AMES—Central College's Mackenzie Biggs (senior, Bloomington, Ill., Normal HS) earned all-conference distinction for the fourth consecutive year Monday as the Dutch closed in second place at the American Rivers women's golf tournament.
           
Biggs had a share of the 36-hole individual lead before closing in fourth. She was just two shots away from the top spot at 77-75-82—234. She was third in the conference in 2020, sixth in 2021 and fifth last year. Biggs is Central's first four-time all-conference player since Jenny Wistrom in 1989.
           
"To have someone that's been able to do that all four years has been huge," coach Tabitha Schumacher said. "She's helped us win a conference championship (in 2022) and helped our team be close (the other years). We've been right there."
           
Last year's medalist, Lydia Grond (junior, Hull, Boyden-Hull HS), was again an all-conference honoree as well, taking ninth at 76-82-83—241. The University of Dubuque's Leah Balsbaugh took first with 81-77-74—232.
           
"Lydia was searching for something in her swing for the last 3-4 weeks of the fall season," Schumacher said. "So to be all-conference without 100% confidence in your swing says a lot about the player that she is and we've relied on her a lot."
           
The University of Dubuque turned in its best round despite blustery conditions and ran away with the team crown at 313-314-309—936. Central, which slipped to third in the early going Monday, rallied to edge out Coe College for second place at 317-314-333—964 to the Kohawks' 324-309-333—966. Wartburg College was fourth at 332-336-332—1000. It's Central's ninth top-two team finish since 2013.
           
"The weather was a factor," Schumacher said. "They projected the wind would be 11 miles per hour and it definitely got quite a bit stronger than that, so the course was playing pretty difficult today. You've got to give your hats off to Dubuque. They played their best round of the year."
           
Central's Peyton Bytnar (senior, Bettendorf) finished 11th at 79-82-84—245, Rachel Sohn (senior, Sutherland, South O'Brien HS) was 20th at 95-75-84—254 and Avery Woods (senior, Long Grove, North Scott HS) tied for 23rd at 85-88-88—261. There were 45 players in the field.             
Dubuque gains the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Championships May 21-24 at the Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky. Central competed in the national tournament last spring.
           
The tourney concludes Central's fall season and it was a successful one after graduating three top players, Schumacher said.
           
"There are always going to be ups and downs in a season but ultimately I felt like we played as good or better than expected," she said. "We had three new people in our lineup that weren't there last year and they stepped up in a big way and helped our team out a lot."