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Minot State senior Zoe Banak tees off in the first day of tournament play at the 5th Annual Marauders Tournament on Tuesday, September 30. Photo by University of Mary, courtesy of MSU Athletics.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, the Minot State men\u2019s and women\u2019s golf teams shot their final round of the fall season in the University of Sioux Falls Invitational at Grand Falls Casino & Golf Resort in Larchwood, IA.<\/p>\n
The Beavers faced off against 12 other schools in conference play, with the men taking home seventh over all, and the women taking 12th. The Beavers played through tough conditions, ending on the 14th before settling in for their long winters\u2019 nap.<\/p>\n
After months in the off season training and perfecting their craft, men\u2019s and women\u2019s golf head coach Gary Brekhus says that the teams are back and more powerful than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been busting their butts. They\u2019re working every day in the bubble and in the team room. They\u2019re getting ready. They\u2019re honing in on their skills. They\u2019re striping the ball. It\u2019s fun to watch,\u201d said Coach Brekhus. \u201cThey look in ways stronger than they did in the fall, and that\u2019s saying something, because they looked really strong in the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Brekhus first joined the Minot State golf program in winter of the 2023-24 season, taking over as head coach of the program just this past summer in 2025. Since his takeover as head coach, Brekhus has led the Beavers through five men\u2019s golf tournaments and five women\u2019s tournaments, traveling around the midwest with his athletes to compete.<\/p>\n
After the end of the fall season with the Minot golf courses closing down and winter weather fast approaching, the Beavers had to find alternatives to playing on the grass.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the weather, all the courses are closed, so we can\u2019t get out on the course to actually watch the ball fly and get the feel of the grass interacting, you know,\u201d said Coach Brekhus. \u201cBut we have some pretty awesome indoor facilities with the bubble and our new team room that we built, where we\u2019ve got a launch monitor set up with a 16 foot putting green moving platform. And the bubble turns into about a 100 yard driving range for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite their limited conditions, coach Brekhus still feels like the Beavers have done tremendous work over the break. For the last few months, the Beavers have honed in on their short game, working with what they can to prepare for their return to the fairway.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus going in is mostly short game, those 100 yard and in shots, just because that\u2019s what we can really dial those numbers in inside the bubble,\u201d said coach Brekhus. \u201cBut really, I mean, we\u2019re working on everything. We\u2019re working on a little bit of course management with our simulators and our launch monitors, and strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s team spent a lot of their time over the break down south in Arizona, Nevada and Florida, playing in the warmer weather to prepare for their eventual return to the north.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the weather warms up, we\u2019re hoping that early April, or maybe even late March, we can get out on the course,\u201d said Coach Brekhus. \u201cHopefully by the time we get back from Arizona and before we go to Kansas City, we can get out on the course. That\u2019s not always the case, but our preparation remains the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Brekhus says that senior Zoe Banack has been a heavy lifter for the women\u2019s team so far this year, with lots of great results during the break. But Brekhus also emphasized a newer player to the team, junior Micaela Resler. Resler played 30 games for the Minot State softball team in the spring of 2025, finishing with a batting average of .250 (21 out of 84) with 1 double, 2 triples, 5 RBIs, 3 stolen bases, 19 putouts, and 2 assists. This season, she\u2019ll also be putting the greens around the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can really tell that [Resler\u2019s] put in the work over the break, and she\u2019s setting the ball great,\u201d said Coach Brekhus. \u201cSo I\u2019m pretty excited to see what she does this spring.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the men\u2019s team, Minot North graduate Kasen Rostad has been a heavy hitter since day one. During his time in high school, Rostad was named 2025\u2019s Mr. Golf by Dakota Junior Golf Association and was named the WDA\u2019s West Region Senior Athlete of the Year. In his final varsity year at Minot North, Rostad led the Sentinels golf team to the 2025 state championship, winning the tournament as a team with himself finishing 3rd individually. As a part of the Beavers, he has remained a powerful asset in their time on the course.<\/p>\n
\u201c[He\u2019s] just a phenomenal golfer, great athlete and great person all around,\u201d said Coach Brekhus. \u201cKasen\u2019s a force to be reckoned with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Junior Gunther Soltvedt, a transfer out of Nebraska, has been topping the charts for the men\u2019s team through the first half of the season. Although he was never able to break through to the podium in the fall, Soltvedt has been in the top 15-20 players consistently. Coach Brekhus says that they are just waiting for his breakthrough round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it will come pretty early this spring. He\u2019s actually played the course in Arizona before, so he knows it a little bit,\u201d said Coach Brekhus. \u201cI think he\u2019s going to come out with a vengeance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second half of the golf season kicks off in early March, with both teams making the trip down to Arizona on the ninth. The men\u2019s team is taking part in the Maverick Desert Classic at Palm Valley Golf Club in Goodyear, AZ while the women will be at the Wigwam Resort Red Course in Litchfield Park, AZ as part of the SMSU Spring Invite.<\/p>\n
The Beavers will have just one tournament before they are called to the NSIC Men\u2019s Conference Preview and the NSIC Women\u2019s Conference Preview in Missouri starting on Apr. 13 and Mar. 30 respectively. <\/p>\n
After the conference previews, the Beavers teams will head to Rapid City, SD for the Hardrocker Spring Invite. That will be their last official tournament time before the NSIC Tournament First Round begins on Friday, Apr. 17, back in Smithville, MO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minot State senior Zoe Banak tees off in the first day of tournament play at the 5th Annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[191365,49,48,622,6519,191368,191366,191367,82],"class_list":["post-469862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-beavers-golf-thaws-out","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-local-sports","tag-ready-to-resume-play","tag-ready-to-resume-playnorth-dakota-sports","tag-ready-to-resume-playsports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}