Illinois State men; Missouri State women are favored in Missouri Valley Conference golf as spring seasons are underway. On the men's side, ISU received six first-place votes and 77 total points to edge Valparaiso (70), Drake (60) and defending champion Loyola (58). Missouri State and Illinois State both received five first-place votes in the women's coaches poll, with MSU earning 95 total points to ISU's 93. Bradley's women's team was picked to finish third.
MEN'S TEAM PREVIEWS
Junior Josh Kirkham emerged as Bradley’s leader in the fall, pacing the Braves in each of their six fall outings. Owning a career-best 74.25 stroke average, Kirkham shot 75 or better in 12 of his 16 rounds, with a pair of sub-70 efforts this fall. Kirkham’s season average would be the lowest by a Brave since 2018-19. Jacksonville transfer Aaeri Krishnan helped bolster the Bradley lineup in the fall, posting a 75.57 stroke average over Bradley’s final three tournaments.
Drake's Tim Lim leads the Bulldogs. He was All-MVC and an MVC Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete Team member as a senior in 2021. Lim shared the Zach Johnson Invitational title Sept. 27-28 with North Dakota State as Lucas Scherf tied for second overall (208-69-71-68). And he placed third in the Early Yestingsmeier Match Play event Feb. 7-8 with match victories over Loyola and Dayton. Freshman Nikko Ganas won all three of his matches to take MVC Golfer of the Week honors. Drake has earned two team titles in 2021-22 so far.
Evansville opened its spring season last week. Michael Ikejiani recorded the lowest average last fall among those on the team who played over seven rounds. He registered a 76.22 average over the course of his nine rounds with a low of 71 coming in the opening 18 holes at the Alabama A&M Fall Invite. That event saw him come home in the 8th position. Isaac Rohleder completed the fall with a 76.86 stroke average while playing in all 15 rounds. Rohleder picked up a pair of top 17 finishes, including a tie for 16th a the Valpo Fall Invitational.
Last spring, Illinois State nearly overcame a 21-stroke deficit heading into the final round of the 2021 MVC Championship, and gained 17 strokes overall in the round, but could not come all of the way back, taking runner-up at the championship. This past fall, Valentin Peugnet led the Redbirds in stroke average (73.7), and he had two top-10 finishes.
Coming off a 2021 season in which it captured first Missouri Valley Conference team title in program history; the Loyola Ramblers welcome back four members of starting five from league meet, led by reigning MVC Individual Champion Devin Johnson, who posted a team-best 72.1 stroke average through 15 rounds of action during the fall. The Ramblers earned a pair of top-five finishes during the 2021 fall season, highlighted by a third-place effort at the Bubba Barnett Intercollegiate.
The Missouri State Bears started their spring season in early February. In the fall, MSU was led by senior Alex Locke and junior Max Kreikemeier, who finished 1-2 on the team in scoring average at 73.60 and 73.87, respectively. Both qualified for last summer's U.S, Amateur and Kreikemeier advanced to match play. He is the Bears' only returning all-conference performer, while Locke is a graduate transfer from Maryville University.
UNI played in just four events in the fall, and the Panthers were led by Griffin Parker, who averaged 73.08 in those 12 rounds with a low round of 67. His stroke average is sixth-best in the MVC entering the spring.
Southern Illinois' Matthis Besard has been at top form in the Salukis' last five events, finishing in the top 3 each time, with three individual titles. He won both the Zach Johnson Invitational and the Grover Page Classic in the fall. This week, Besard led the Salukis to a second place finish at the Savannah Harbor Invitational. Besard carded 15 birdies on the weekend and fired a season-best round of 64 (-8) to capture the individual title with a mark of 200 (-16) for the all-time low 54-hole score in SIU men’s golf program history.
An all-conference honoree in each of his first two collegiate seasons, Caleb VanArragon of Valparaiso finished his fall season with five straight top-five finishes and was the individual runner-up or medalist in four of his six tournaments this fall. The reigning MVC Elite 17 Award winner and MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year has finished as the individual medalist or runner-up eight times in his collegiate career, including seven times in the calendar year of 2021. As a team, Valpo closed the calendar year of 2021 by finishing in the top five in 10 consecutive tournaments. Valpo boasted a pair of team runner-up finishes during the fall slate and three total during the calendar year. Valpo finished the 2020-2021 season with a team scoring average of 296.5, a mark that ranked second in modern program history and narrowly behind the 2014-2015 record of 296.2.
WOMEN'S TEAM PREVIEWS
Bradley freshman Maria Perakis ended the fall on a strong note, taking home MVC Golfer of the Week honors after picking up her second top-10 finish of the season at the Little Rock Golf Classic in October. Perakis ranks fifth in the MVC with a team-best 74.53, which would be the best average by a Bradley freshman and would rank fifth among Bradley season marks. She fired a 75 or better in 11 of her 15 rounds in the fall. The Braves have two of the top six in the league in stroke average with senior Megan Welch posting a 74.67 stroke average this fall.
Drake finished tied for third in the Payne Stewart Memorial Sept. 13-14 as Kristen Giles (218) and Haeri Lee (221) finished eighth and 13th respectively. Iowa high school golf coaching veteran and Hyperion Field Club assistant professional Steve Smith has been named as interim women’s golf head coach at Drake.
Evansville enters the 2022 spring season as the defending conference champions. The Purple Aces won the 2021 championship at Bogey Hills in St. Louis with a sudden death tiebreaking win against UNI. With the graduation of defending MVC Individual Champion Sophia Rohleder, Alyssa McMinn returns with the lowest scoring average from last spring. McMinn had one of the most productive falls of any UE women's golfer.
At last year's MVC Championship, Maria Toledo Bailey led the Illinois State Redbirds en route to being named the MVC Newcomer of the Year. Toledo Bailey tied for sixth place overall in the field, while Emma Sutton tied for eighth. Toledo Bailey led the Redbirds this past fall with a 73.8 stroke average, while taking two Top-10 finishes. Ali Schrock (74.3) also finished in the Top 10 in two fall tournaments.
Indiana State junior Lauren Green will look to continue to build off of her success on the course this spring. A 2020-21 MVC All-Conference selection last spring, Green led the Sycamores with a 78.13 stroke average before dominating the course in the fall with three top-10 finishes. The Merseyside, England product finished third at the F&M Bank APSU Intercollegiate in September, marking her best finish so far this season.
Loyola welcomes back six letterwinners from a season ago. Coming off record-setting showing at FAU Paradise Invitational to begin spring slate. Broke program's 54-hole team scoring record (291-293-305=889) Led by sophomore Abby Thielbar, who currently sports team-low 74.9 stroke average. Thielbar shattered program's 18-hole (66) and 54-hole (66-73-76=215) scoring records at FAU Paradise Invitational
Missouri State opens its spring season this week. MSU finished in the Top 11 in all five of its fall tournaments including a second-place team finish at the Coyote Creek Classic in Peoria, Ill. All-Conference performer Abby Cavaiani led the team in the fall with her 73.47 stroke average, and she was the medalist at the MSU Payne Stewart Memorial in mid-September.
UNI returns seven golfers from last year and addes two newcomers. Hannah Bermel is the top performer returning from 2021. In the fall, Bermel - was named MVC Golfer of the Week in October after finishing T21 leading all MVC golfers at the Ozarks National Invitational. She is a three-time MVC First Team Scholar Athlete (2019, 2020, 2021), and has three individual wins in her career. The Panthers have placed second at the last three MVC Championships, falling in a playoff to Evansville at the 2021 MVC Championship. Bermel placed T4th and was named All-Conference and Coach John Bermel was named MVC Co-Coach of the Year.
The Salukis top two performers so far this season have been Ayanna Habeel and Moyea Russell. Habeel leads the squad with a 77.17 stroke average, while Russell is at 78.00, second-best on the team.
Valpo returns its top four players in terms of scoring average from the 2020-21 season and has eight of its nine letterwinners back from last year. Payton Hodson, who led the team in scoring average last season, again paced the Beacons this fall at 79.00 over 14 rounds.