The Iowa women’s golf team consists of seven players hailing from six different states. Senior Alison Cavanaugh comes from Colorado. Juniors Lauren Forbes and Brianna Coopman are from Oklahoma and Texas, respectively. Four others call the Midwest home.

Only one is from the state of Iowa — junior Laura Cilek, who grew up in Iowa City and attended West High.

Cilek picked up golf later in life, so by the time she was done with high school, her talent had not peaked. Iowa was one of the few schools that pursued the local product, and she believed the program had a lot to offer.

With head coach Kelly Crawford showing enthusiasm about her joining the team, Cilek threw in with the Black and Gold.

Loyalty also played a part. Growing up in the shadow of a Big Ten university, she had friends at Iowa and in the sports program, which made committing an easy decision.

Being the only Iowa native on the team is a source of pride for her.

“I know a lot of people around Iowa City, and they come and support our home tournament a lot,” she said. “I think they like to follow it more because they know there’s an Iowa native who has grown up in Iowa City her whole life.”

Having only one player on the team from the state may seem like an anomaly at a major public university, but Cilek doesn’t see it quite like that.

“I don’t think coaches recruit on where you’re from. It’s more your playing ability,” the junior said. “When you go to tournaments that coaches are recruiting at, there are players from all over, so it makes sense that there are girls on our team from all over.”

Assistant coach John Owens, who does a lot of recruiting for Iowa, agreed with her assessment.

Owens said he looks at talent first and foremost. His initial focus lies in the Midwest in the talent search, but that isn’t a limitation. The program is building a better national recruiting stance and right now is exploring Canada.

“There’s a lot of really good Canadian women golfers who might go unnoticed by some other big schools just because they’re from up north,” Owens said. “There’s a great pool of kids, talent-wise, in Canada that we can choose from, and they don’t have a problem coming to a state like Iowa where they can’t practice year round.”

Crawford noted that Iowa might be the only team in the Big Ten without a foreign player on the roster. Players from Canada and Europe have expressed interest, though, and the coach is exploring those venues to boost the team’s ranking in the Big Ten.

What it all comes down to is talent. Since Crawford took over in 2007, the program has risen in the rankings. In order to keep ascending, the Hawkeyes have to go out and get the best players available, regardless of location, Crawford said.

“My goal is to put Iowa on the map,” she said. “We’re trying to build the best program we can and get the best players we can. If we feel we can get some players who can contribute and move the program forward, we’ll go get them.”