Conqs familiar with championship setting

   Once again, the Dodge City Community College women's golf team is championship bound.
    For the ninth consecutive year, the Conquistadors qualified for the NJCAA national championship and will shoot for the title May 18-21 at the LPGA International Golf Course in Daytona Beach, Fla.
    DCCC coach Ed Bethea has guided Dodge to a national championship appearance in each of his nine seasons at the helm.
    "We have a good program," Bethea said. "The women's program's a good program. We do things a little different here. What we try to do, we try to mirror our programs toward the four-year schools. So when they leave and go to a four-year school, they got a routine down and they pretty much are ready to play at that level."
    A total of 106 golfers from 37 colleges from around the country will compete for both individual and team titles. Dodge City will be looking to take the team title, which Redlands Community College in El Reno, Okla., captured last year.
    The Conqs will bring five members to Daytona: sophomores Emma Cutmore and Randee Stegman, and freshmen Bri Ann Howell, Abby Barlow and Kristin Ronnebaum.
    Kristin's older sister Nicole made the trip last season and will join the team again this year as an alternate.
    "Our team has performed really well this year," Nicole said. "If they go out there and do the things they've done this season, we'll have a good showing."
    DCCC was the No. 18 team in the country after the fall season and, after winning each of its outings in the spring, the team now sits at No. 15.
    Earlier this spring, the Conqs won by more than 50 strokes in the Coffeyville CC Invitational at Winfield's Quail Ridge Golf Course. Dodge's four golfers placed first, second, third and fourth individually, with Cutmore leading the way with a score of 85. She was  the only golfer in the field to shoot below 90 strokes.
    "She's my No. 1 player," Bethea said of Cutmore. "She's a good player. She's strong mentally. Her overall game is good."
    Cutmore won her second straight KJCCC/Region 6 individual title this season as the Conqs won the team title by more than 82 strokes, qualifying for the national championship.
    "They've put in a long year," Bethea said. "We've been doing this since August, and this kind of rewards them for their hard work. They get a chance to go to the national championship and compete."
    Two of Dodge's golfers, Howell and Kristin Ronnebaum, have never been on a plane prior to this trip to Florida, and Barlow has yet to experience the atmosphere at the national championship. Nicole Ronnebaum and the other two veterans will use their experience to try and bring the title back to Dodge City.
    "It's exciting, but it's really tense because everybody wants to do well," Nicole said. "It was a great experience to go last year."

    Reach Keith Jenkins at (620) 408-9909 or e-mail him at keith.jenkins@dodgeglobe.com.