CHADRON, Neb. – With the entire 2024-25 roster coming back to this season's team plus three newcomers to push for scoring five spots, the Chadron State women's golf program is projected for a seventh-place finish in 2025-26, according to the RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll released by the league Tuesday. 

The poll is based on a vote of the league's 10 head coaches, who rank the other conference teams without ranking their own program. Perhaps due to the returning continuity, seventh place is an improvement on the eighth place finish the Eagles secured at last spring's RMAC Championships. 

Defending league champs CSU Pueblo are the heavy favorites to repeat, as the Pack received 8 of 9 possible first-place votes to finish with 80 points. Colorado Christian received one first-place vote along with five second-place votes and three third-place votes to come second in the poll with 70 points, while Westminster received the final first-place vote alongside three seconds and three thirds, finishing with 66 points. 

The rest of the poll features Colorado Mesa in fourth, MSU Denver in fifth and Fort Lewis in sixth. With the Eagles at No. 7, Chadron State finished ahead of South Dakota Mines, Black Hills State and Adams State in preseason voting. 

Dr. John Ritzen's roster has grown to nine this season, retaining all six golfers from last season and adding three freshmen. Seniors Aubree Heinsma and Payton Wise are the elder stateswomen of the group and were CSC's top two finishers last year at the RMAC Championships. Heinsma also gained recognition for her work in the classroom, winning the RMAC Summit Award (highest GPA at conference championships) and earning RMAC First Team All-Academic and WGCA All-American Scholar honors.

The Eagles feature four sophomores, all of whom saw competitive action last year as true freshmen. Germany's Klara Kleinig impressed, recording the team's lowest scoring average at 82.8 last season, while Allison Sanger, Maggie Teague and Brooklyn Tychsen cycled in and out of the scoring-five lineup. 

The three newcomers are led by Windsor, Colorado's Macy Kleve, who attended the same high school as both Heinsma and Sanger. A four-time First Team All-State selection, Kleve finished in the top 10 at the state tournament in every year of her high school career. She will be joined this fall by Rapid City's Lauren Knapp (a four-time state placer in South Dakota Class AA) and local Chadron High School product Taegan Bach. 

Eight tournaments are on the regular season docket, with four in the fall and four in the spring. The Eagles will open the year at the Swan Memorial Tournament, hosted by Colorado Christian, from September 8-9, before traveling to Sheridan, Wyoming (September 15-16), Marshall, Minnesota (September 27-28) and Billings, Montana (October 6-7) to complete the fall season. 

In the spring, the Eagles will head down to Phoenix, Arizona for two tournaments in the span of a week at the Wigwam Resort on March 9-10 and March 12-13. The Eagles then pay visits to Pueblo for the Southern Colorado Open (March 22-23) and back to Rapid City for the Hardrocker Spring Invite (April 13-14), before competing in the RMAC Championships from April 19-21 at the Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nevada.