Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
RED DEER – After a tough 12 months of not having the ACAC men's golf championship trophy in their building, the Griffins are bringing it home again, completing a redemption tale with a dominant team win at the 2018 ACAC Championship at Alberta Springs Golf Resort on Sunday.
Noah Lubberding, Justin Berget, Josh Gorieu, Reid Woodman and Christian Solkowski captured the team event with a combined score of 606 – 25 shots better than runners up Concordia and Red Deer College, who tied for second.
It's the fourth time in the last six years the Griffins men's team has won the trophy and is the 12th ACAC banner in MacEwan's illustrious 10-year golf program history.
"I don't want to make a ton out of last year, but it's hard not to reflect back on that and know that this was important for the guys to be able to come back here and kind of redeem themselves from that experience," said head coach Jodi Campbell, whose team finished third a year ago despite being favourites going in.
"Red Deer was on our tail the whole time. Today, it was such an impressive performance by the entire team," he added. "Everybody showed up, everybody committed to the process and the other teams didn't have a chance.
"We had a six-shot lead after Day 1 and we finished with a 25-shot lead. It was just a dominating day of performances where guys stepped up when they needed to."
Lubberding also won an individual medal for the first time in his three-year university career, capturing the bronze with two rounds of 76 at the Par-72 Alberta Springs. UAlberta-Augustana's Michael Harrison (73-72) repeated as the men's champion, while RDC's Chase Broderson (73-78) came second.
"We were so pumped for him," said Campbell. "This is his third year with us. For him to be able to come out and have a tournament like this was absolutely huge. For the first time in probably two years, he put two really solid rounds together back to back.
"Can't say enough about how proud we are for how he was able to step up and lead the way for everybody."
MacEwan had four golfers in the top 10, though, proving their depth superior to the rest of the ACAC teams. Berget recovered from an opening round of 82 to shoot a Sunday-low 1-under 71 and tie for fourth with teammate Gorieu (76-77). Rookie Reid Woodman (79-75) tied for sixth and fifth-year Christian Solkowski, MacEwan's top player in the ACAC North Regional earlier this season, was 11th (76-82).
"I can't say enough about Reid Woodman, as well," said Campbell. "Here's a rookie coming on the team and he fit into our top five immediately and threw down two really solid rounds. For a first year player, it was just a fantastic performance.
"We had a good tournament when we were up at Lac La Biche, but really hadn't seen everybody hit their peak yet. It's a bit of a cliché, but we peaked at the right time. This team all showed up this weekend."
Rookies Jarrett Bossert (T12th 77-82), Jack Nessel (16th 81-80) and Connor Ackroyd (21st 80-86) – all competing individually – round out the MacEwan men's results.
On the women's side, the Griffins fell short of defending their 2017 ACAC Championship banner and didn't qualify for nationals after finishing fourth with 382 points, behind Medicine Hat (330), Red Deer College (332) and Concordia University (344).
Individually, Hailey Turcotte led the Griffins with an eighth-place finish (90-94), while Jordan Hoyda (12th 97-101) and Skyler Thompson (19th 129-107) got their first ACAC Championship experience.
"We knew going into this year that we were going to be definitely rebuilding the team," said Campbell. "We lost some pretty good players last year with Elizabeth Stewart and Daniela Donnelly. Hailey was able to pick up and provide a ton of leadership as being our only returning player. Her work ethic is amazing. She actually had a really good weekend.
"Unfortunately, we knew we were going to be in a bit of a fight to get into the medals, but we've got some young players who are coming along really well. They're going to continue to work hard and I guarantee you it's not going to be long before we're back on the podium."
Next up for the Griffins men's team is the CCAA national championship, set for Oct. 16-19 at Medicine Hat's Desert Blume Golf Club.
