Hagen Announces Recruiting Class

OTTUMWA --- All five of the Indian Hills golfers who represented the college at the national tournament last month have graduated.  That requires coach Mike Hagen to replenish his roster for next year.  Hagen has announced a seven-player recruiting class that he is confident will keep the Warriors – national champions in 2011 and ’12 – in national title contention for the immediate future.

The class includes two Iowans, Isaac Vandersee from West Des Moines Valley and Harrison Moore from Cedar Rapids Kennedy.  Vandersee was a first-team all-state selection as a senior and the conference champion; Moore, a second-team all-stater, tied for sixth in the state tourney last fall for a Kennedy team that was runner-up at state in two of the last three years.

Two players from Wisconsin, Jakob Garstecki from Germantown and Josh Smith from Hazel Green, will be joining Indian Hills in the fall.  Garstecki is a two-time all-state selection and won the AJGA Midwest Junior Players Championship and the Wisconsin Junior Masters in 2012.  Smith was the medalist in the Wisconsin Division 3 State Championship.

Greg Stanek from Bellevue, Nebraska won all-state honors the past three years.  The future Warrior is the record-holder in the Omaha metro tourney and played for his home state in the Nebraska-Kansas Cup matches.

Two international players round out the IHCC recruits.  George Trujillo was the number-one ranked junior player in Venezuela multiple times over the last two years.  He won the Venezuelan National Junior Championship and the LaVitalicia International Amateur last year and placed fourth at this year’s South American Junior Amateur.

Sam Sloman will come to IHCC from Somerset, England where he qualified for the 2012 English Amateur and tied for seventh in the Scottish Youth tourney.  Sloman also won numerous junior events in South England.

Hagen says he’s ecstatic about the recruiting class and the future of the Indian Hills program.  “Although we will miss the guys who graduated, we can’t worry about what we’re losing,” the coach said.  “Our future looks bright and I’m excited to get to work with our incoming golfers.  They will be very important to our program.”

The seven newcomers will join Colin Pearson and Luke Monson, a pair of freshmen on last year’s IHCC squad.