MANKATO, Minn. - The Bethany men's and women's golf teams tee off their 2025 fall schedule today at Fox Hollow Golf Club in the UNW Invite. The biggest change this year is the men's roster, which has grown from nine players last year to now 22, which is the largest roster in program history. 
 
"The preseason has been very positive," said third year head coach Mitch DeKruif. "You never know how it's going to be when you get 15 new freshmen coming in and how the upperclassmen are going to respond. Attitudes and personalities have been very similar and everybody just wants to work hard and win. We are fortunate that we have the funding to run multiple five-man teams, so it's not 22 competing for five spots every week. Golf is unique in that everybody goes up and shoots a number so that takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. Our four lowest scores last week in Becker were freshmen. We have a lot of improvements to make but it's positive to have this much potential."
 
Keaton Ginter is the top returner on the men's squad after earning All-Conference First Team honors last season by way of taking second place individually at the UMAC Championships. He averaged a team-best 76.0 per round. Eli Wetzel is back and serves as a team captain alongside Ginter. Wetzel averaged 83.91 last season.
 
"Keaton got second place at conference individually last year and expects to compete at a high level again," DeKruif said. "Eli is going to battle for that fifth spot. They've stepped up in welcoming the new guys and have been very accommodating. They lead by example."
 
Welcoming 15 new first-years to the program has been an adjustment, but the outlook has been positive from the start of preseason training.
 
"It's been a learning curve with this many guys on the team," said DeKruif. "Trying to figure out how to manage that many bodies at practice and at qualifiers has been a learning curve but I'm trying to give everybody as much support as I can. We are setting expectations early with one on one meetings with every athlete to fill out a goal sheet.
 
"We are excited about the newcomers. They've done a good job assimilating to Bethany. They've been working hard and enjoying the process together. Proud of how they are all coming together."
 
The women's team, which is composed of two juniors, two sophomores, and one first year, will be led by Lydia Schmid. Last year, Schmid tied for 20th at the UMAC Championships and averaged 100.82 per round.
 
"Lydia is a young captain but she is probably the hardest worker we have so she leads by example in that way, too," said DeKruif. "The culture on the lady's side has been really strong.
 
"The team goal is to win events throughout the season, win the conference, and go to nationals. That's the big goal but how does each player improve to get us there. We've talked about individual goals and we hold each other accountable."
 
After today's season opener at the UNW Invite, the Vikings travel to Martin Luther on Thursday and then compete at the Twin Ports Invite this weekend in Superior, Wis. Bethany hosts the Vikings Invite and BLC Invite Sept. 23 and 26, respectively, and wraps up the fall schedule Oct. 2-4 at the UMAC Championships.