Although she only started throwing discs three years ago, graduate student Mitzi Stegall of Pontotoc and the MSU women's disc golf team now have back-to-back national championships under their belts.
Stegall, an accounting student, and her roommate, senior industrial engineering major Krystin Nowicki, also of Pontotoc, decided to start a women's disc golf team at MSU after the men's team won the championship at the national tournament in 2009.
"After they went, we thought, 'We want to go; we'll compete against the boys if we have to!' So we decided to get our own team together," Stegall said.
Since then, these women have worked diligently for their hard-won national titles. Not only have they practiced day in and day out to improve their game, they have worked to gain recognition and support in the MSU and Starkville communities, as well as throughout the state, to achieve their goals.
"It costs a lot of money to go to nationals. We earned money cleaning up for State after events, and we reached out for support to friends, family, local businesses and professional disc golf players from all over," Stegall said. "In the end, we didn't have to pay for anything at nationals this year."
"Nobody really knew about us until we won last year, but now we have so much more support, and that's really cool," Stegall added.
She said the team had a blast competing against more than 60 collegiate teams from all over the country at the Hippodrome Complex in North Augusta, S.C. in early April this year.
"I really like the team atmosphere at nationals. You're competing against everyone, but they all still want you to do well, and you get to meet so many new people," Stegall said.
Though she is graduating in May, Stegall plans to continue playing disc golf, and she has high hopes for the future of the MSU women's team.
"I really hope the team can grow enough to be able to take two women's teams to nationals like the men's team does," Stegall stated. "It would be awesome for more ladies to get to experience winning back-to-back national championships!"
For more information on the women's disc golf team or other MSU club sports, contact Julie Rhoads at clubsports@saffairs.msstate.edu.