The 2023-24 edition of Bluffton University Women's Golf features a stocked cupboard with no fewer than six returners who helped the Beavers to a fifth-place finish at the 2023 Heartland Conference Tournament, the top placement a Bluffton's women's team has earned in the history of the program. The 1065 also shattered the school record for 54 holes by a whopping 42 strokes.
The loss of Haley Gill, who averaged 90.11 across her four seasons, is significant, but juniors Kiley Cline (Fostoria/Hopewell Louden) and Allie Waggener (Hilliard/Hilliard Bradley) are ready to continue the excellence they have shown the past two years.
Cline averaged a school-record 83.58 en route to FOUR Heartland Conference Player of the Week awards! Her career average of 87.18 is a Bluffton record as is her 54-hole score of 246 from the 2022-23 HCAC Championship. Cline shot sub-80 rounds four times, including a season-low 76 at the Bluffton Spring Invite.
The icing on the cake for Cline was becoming the first women's golfer in Bluffton history to earn all-conference honors! With the new selection process for all-conference based of national Golfstat rankings, she was a part of the first class in HCAC history where the honor is based off the entire season instead of your finish at the championship. Bluffton was one of just four schools to have a player earn All-HCAC honors.
Allie Waggener, the other half of Bluffton's dynamic duo, was less than two strokes off Cline's pace. Her 85.37 average pushed Waggener to second on Bluffton's single-season scoring list as she and Cline occupy four of the top six marks despite having played only two seasons! Waggener's 159 at Allegheny is the lowest 36-hole score in school history, while her 88.08 career scoring average is 2nd all-time.
Shelby Stammen's (Fort Recovery) outstanding work in the classroom makes her the lone senior on Coach Craig's roster as she is slated to graduate after just three years as a Beaver. She also made huge strides on the links, shaving five strokes off her scoring average in 2022-23, finishing the year averaging 95.95 per round.
Freshman Sara Kroeger (Cincinnati/Mount Notre Dame) battled a wrist injury throughout much of her first season, but she still found a way to stay in the lineup. Kroeger capped off her initial campaign with a 98.84 scoring mark, including a season-low 91 at Alice Lloyd in the spring. Juniors Cheyanne Bolden (Sidney) and Isabel Miller (Dayton/Centerville) round out the returners for a squad that will also add three freshmen for 2023-24.
The team records also tumbled with regularity last season as Bluffton put up four of the top five 18-hole scores in school history, including a school record 327 on its home course when the Bluffton Spring Invite was cut to one day due to treacherous conditions. The Beavers also fired three of the top 36-hole scores in school history with a season-low 685 at Allegheny.
Bluffton is slated to tee off its 2023 fall slate at the MSJ Stateline Shootout on Saturday, Sept. 2. Trips to Hanover, Heidelberg and Allegheny will set the stage for the Beaver Fall Classic at Bluffton's Golf Club on September 30 and October 1 before the 2023 portion of the season comes to a close at Wittenberg on October 15-16.
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