For a team that competes in two different seasons, the transition period requires hard work and patience. With a young roster of five student-athletes and a new program record to chase, the Ithaca College golf team returns from the cold, ready to heat up the course.
The golf team splits its schedule into two seasons. During the fall, the team competes at invitational tournaments as a tune up for a shorter schedule and the Liberty League Championship Tournament in the spring. During the summer, the athletes compete and train on their own to prepare for the fall tournaments.
At the 2024 Liberty League Championship Tournament, the Bombers finished in a tie for second place with the Wellesley College Blue, who was the No. 1 team in the East Region at the time last season. The New York University Violets won the team title over the two programs. The Bombers set their previous program record by shooting 305 (+17) across the two-day championship.
The team is fresh off a record-setting tournament season in the fall in which it shot a round of 293 (+5) to set a new school record Sept. 21 at the Cortaca Cup. At the time, that score was the fifth lowest across Division III. With the previous program record being broken, expectations have skyrocketed for this spring.
The Bombers saw career bests across the board in the fall, with every athlete tallying under 80 strokes at the Cortaca Cup. Sophomore Helena Winterberg reached 1-under 71, junior Annika Michel tallied 74 strokes, first-year Annie Stencel recorded 77 and senior Rheanna DeCrow hit 79 (+7).
Head coach Keith Batson said the team was powered by strong individual performances in the fall, which is something he is hoping to build on going into championship season.
With five athletes on the roster, the team relies heavily on its two upperclassmen leaders, DeCrow and Michel. Despite the duo graduating in the spring, the team is building for the future with a talented set of underclassmen.
Batson said Winterberg’s progression has caught his attention. Winterberg carded the fourth eagle in program history Oct. 6, highlighting an impressive individual fall. Led by Winterberg, the trio of underclassmen are primed for further breakout performances.
“I am also excited to see how Helena finishes out her sophomore year as she is having one of the best individual performances in the history of the program [by scoring average],” Batson said via email. “She is averaging 76.89 and Ithaca’s record held by Sharon Li ʼ15, National Player of the Year, is 76.20.”
Bladen, who is coming off an injury-shortened fall season, said she hopes to be a heavy contributor to the team this spring.
“I’ve been practicing as much as I can with what my body allows, and I really want to get back to where I was this summer,” Bladen said. “I played really, really well … over the summer. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t play as much as I could in the fall.”
During the 2023-24 season, Bladen posted a scoring average of 86.13 points, with her lowest 18-hole score reaching 78 strokes and her lowest 36-hole score sitting at 164 strokes.
Despite the team setting its new program record on its home course, Bladen said the goal will never change; continuing to improve and measuring each competition week by week. She said that achieving the record on the home course felt different as opposed to reaching the milestone on the road because of the familiarity of the course.
Stencel is another key contributor to the Bombers’ young roster. Going into her first spring season with the team, she said she is eager to get back on the course with her teammates and achieve their goals.
“We’re ready to hit the ground running,” Stencel said. “We’ve all been working hard in the simulator and we know what we did in the fall season to make it work. We’re ready to carry that momentum and what we fixed over this winter break and offseason to just keep going.”
Stancel said the team uses its simulator during the winter to help them work on their swing and mechanics during the transition period when they cannot make it to the course because of the weather.
Batson said the Bombers’ toughest competition within the Liberty League will be the Violets and the Blue. He said the team will need to be at its best for two days at the end of April to capture its first Liberty League Championship.
Stencel said two of the team’s top performers will graduate at the end of the season, but that the team has built the foundation of a strong culture for future seasons.
“I look at it as we have a whole new team that is going to be here for a couple more years,” Stencel said. “Whatever we do this spring season, we’re only going to build off of it next fall and next spring as well.”
Like most first-year student-athletes, the first collegiate season can bring mixed results. Batson said he believes that Stencel will excel this spring now that the transition period is over.
“She has a tremendous amount of tournament experience outside of college golf and this fall she played really well but not quite up to her own standards,” Batson said. “I know that being more comfortable with college life and college athletics now in her second semester will help her play at the level she wants to be at.”
The team opens its 2025 slate March 14-19 with its annual Spring Break Trip, before returning to the northeast March 29-30 for its first match at Vassar College.
