RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota Mines golf program isn't all about records even though the Hardrockers are setting them left and right this fall season.
It's been a strong fall season for the Mines men and women as they prepare for the final action until the championship spring season begins in February.

The Hardrocker women have won two meets this fall and junior Rianna Garland has a pair of individual victories. They've also set a team record in low round for 36 holes. The Hardrocker men, with one team win this season, had their lowest score ever as well last week at the Yellowjacket Invitational in Billings, Mont.

Mines Director of Golf Luke Wheeler said he is not a big records guy so he has to be reminded of them when they are set.

"It's like, 'hey, so and so did this or we did that,'" he said. "It's outstanding and I'll tell the guys, 'okay, great.' I'm not a big guy with records."

Mines senior Roger Nakagawa echoed his head coach's sentiment and said he doesn't think it's very conducive for good golf to pay attention to records.

"It's just about getting the most of whatever you have for that day," he said. "Some days you come out and you are hitting it poorly or the putts aren't falling or you've got bad luck like I had at Red Rock where I'm hitting sprinkler head in the middle of the fairway and they're kicking OB (out of bounds) or losing a ball in a tree in the middle of the fairway. There's certain days where you're only going to get even instead of thinking, 'oh I can go five under.' We don't really pay attention to records. It is more about what you are going to get out of that day."

Garland, already the program's all-time leader in individual wins, said they have one more meet this fall before she can sit back and enjoy this fall's success.

"When the season ends, I'll be like, 'wow that was really cool and I'm pretty proud of myself for doing that,' but again it's not like it is some very widely known thing, so it doesn't affect the day," she said.

It's just part of the progression for both teams under Wheeler, in his fourth season with the program.

He said the program's improvement is a testament from the players, the hard work they are putting in day-in and day-out. He said they see the future in front of them and the goals that they want to set for themselves, and they're starting to obtain them.

He added that it just boils down to their time management with the school and the golf and being able to get on the course more often now.

"It's getting what they need to practice and not just going out swinging a club," he said. "They're actually focusing on, 'hey, I really need to work on my short game so I'm going to spend an hour, an hour and a half doing that before I even go to the range or even step on the golf course.' It all boils down to them and they're doing a great job with it."

Hardrocker men have been waiting for this season



Nakagawa is among the seven Mines men that entered the program for the 2018-2019 seasons.  He is among three that are still with the program. Wheeler said their success can also attribute to their age.

"I think honestly we just have an older group. Their classes aren't so rigorous and, like Roger, he's a fifth-year senior and he's done all of his classes, so he's at the tail end of his schooling," Wheeler said. "He can be out at Arrowhead and spend more than two hours a day; he can spend three to four hours a day out there and it's not going to affect him in a classroom."

Nakagawa said it's exciting because this has been longtime coming for his senior teammates. As freshmen he and six other then-teammates came in with high hopes and expectations.

"A couple transferred and all of us got older and graduated, but this is first year for the last three remaining seniors where we have a class load that feels more manageable and more conducive of being able to go out and grind during practice," he said. "Then all of the sudden we look up and see that, 'oh yes, we're setting records and we're breaking records.' It's exciting because it has been four years of hard work, dedication and quite literally the blood, sweat and tears are kind of coming around showing themselves this year, so it is exciting."

In Billings, the Hardrocker A team shot a 285 in the round to set a round record, but it also was good enough to break the low 36-hole and low 54-hole records (579, 874) and give them a second-place finish. 

Nakagawa set the low individual round record, shooting a 66, and he finished in third with 214 strokes – two back of junior teammate Joseph Vincent, who shot a 70 and a 212 in the tournament, finishing second. Seniors Carson McDaniel (tied for 12th) and Jake Francis (tied for 22nd) and junior Supawich Boonta (tied for 28th) rounded out the field.
"Honestly, I could put anybody in the top five and we'll go out and compete," Wheeler said. "We got guys that are shooting low and it's finally paying off.  I know a couple of them wish they could shoot better, but they'll figure it out and it's all leading up to the RMAC Tournament. That's what we put in all the work for in the fall, in the winter and spring, it leads all the way up to the RMAC in April."

Wheeler also mentioned sophomore Brayden Jones and freshman Ramey Lloyd as players who have had strong fall seasons as well. "Those guys are all right there. We're going to get there eventually," he said.

The Hardrockers (men and women) lost their spring season and a good chunk of their summer in 2020 due to Covid. The school shut down and they returned to their respective homes basically just waiting to get on the course again.

Nakagawa said the inner-mental demons of golf are a huge part of the game in regards to one bad shot and their player's confidence can wane in a hurry.

The past couple of seasons have given them the confidence they need to possibly compete in the upper echelon of the conference.

"With the amount of struggles that we had over the last four years, it's been a huge process for all of us to be able to grind and push past that and work through it," he said. "I have to thank one of my professors (Dr. Jonathan Gibson), because he spends a lot of time with me. He's also a golfer too and he will spend time in office hours talking golf and what is going on in my head and give me different strategies. Also Seth Nichols (Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance) traveled to Montana and Denver with us and he has also done a great job. He and coach are riding around saying the right things and keeping us focused."

Mines women on a roll



Garland also won the Hardrocker Invitational at Golf Club at Red Rock on Sept. 19-20 and has led the Mines women in all three meets this season.

"It's hard enough to win one tournament, lone enough two. She is Miss Consistency right now," Wheeler said. "I can expect her to go put up a 77 or 78 and not have to worry about it."

In Billings, Wheeler said some of the younger players on the women's team are starting to figure out what it is to play tournament golf and what it means. He said the Yellowjacket Invitational was like the crown jewel.

In Billings, the Mines women's A team shot a 310 to obliterate the school mark for low round and then tied the previous record of 324 on the second day. Their two-day total of 634 shattered the team's previous record for low 36 round, which was 660 at last year's RMAC Championships.

Garland shot a 76 to finish with a two-day total of 154, and finish two strokes ahead of teammate, junior Annika Schooler, who shot a 156. Junior Mya Maxwell and sophomore Lora Ortega finished in eighth and ninth, with two-day totals of 162 and 163. Freshman Summer Christiansen rounded out the team with a 165.

"Annika Schooler has just been a staple for the last three years," Wheeler said. "Mya Maxwell has turned it on this year. She was a girl that was in the high 80s, low 90s and was mad about it. Now she's made the low 80s and she shot her first round in the 70s as a collegiate player this last weekend.

"Lora Ortega and (senior) Jessalyn Shipp are playing well. Freshman Summer Christiansen, she's a long ball hitter and that's a big advantage for her and Maya and (freshman) Megan Alexander. If they can poke it out there 250-260 yards, they got 30 or 40 yards on some of these girls and now they're hitting their short irons instead of a hybrid. We're all just coming along as a team and it's fun to watch."

Garland has won two individual titles this season, yet she felt like she could have played better, especially in Rapid City.

"This past tournament went better score-wise, but I still feel like I can improve on how I played," she said. "It was a great accomplishment to win and I am so proud of that. I just I wish I could have played a little better in my mind because I still know I have improvements to make. Golf is definitely a learning sport.  Every time you play you learn something else and you're trying to improve that one thing that you are learning or what you struggled a bit on. I'm still I'm learning after nine or 10 years of playing now."

Garland said she knows how well her teammates play and it is tough to get that many to play well at one tournament. She said it was good to see that everyone's game was pretty good at the same time, and it was good that they were able to accomplish the goal of beating their record.

"I know we're starting to play the way we know how we can play, which is really great, and we're also getting more women to play on our team," she said. "I think we have one of our biggest teams right now, as we have 10 women on our golf team and that's really good accomplishment compared to some of the schools we play that only have five."

Building for the future and the RMAC championship

At the Hardrocker Invite and in Billings, Wheeler was able to put two teams out on the links, which allows him to see where they're at as teams, as well as who is stepping up and who is thinking outside the box.

"They are out there playing and getting tournament experience and that's what it's about," he said. "That's why we host a tournament in the fall because you can play everybody. With Billings having a tournament, that's five hours away, so it makes it very affordable for us to go up there to bring everybody to get that experience of what tournament golf is all about, what collegiate tournament golf is about. That is just the only going to help us in the long run."

The Mines women will be at Colorado State-Pueblo Monday and Tuesday for its finale, while the 'Rocker men will be in Lawton, Okla., Oct. 17-18 for the Cameron Invitational.
The tournament at CSU-Pueblo will be a RMAC preview as the entire conference is playing the tournament.

"I do think we can improve on where we were last year (in the RMAC), so I think it's going to be really fun to see how we play and hopefully we'll play good and see exactly how it should hopefully go in the spring," Garland said.

Nakagawa said the quality of golf in the RMAC is on the same realm of Division I golf, so building for that tournament is a goal for the Hardrockers this spring.

"The RMAC for men's golf is sick," he said. "We usually have two or three teams in the Top 25 in the nation. So as we go into this year we are going to figure out where we match up with them. We can beat these teams. It is just a matter of going out and doing it."

Wheeler said he is proud of the fall season as the players are "busting their tails to get where they are at." He said they are just looking to the future and looking towards the rest of the year to keep improving, keep getting where they need to be.

"My goals in my head, which I never tell these guys, are we're doing a lot of things and we're only halfway there," he said. "We have a lot of year left to get better and that is the exciting part, seeing the results and seeing the looks on their faces, the way they talk and how they carry themselves. February can't get here fast enough after our final tournaments are done this fall."

About South Dakota Mines
The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) and NCAA Division II offering 10 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference is a premier NCAA Division II conference with 15 members, as well as four associate members, located in the states of California, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah.