EWU comes up with perfect combination
In a sport as individualistic as college golf, chemistry concerns seldom factor into the recruiting process.
Most coaches, including Eastern Washington University’s Marc Hughes, simply take the best players available.
But if all of the personalities also just happen to mesh, then you have something special – like Hughes has with the diverse group he has brought on board to represent EWU’s women’s golf program.
“You’re ultimately looking for the best possible talent you can find, and just hoping the chemistry works out,” said Hughes, whose Eagles have put together the most successful season in school history this fall and spring. “And that has definitely been the case for us this year.”
Despite having three freshmen and a first-year junior college transfer on its seven-player roster, Eastern has managed to win two tournaments – one last fall and another this spring – and is considered the favorite in the 54-hole Big Sky Conference Championship that opens its three-day run at Foothills Golf Club in Phoenix on Monday.
When the Eagles won their 13-team MDA Invitational at Hangman Valley Golf Course last fall, it marked their first tournament win since 2003. Earlier this month, in the 16-team Wyoming Cowgirl Classic at Ocotillo Golf Resort in Chandler, Ariz., they claimed the team and individual titles in the same event for the first time in school history.
Freshman Kristina Gargaro claimed medalist honors with a 54-hole total of 221 that included a 3-under-par final round of 69. The Eagles edged the host Cowgirls by three strokes to win the team title as three of Gargaro’s teammates – junior Marli Mikulecky, freshman Kellie Holmstedt and junior Chloe Nelson – also finished in the top 16 in the medalist standings.
Earlier this week, the Eagles landed three golfers – Mikulecky, Nelson and Gargaro – on the five-person All-Big Sky first team, with Holmstedt being selected to the second team. Gargaro was named the league’s freshman of the year.
“They’ve had an incredible season,” Hughes said of his team, which includes three golfers from British Columbia, two from Oregon, one from Las Vegas and another, Ines Pantoli, from Paris.
“I knew we had Marli, Chloe and Chelsey (Lollar, the lone senior on the roster) coming back, and that they would be three of the better players in our conference. But everybody else was new, so I didn’t have a clue they’d be that good. I didn’t know the incoming players were going to get it together quite as quickly as they did, and at the end of the day, I got a little lucky with that, I guess.”
Gargaro and Holmstedt have traveled with the team since the fall season started and have fit in with the others on the team in a seemingly seamless manner.
“Again, I got lucky that way, too,” Hughes said. “They’re both great kids – the kind that if my two daughters (ages 5 and 3) grow up to be like them, I’ll clank a couple of steins together and toast myself for a job well done.
“Both Kristina and Kellie are fun to be around, and oh, by the way, they happen to be pretty good players, too.”
When asked about his international recruiting efforts and that fact that he has no one from Washington on his roster, Hughes is quick to credit his desire to be competitive.
“I’ve had a little bad luck, I would say, with eastern Washington kids in the past,” he said. “The kids around here, in general, don’t wake up and say, ‘Yes, I’m going to Eastern.’ So it just reached the point, back when Scott Barnes was still our athletic director, that I said, ‘Look, I want to be competitive, and if I can’t get the No. 1 or 2 player out of Spokane, or somebody at least in the top five in the state of Washington, I’m going elsewhere.”
Even selling Eastern to recruits from warmer climates hasn’t presented any major problems, Hughes claims.
“I just tell them we get 300 days of sun a year and it never gets below 60,” he said. “I mean, what am I suppose to say? Sure, I might be off a little bit – give or take a few degrees – if you want to get specific, but …”
Now, with this unprecedented season of firsts winding down, the young women Hughes has lured to Cheney have set their sights on one more – a conference championship.
“My approach heading down (to Phoenix), is that kind of opportunity doesn’t come around often,” Hughes said. “So, if you’re nervous, jittery or having butterflies about being favored, well, embrace that, because you’ve earned the right to be excited about it.
“I’m really confident going down there, but only morons predict wins, so I’m not going down that road. But I will guarantee that we’ll be competitive.”