ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- The seeds for the way College of Saint Benedict senior golfer Catherine Jance is playing now might have been planted in a conversation the Hopkins High School graduate had with head coach Daryl Schomer at the end of last fall.
 
"She'd had one great tournament, but otherwise – and I think she'd agree – the fall had been kind of a struggle," Schomer recalled. "We talked, and I gave her my thoughts. There was a small, mechanical issue I thought she could fix and it would make a big difference. "She took that to heart over the winter, and when she came back in the spring, she just took off."
 
The evidence of that indeed came quickly.

 

Jance finished in the top spot in the first two of her team's three competitions during the spring schedule, making her the first player in the program to win back-to-back meets since former Bennies All-American Kathryn Hauff (CSB Hall of Fame inductee, 2024) in the fall of 2010.
 
The success has continued this fall as Jance has finished in the top five at all four of her team's tournaments so far. That included a two-round score of 143 to place second overall at the St. Kate's Fall Invite Sept. 20-21.
 
The total left her just one shot back of winner Kate Yi of Carleton, and was a school record 36-hole score.
 
"I went into last spring determined to push myself and see what I could do," Jance said. "And coming off that, I started to see even more potential in my game. I've started to get more comfortable and I have a lot more trust and confidence in myself. My mental game the past few tournaments has also been really good. I've been able to stay steady and that's helped a lot."
 
Next up for Jance and the Bennies is the MIAC Championship, scheduled for Saturday (Oct. 4) through Monday (Oct. 6) at Braemar Golf Course in Edina.
 
Jance, who was All-MIAC a year ago, enters play with the fourth-lowest, per-round average score (75.6) in the conference this season – trailing only senior Carter Sichol of Carleton (73), senior Bailey Lengfelder of Macalester (74.6) and junior Mindy Zhai of Carleton (75.2).
 
"Last year, I didn't feel like I had a strong showing," said Jance, who led her team with a three-round score of 249 at last season's conference meet – which placed her 23^rd overall. "I want to improve individually this year and help us move up as a team as well. With the way I've been playing the past few tournaments, I'm going in knowing I can compete with anyone in the field."
 
But Jance isn't just excelling on the course. She's a force in the classroom as well.
 
The biology (pre-med) major was a CSG Academic All-District At-Large selection a year ago, and spent this past summer working on a research project on campus under the direction of assistant biology professor Alexa Roemmich.
 
Jance and Roemmich looked at the impact silencing a particular gene in microscopic worms (which mirrors one found in humans) had on neurological development and function – a process known as a genetic knockdown.
 
And while the work wasn't always easy, Roemmich was impressed with the way Jance approached it.
 
"While Catherine is clearly very interested in and excellent at science, she is also calm and level-headed, which is perfect for conducting scientific research," Roemmich said. "There was a lot of the summer where we were trying experiments that didn't work as intended, and she was quick to shrug off a frustrating day, think about what to change for next time and get back to it.
 
"Maybe golf has helped her learn to stay calm under pressure!"
 
The project was one of 13 sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholars at CSB and SJU. Each summer, the office provides summer collaborative grants to 13 student-faculty teams, helping them complete a 10-week summer research project.
 
"We wanted to see how behavior changes," Jance said. "The gene we looked at is one humans have a version of. And (that gene has) been connected to different neurological disorders and differences in neurological development.
 
"Hopefully, the results can be useful, which is a good feeling. But apart from that, I learned a lot about what goes into lab work, collaborating with others and working with a mentor. Having the chance to actually attempt a genetic knockdown on a living organism was super cool. That kind of hands-on experience isn't something you'd have the chance to get at a lot of other places."
 
Jance is scheduled to graduate next May. After that, she plans to take a gap year and pursue an internship to gain more experience before hopefully going on to pursue a graduate degree in scientific research.
 
"The work I did this summer helped me realize I wanted to look more at a career in genetic research, or some other related field," she said. "I found out that was something I really enjoyed."
 
And Jance said she found similarities between her work in the lab and her play on the golf course.
 
"There's a similar component to it in that every day – on the course or in the lab – you have something you want to focus or work on," she said. "You experiment and try things. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. But you keep plugging away at it until you find an answer."
 
Jance began her collegiate career at the University of Oregon, where she was a member of the school's club rowing team. But she transferred to CSB prior to her sophomore year, and decided to return to the sport in which she earned all-conference honors twice during her prep career.
 
It helped that high school teammate Georgia Hinton, who graduated from CSB this past spring, was on the golf team as well.
 
"My mom and her entire side of the family went to Saint Ben's, so I was definitely aware of the school," Jance said. "But I felt this strong push to get out of Minnesota for a while, which I'm grateful I did because I met some really great people. It was fun to be on my own and experience new things. That was really valuable.
 
"But when I decided to come back to Minnesota, the family connection drew me here. I wanted to get back into golf, and Georgia was here too, so it seemed like a good fit. I met with one of the assistant coaches on my campus visit and it all came together."
 
Just like what seems to be happening with her game this fall.
 
"She's finally morphing into the player she should be," Schomer said. "I could tell she was really gifted the first time I watched her. She has really good mechanics and all the physical tools. She just needed more experience.
 
"It was always only a matter of time before she got to where she's at now."