DC Men's Golf motivated and driven heading into 2025
DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Defiance College men's golf team looks to take another step towards conference contention in 2025-26. With head coach Matt Gehring at the reins for his second season, he has built a team combined with a fresh crop of newcomers and some of the team's strongest performers from last year.
One of the first significant differences is the size of the roster as Defiance brings in 17 newcomers looking to compete for valuable spots in the lineup. "I wanted to get a lot of pieces in place for us to start being competitive. I'm a firm believer that iron sharpens iron, so the deeper that we are, the more our guys can hold each other accountable in practice and the better we're going to be," says Gehring. Several newcomers that Coach Gehring noted that could be impactful players early are Dominic Giamei (Rochester, N.Y.), Owen Massey (Round Rock, Texas) and Brayden Allen (Jacksonville, Fla.) in addition to local products Ethan Schnitkey (Wauseon) and Connor Elliott (Pettisville).
Standing out among the crowd of 25 are the team's top four scorers from last season. Sophomores Sam Theissler (Barrie, Ontario), Jordan Walford (Thunder Bay, Ontario) and Zack Palmer (Ashtabula, Ohio) along with senior Brenden Garvin (Prairie, Wash.) all carried averages at or below 85 per round. Theissler and Walford combined to shoot the best scores in 10 of 11 tournaments last season. Walford excelled during the fall and had two top-10 finishes before Theissler joined the team at the semester break. During the spring season, Theissler tied the freshman scoring record, posted the eighth-lowest season average in program history, and finished 21st at the conference championship.
"The nice thing about our depth is I could name 15 to 20 guys that could be in the mix. Sam and Jordan are our top two averages coming back from last year, so they know the expectations I've put on their shoulders," says Gehring.
The entire tide of the program shifted last season despite a 12th-place finish at the WHAC Championship. Defiance failed to produce a sub-80 round of golf for two seasons until six players did so at least once last year. DC also posted team rounds under 320 five times, which bested all team scores in the previous two years as well.
"Our number one goal every tournament is to win," says Gehring. "We have to be right around 285 to 290 to win adn I think we have a lot of pieces that can get us there now. Having a lot of freshmen and sophomores comes with some growing pains from the mental side. But this is big boy golf now. It's a matter of getting the guys in the right frame of mind to not only go to a tournament and compete, but how to mentally handle when you're in the lead or in contention."
Reading the WHAC seems to be breaking towards Lawrence Tech and UNOH after a one-two finish at last year's conference championship. Lawrence Tech earned the top spot in the preseason coaches poll, while the Racers welcome back three First Team finishers from last year's conference runner-up team that finished just three strokes off the lead. The Yellow Jackets were voted to finish 11th place as the team is motivated to outperform those external expectations.
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