ABOVE: From left: Coach Tristan Rabbe, Josh Killingsworth, Cade Freeze, Jacob Gilbert, Hunter Schmidt, Colby Unruh, Patrick Neal, Jack Tarvin and Coach Scott Seymour. Submitted photo.

SHERBURN – Martin County West alum Hunter Schmidt is set to compete for his first NAIA championship in his freshman year of college after clinching a team conference title and placing second as an individual for MidAmerica Nazarene University.

Schmidt was recruited to MNU by Tristan Rabbe, a fellow MCW graduate, MNU assistant golf coach and head of recruiting. Rabbe introduced Schmidt early in his golf career, setting the recruitment process in motion.

“Me and Hunter have a long relationship,” said Rabbe. “He was someone very early on that I had targeted for this recruiting class because I knew his game could be better than anyone else. I was originally introduced to him when he was, I think, 14 years old. And I’ve been his swing coach ever since. And then I left Fairmont in March of 2022 and moved down here to take this coaching spot. I’ve been in contact with him ever since because I knew this is where I wanted him to end up.”

Schmidt is adapting well to the high level of competition he now faces, but the transition has not been without its challenges.

“It’s been an adjustment for him going from a team where he was a clear-cut number one guy and had been for a while, section champ multiple times, multiple medalists at state, to a team where now he had a dozen guys with the same pedigree on his team,” said Rabbe. “So, it’s been up and down for him to get used to playing with such high-caliber talents and then go into fields where he was so used to having easy wins, not even trying to necessarily play his best to get a win.

“Now, all of a sudden, his best is finishing maybe in the top 30 percent. So it’s been up and down. He started the year in our varsity lineup, was kind of our number three guy … Then he lost his spot for a little while, ended the semester last year on our B team, and then has just come out this semester and really has been nothing short of impressive.”

Schmidt is the NAIA 66th-Ranked Individual in the Nation, 2025 Conference Freshman of the Year, and 2025 All-Conference in his first year on the team.

Schmidt’s competitive drive has continued into the collegiate level. He is always striving to become the best player on the golf course.

“We came out today as a team and really dominated. We went into the day with an 11-shot lead, and I think we finished with a 25-stroke win and had a really incredible day,” said Rabbe. “He lost in a playoff as an individual and as we were walking away from that green, after he just lost, he goes, ‘This has got to be one of the worst feelings in the world.’ And that’s just, it’s a strange thing to hear from a freshman because we just punched our ticket to a national championship.

“When losing that individual playoff, he’s [still] going to a national championship. But he is such a competitor. He just wants to win everything. So even in that moment when he could have just said, oh, I missed an opportunity, oh well, I’m still going to a national championship. It hurt to get beaten by somebody and to come in second in that tournament.”

The golf team at MNU is fairly new, starting only three years ago, but it has found success quickly with this being their second National Championship appearance since its inception. The whole team is looking to finish what they started last year after finishing eighth in the tournament last year.

“We started this program three years ago,” said Rabbe. “This is our third year. And I was fortunate. I came in after a semester. Coach Seymour really, he built a very impressive men’s team very quickly. And we had a few unfortunate breaks in that first year that didn’t allow us into a national championship. But even after that first year, we were receiving votes to be a top 25-ranked team in the NAIA Association.

“We knew we had something special. Last year, we made it to the national championship. We ended up getting eighth. There were a lot of positives out of that, probably none more so than we didn’t lose anybody. Nobody graduated. So, we returned all five this year. Then we added a couple great freshmen, including Hunter, that really had us excited for this year.”

Schmidt and the team have four weeks to prepare for the National Tournament held at TPC Deere run where they look to finish the job they started last season.