Faith Gammel
Reporter
The golf and track teams are two of the sports at The W that might not be as visible as some others.
After all, there is no golf course on campus, and those folks you see running around the university may or may not be members of the track team. But both sports are doing well as they compete against other schools.
The golf team has been present on campus for two years. Though there are currently no athletes on the women’s golf team, there are eight on the men’s golf team. In spite of its newness, the men’s team has done very well in competition. It recently competed in the Louisiana College fall invitational and placed second, the USCAA (United States Collegiate Athletic Association) National Championship, in which it placed fifth, and the Piedmont Invitational, in which it placed second and seventh in the over the course of the two rounds of competition. The team competed in the Chick-Fil-A Collegiate Invitational at Berry College on Oct. 21 and 22 and placed fourteenth. Golf coach Benji Williams is excited about the team’s performance.
“I believe we are perceived as a good program with good students. We have three Academic All-Americans on this team with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. We are only in our second year as a sport, and have had a golfer win the individual low medal in our first tournament. We also finished fifth in the USCAA Championship this year,” said Williams.
Aaron Smith is a senior athlete on the golf team who has been with the team since its formation.
“Sometimes we’re taken well, athletes usually are respectful and nice to each other. Other people are confused by the fact that we have a golf team. Hopefully after this year that’ll get better, since people will be more aware of the fact that we’re here,” said Smith.
Smith has been playing golf since he was 10.
“You can’t really play golf at a college level if you don’t enjoy it, which is why I have stuck with it,” said Smith.
Similarly, the men’s and women’s track teams have been on campus for three years. There is currently a total of 23 athletes on both teams, with twelve women and eleven men. Track is a spring sport, so the student athletes are preparing for the upcoming season. Earlier this year, Dedrick Burnett was appointed as the assistant coach of the track and field team.
“A lot of people are kind of shocked when they find out we have a track team, so we need to get it out there more that we do exist, which will help with having people come out to compete,” said Burnett.
Under Burnett’s coaching, several members of the track team have made it to USCAA Division 1 Cross Country Nationals. They will be competing in Virginia Beach, Va. on Nov. 8.
Burnett also stated that he knew there were several students interested in joining the track and field teams, and that he hopes to recruit more athletes before the season starts in spring.