The Gustavus Men’s Golf team’s season concluded two weekends ago at the Bobby Krig Invite, where the Gusties took fifth out of an eight team field.

With the season spanning across both the fall and the spring, the Gusties have done their fair share of golfing this year, even with the inclement Minnesota spring weather experienced earlier this year.

“Weather was awful this spring, or late winter you can call it. Thankfully, we have our Drenttel Golf Facility to use, but it is really hard to travel to play, then come back inside for practice, and travel again for another tournament,” Head Coach Scott Moe said. “We made the most of the situation, finishing our year with a win over the top ranked team in the country.”

That big win was over St. Thomas, who was ranked number one in the country at the time of the Gustie Spring Invite, which was held at the Le Sueur Country Club, the Gusties’ home course.

Despite this strong performance, the Gusties, unfortunately, did not make the postseason.

“If you win the MIAC, you get an automatic bid. If not, you try for an at large bid, which we did not receive this year. We struggled some in the fall, which made it tougher this spring to try and put ourselves in contention to get an at large bid for nationals. However, our work ethic over the winter and early spring was awesome, and our players were better prepared and performed better than we did last fall, even with limited playing and practice opportunities,” Coach Moe said.

Being that the season spans over the fall and spring, performance in the beginning portion of the season matters a lot.

“The fall season is an important season for golf. If you play well in the fall and at the conference tournament, which is also in the fall, then you put your team in a good position to make it to nationals, which is decided in the spring. Essentially how well you do in the fall will have a strong influence on the decision of who goes to nationals,” Junior Jordan Miller said.

During the fall portion of the season, the Gusties had a very strong showing from one of their standout senior golfers at the conference meet.

Senior Alec Aunan took home first place at the competitive tournament.

“Alec Aunan probably had the most consistent season for us, capping that off with his lone win, but a very important one, the MIAC title in the fall,” Moe said.

Aunan golfed alongside one other senior this season, Chris Captain.

“It was an emotional season with the amount of memories made with the guys, coaches, and all of my family members who have supported my golf career over the past 14 years. The next chapter of my life will include golf, but men’s league and playing a couple times a month will be a major change from competing and training every day to become better,” Captain said.

“I’m really looking forward to our banquet on Sunday, as we get to thank Captain and Aunan for their amazing contributions to the team and the college over their four years, and setting the tone for the returning players,” Moe said.

As for the returning golfers, there will be one senior on the team next year, Miller, who is really looking forward to next season.

“Our season went well, but not as well as we’d like. I’m definitely looking forward to next season. We have some good freshman and sophomore talent and hopefully some good incoming recruits. After a disappointing finish to the year, I think everyone is definitely looking forward to summer to get out and improve our games so we can come back next year and really perform well from the start,” Miller said.

Despite the team being a somewhat younger squad, Moe said he believes in his golfers going into next season.

“We have a great group of players coming back next fall and a couple of very talented incoming freshman that will help out from day one,” Moe said.

The Gusties will hope for development, success, and nice weather all year long in the upcoming season.