MCC golfers begin season Thursday with high expectations

Tyler Loop begins his 11th year coaching golf for McCook Community College with what may be the best team he's ever had with six returners from a team that had five freshmen who competed in the National Junior College Athletic Association Championship Tournament in May.

With that, Loop said he has the highest expectations he's ever had for a team heading into the season which begins at home Thursday and Friday at Heritage Hills Golf Course.

"Last year's team was probably the best I've coached here, and this team can be even better," Loop said. "On paper we should be strong, but we need to go out and prove it on the course."

Despite the high expectations the core group only finished third in Region IX last year, behind both Eastern Wyoming and Northeastern Junior College.

"While I say this is my best team, the fact we finished third in our region speaks to the quality of the competition we're facing on a weekly basis," Loop said. "Our region is once again going to be really strong,"

Nationally, this was recognized with MCC and NJC being named at-large selections for the national tournament. MCC has earned a trip to the national tournament four times in the past five years (the NJCAA cancelled the tournament in 2020).

"We've got a lot of familiar faces coming back and three new ones who will make it a competitive group," Loop said. "It's a good group of guys and I'm really excited to see how it all turns out."

Ethan Gough (sophomore, Hillcrest, South Africa) finished the Region IX individual standings tied for fifth place. He was named first-team all-Region IX, led MCC with a 72.2 scoring average and earned 61 standings points during the season-long points race. He placed in the standings and earned at least three points in all 11 meets during his freshman year and scored at least four points in 10 of the 11 tournaments.

Brayden Dahl (sophomore, Hillcrest, South Africa) was sixth in the individual standings among all Region IX golfers as a freshman with a scoring average of 74. He was the individual medalist at Heritage Hills last fall with his two-day 147, shooting rounds of 75 and 72 to claim the top individual medal by two shots.

Sophomore Cayden Wynne (Lincoln Southwest High School) had a scoring average of 75.2 and earned 25 standings points. He scored seven standings points in the fall season then stepped it up with 18 points in the spring – eight of those came with a second-place finish at the Otero Junior College tournament April 1, which included a season-best first-round, three-under 67.

Jordan Bingham (sophomore, South Jordan, Utah) earned 23 standings points with a 75.2 scoring average. He brought his first playoff standings points home in the first meet of the spring garnering four points at Lamar on March 25 and scored in five of the six spring tournaments, highlighted by a season-best five-under 65 on March 31 at La Junta, Colo., and held on the next day to claim top tournament honors shooting a 72.

McCook High School graduate Payton Craw played in 18 rounds of Region IX competition as a freshman. He had a 76.1 scoring average and earned 12 standings points for MCC. He shot rounds of 73 and 71 to finish in a sixth-place tie last October at Lamar was four over for the tournament, earning five standings points. His best score came on Oct. 6 at La. Junta, Colo. when he fired a second-round 69 at the fall OJC meet.

Spencer Wishon (sophomore,Oberlin, Kan.) played in 16 rounds one year ago and had a scoring average of 81.6. His best score of the year came in April at the Northeastern Junior College tournament in Sterling, Colo. when he carded a second-round 73.

MCC's three incoming freshmen include: Hunter Hansen, McCook; Ashton Koetter, Seward; and Cade Cryer, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Hansen was one of three senior golfers on the Bison golf team that helped his high school team win the Southwest Conference Title and go to its third straight state tournament. Koetter, in addition to golf, bowled for a Seward team that finished second at the state tournament. Cryer arrives in McCook after playing well in amateur golf tournaments around South Africa the past couple years.

MCC will play the same six Region IX courses fall (McCook; Riverton and Torrington in Wyoming, and Lamar, Sterling and La Junta in Colorado) and repeat that circuit again in the spring.

Loop has added two non-Region IX tournaments this fall with the National Preview Tournament at the Sand Creek Station Course in Newton, Kan. Sept. 27-28 and a new tournament to close out the fall schedule Oct. 13 at Gothenburg – the Nebraska Junior College Classic.

The National Preview Tournament will give MCC a chance to play the champion course that will host the NJCAA National Tournament in May of 2023.

"We'll see a lot of the same teams that compete in the national tournament every year," Loop said. "It'll be a tough tournament, but it will be a good experience and give the guys a look at the course before we return in May."

The MCC golfers will get to play a practice round followed by two days of play.

The other tournament is one Loop has tried to start previously but now finally set to bring all four Nebraska Junior College golf teams to Gothenburg in October.

"We're going to play that at Wildhorse Golf Course, which is a great course plus we get to compete against teams we just don't ever see," Loop said.

MCC will be joined by Southeast Community College, Central Community College, and Northeast Community College.

In the classroom, this core of sophomore golfers was named the McCook Community College academic team of the year at the Athletic Banquet in May. This summer the team was recognized for achieving NJCAA Academic Team of the Year status for all teams compiling a GPA higher than 3.0.