Liberty disc golf team overwhelms competition

Liberty University’s disc golf teams headed down to South Carolina for the annual College Disc Golf National Championships April 3-6. With three first-place finishes and more top 10 finishes, Liberty’s club athletes had extremely successful ends to their seasons. 

Division II junior Greyson Lifto started the celebration early in the week. Lifto set off the fireworks early with an eagle on the challenging par-4 second hole. Gathering four more birdies over the next 16 holes, Lifto ended the Division II singles tournament at the very top of the leaderboard, emerging out of the 319-player field victorious at -6. 

“The day it happened, it just seemed like any other day,” Lifto said. “The next day, looking at my competitors, I realized that I had beaten all these people, and you don’t realize that until you see all 300 people. It’s crazy to think about.”

Lifto accomplished many feats during the singles tournament. Maybe the most impressive of these feats was being the only player in the entire field to have a bogey-free round. On a course as challenging as Rock Hill, bogeys tend to add up fast, placing a premium on good tee shots.   

“I have worked on my tee shots every day this year,” Lifto said. “I put in hours of additional practice with both throwing and putting to get my confidence up to be ready for these high-pressure moments.”

Lifto plans to defend his championship next year. He has already started practicing for next season. 

In their second year as a duo, senior Maggie Presley and graduate student Julia Dimartino won their first national championship over the weekend. The ladies captured a two-stroke victory over the 34-team field, which included duos from Clemson and Texas A&M. 

Last year, Presley and Dimartino took home the bronze medal at the national tournament. This year, the two came in undefeated on the season with high expectations for themselves. Anything other than a first-place finish would be unsuccessful. 

“The pressure was much greater because we knew our abilities,” Dimartino said. “There was always that knowledge that we could do it as long as we stayed consistent and focused.” 

Playing with a teammate always has its advantages. In this scenario, having a teammate helped specifically with staying focused and handling pressure.

“It’s incredibly difficult to stay present and focus on one throw at a time,” Dimartino said. “At an event like nationals, all eyes are on us. The margin for error is so much smaller, so the focus has to be dialed.”

Not only was the focus top-notch, but every single part of their game seemed to be polished as well. Dimartino and Presley did not just win, but they did it in wire-to-wire fashion, meaning they led at the end of every single round. 

Even with the excitement of a national championship victory, the girls still know what matters most. 

“There is an understanding that we’re competing for Christ, which means being a light on the course for other schools,” Dimartino said. 

The party did not stop there. Liberty’s men’s Division III team took home the top prize in its division as well. The team of sophomore Kyle Sennett, junior Elijah Persson and seniors Ian Rankin and Graham Clawson won by 11 strokes. 

The team of four immediately got hot, as it birdied 14 of the first 15 holes during their first round. 

“We came in very confident,” Sennett said. “I feel like we had the right amount of confidence. We were taking everything seriously and not taking anything for granted.”

The confidence paid off, as the team ended its first round with an eagle to cap off a -16 round of 43, which was good for a lead of four strokes at the time. 

The team backed up its exceptional play in the first round with a 50 in the second round to move the team’s total score to -25 heading into moving day. At this point, the team led by eight strokes, and it was going to take a miracle for any team to extinguish the Flames.

Unfortunately for everyone not wearing a Liberty uniform, the third round was stellar for the Flames. Although many birdies and even an eagle went down on the scorecard, the highlight of the weekend was Persson’s hole-in-one on the 10th hole. On a shot that was high-risk but high-reward, Persson’s consistent accuracy was finally rewarded with an ace from 150 feet away. That hole-in-one was followed by four straight birdies as the team carded another 43, giving it an 11-stroke lead.  

Going into the final round, the team stayed hot with 10 more birdies, ending the tournament at -51.  

“I feel like the course worked really well for our game,” Sennett said. “We knew it was going to be windy the entire week, but it worked really well with us having good, accurate throwers.”  

That resounding victory nearly capped off a Flames first-place sweep. Liberty’s men’s Division I team, which consisted of graduate student Timothy Schmidt, senior Clayton Lewis, and sophomores Jonah Burdick and Evan Riley, finished its tournament in a tie for seventh place with Ohio State and Oklahoma Christian.  

“We had a chance to win,” Schmidt said. “I think staying relaxed while still making strategic and smart decisions is the perfect recipe for playing to our full potential.”  

Schmidt and his teammates are already looking forward to their chance at redemption in 2025.

Weissinger is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion. Follow him on X