MARSHALL — Despite some key losses on both sides for the Marshall golf teams, the Tigers have what it takes to put together another competitive season. Senior Dayton Webskowski leads a junior-heavy girls team that’s looking to make waves, while junior Deacon Wing and freshman Elijah Winn give the boys team some strong carry-over from last season as Scott Midtaune takes the reins from Kari Ehlers as the boys head coach.

Marshall’s girls team took a big leap forward last season, finishing third in the Section 3AA championship and sending Webskowski back to the state tournament as an individual, where she finished 20th overall. One of two seniors in the team’s top 6 along with Emry Weller Webskowski brings a level of stability to a team that’s been on the rise.

“It’s all about consistency, managing her game when she’s out there on the course and knowing that she doesn’t have to take the risky shot,” Marshall girls head caoch Eric Novosad said, adding that she can take advantage of the shots that she has in her bag without playing the hero. “She knows when it’s her time to take the shot, when it’s time to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to wait for the next best one to come.’ I think if she does that, she’s got the game, she could easily be top-15 at state this year.”

Grace Rokeh had been a key scorer for the Marshall girls the last few seasons, qualifying for state her sophomore season, but opted not to go out for golf this time around. As such, the Tigers had increased opportunity in their top 6 and Weller has been among the players to make the leap.

“[Weller’s] kind of been behind that wall with Dayton and Grace, and we knew the potential was there for Emry. It was just trying to get all of those pieces of the puzzle together with her swing and her game, and she’s been doing that,” Novosad said. “She rose to that challenge … She’s starting to play, I think, some of the best golf that I’ve seen her play in the last three years.”

The boys also had a key loss after graduating Luke Ehlers, who had qualified for the state tournament each of the last few seasons. Still, the dynamic duo of Wing and Winn gives the boys a strong foundation to build on.

“It’s hard to replace some of the guys that were anchors for our team for the last four or five years, but we do return five out of our six and we have a lot of younger guys who I would say have progressed well over the summer and winter months,” Midtaune said.

While Midtaune is new to the head coaching role, he’s not new to the program. He’s spent the last five years as an assistant coach for the Marshall golf and football teams and is looking to help the team carry over some of the success it had under Kari Ehlers.

“It’s helped with the transition that I’ve been around here,” Midtaune said. “Having Kari lead the show, she’s been a great mentor for me. I learned a lot from her over the last five years, and it’s made the transition very smooth.”

The Marshall boys finished third at state last season after qualifying as a team a year prior. Still, the Tigers weren’t unrepresented at the state meet with Wing earning his first individual qualification for the big meet.

While Winn hasn’t been to state yet, he put together a strong season as a consistent scorer for the team as just an eighth grader. With another year of experience under his belt, he’s poised to make another leap this time around.

“They’re going to need to be kind of our anchors this season as our consistent lows,” Midtaune said.

In addition to Winn and Wing, Keegan Fossum gives the group senior leadership while Carter Manthei, Jaylen Koster and Ethan Wendorff have all shown themselves to be capable of putting together an elite round on any given day.

“One thing that Keegan provides, other than his leadership, is he’s usually just that consistent scorer for us,” Midtaune said. “He might not always be the lowest score on the team, but he’s that consistent guy who we know that if we need a counting score, Keegan’s probably going to deliver for us.”

Some of the key goals for the girls team this year are to play as a team, develop consistency, and, perhaps most importantly, control its putts, Novosad said. He specifically cited an effort on getting off the tee box strong, putting a controlling chip shot in play and giving themselves a chance for a good putt.

“We’ve been really pushing the girls to get their putts either to the hole or beyond the hole so they’re not leaving their putts short,” Novosad said. “Obviously if you leave a putt short, you’re not going to make it, so we’ve been really pushing the girls to get those putts beyond the hole.”

Maddi Panka has also grown into a consistent No. 2 scorer for the girls team after being a key contributor last season, with Novosad saying she has a solid opportunity to make state this year if her game continues to progress. He added that Katie Gordon has also continued to make strides as she enters her junior season with the team, as have Bella Gossen and Anna Thor.

The Marshall boys squad has consistently been near the top of the conference, but hasn’t quite been able to get the win. The Tigers have finished top three every season over the past six years, so taking first place is a big thing the group is working for this year, Midtaune said. He added that from there, the team hopes to be competitive with strong teams like New Ulm, New London-Spicer and Minnewaska at the Section meet in order to put together a deeper postseason run.

“They’re all going to be tough competition, and it’s ‘Can we put two solid, good days together to hopefully come out on top of our section?'” Midtaune said.

Midtaune added that the way in which the team’s depth stepped up to do work over the summer last season is something that gives him optimism for how they’ll perform this year.

“They were doing some stuff over the offseason, kind of on their own, and we’re going to have a lot of competition,” Midtaune said. “We could fit eight to 10 guys that could potentially rotate in for our varsity crew this year. I’m really eager to see some of these young kids, how they kind of fight and push for, hopefully, maybe securing a varsity spot by the end of the season.”