR) Tyler Sansgaard of Nevada, Logan Barnes of Altoona and Joe Dean of Cedar Falls. Sansgaard capped the season by earning All-American honors and is expected to provide leadership this season.
Also returning are CoFR Jack West of Winterset, CoFR Ryan Nichols of Ogden and freshmen Sam Vertanen of Ames and Ethan Gillis of Pickering, Ontario, Canada.
"Sam Vertanen was second on our team in scoring average (last fall) so he came in and played really well," Seaboch said. "Ethan Gillis played like a freshman will play, but he had some really good rounds. His ceiling is really high."
Seaboch said West and Nichols have been working hard during the winter and that he is anxious to see how the work pays off for them.
Seaboch said a return trip to the NJCAA Division II National Championship could be difficult given the competition the Bears will face in the NJCAA Region XI Qualifier April 30 and May 1 at The Preserve at Honey Creek in Moravia. He said the Bears will face at least five ranked teams in the competition and while DMACC could have one of its best teams ever, getting back to the national tournament could take some doing.