The inability to hold many outdoor practices this spring has Dickinson State golf coach Tim Daniel crossing his fingers that the Blue Hawks quickly find their bearings when they open the spring portion of their season on Sunday.
"It's kind of tough to tell when you haven't had a chance to hit outside and play," Daniel said. "We're kind of shooting in the dark here. But hopefully everybody else is in the same boat that we are with that."
The Blue Hawks begin the spring at noon Sunday with the South Dakota Mines Invitational at Meadowbrook Golf Course in Rapid City, S.D. The two-day tournament concludes when teams tee off at 9 a.m. Monday.
Both the DSU men and women are in the hunt for team titles, but are chasing tough opponents.
The Blue Hawk men are trailing Minot State in the race for the team title. The Beavers have 10 team points while the Blue Hawks have eight. Minot State has the top three golfers in the DAC standings.
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Jordan Kelly has a comfortable lead with 50.5 points. Justin Aberle is second with 43 and former Blue Hawk Carter Hilkewich has 42.
DSU freshman Tony Elliot (40.5) and sophomore Thomas Weikle (35.5) are fourth and fifth, respectively. DSU freshman Kyle Chan is tied for seventh. Chan won the Blue Hawk Invitational that opened the fall season but is seventh in the standings after missing the second meet of the season.
DSU and Minot State tied in two of the three tournaments held in the fall. Daniel said it was an example where the outcome of a season came down to one or two strokes.
"We didn't gain any ground on them," Daniel said. "We have to beat them in both of these spring tournaments to be able to win it."
The Blue Hawk women are tied with Minot State for second in the DAC standings with nine team points while A.J. Rolfson and Katelyn Lamb have Black Hills State comfortably in first place with 12 points. DSU and Minot State each have nine.
Rolfson and Lamb are first and second, respectively, in the conference standings.
"They may be tough to catch, especially playing one of the spring tournaments on their home course," Daniel said, referring to Black Hills State, which hosts the final tournament of the season at Spearfish Canyon Country Club in on Sunday, April 26.
Senior Lyndsey Kent-Filkowski is fourth in the DAC and, with two meets remaining, remains within reach of chasing the conference title.
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Sophomore Kelsey Boedeker is sixth in the standings. After that, youth dominates DSU's lineup that started gathering steam when it won the fall finale at Minot State.
"That's a tough thing about these split seasons, if you get any momentum, you lose it over the break," Daniel said.
