As the mid-point of the season for the Iowa women’s golf team nears, senior Riley Lewis is hitting her stride.
Following in her father’s footsteps, Lewis found herself on the golf course at a very young age.
“I was always around golf,” Lewis said. “I tried a lot of different sports growing up, and golf was what I was best at. After that, I just fell in love with it.”
After her sophomore year of high school, she decided against playing for her high school team and began to travel to national tournaments instead. The Illinois native then committed to head coach Megan Menzel and her Iowa Hawkeyes at the beginning of her junior year and never looked back.
“After my call with Coach Megan, I knew Iowa was where I was meant to be,” Lewis said. “We instantly had a great connection, and I knew I was making the right choice.”
For Menzel, that feeling was reciprocated.
“We knew that she was a feisty competitor,” Menzel said. “She was fearless, and we were really excited to have her.”
When Lewis reached campus, she wasted no time getting to business. In the spring of her freshman season, she earned the seventh best spring average at 75.33 as well as recorded the second lowest 18 hole score of 67, both in program history. Junior Xemina Benites arrived just a few months after this incredible season and has looked up to her teammate ever since.
“Riley is a great leader,” Benites said. “She always encourages us to do better and keep working hard, and it’s awesome to have a teammate like that.”
The senior did indeed lead the way at their past weekend tournament in Arizona, finding herself with a sixth place individual finish.
“My short game has been it for me lately,” Lewis stated. “I’ve been making a lot of putts and getting up and down to save pars.”
As the end of the women’s golf season approaches, the finale will be extra special for Lewis.
The last tournament the Hawkeyes will attend before the Big Ten Tournament will be hosted by Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas — the very college her dad competed at during his collegiate years as well as where her younger brother is pursuing his golf career.
“I’ve grown up playing this course since I was 13 and it was first built,” Lewis said. “I’m basically wrapping up my college career at my home course with all of my family and friends there.”
Following that occasion, the Hawkeyes will travel to California for the Big Ten championship, where they seek a regional bid.
Lewis will have competed in the Big Ten Tournament for all four years, something Iowa women’s golf hasn’t seen since 2016.
But for Coach Menzel, a different trait of Lewis’s stands out.
“Riley is never afraid to tell you what’s on her mind or what she thinks about something,” Menzel said.
For seniors such as Lewis, it’s time to start thinking about what life might be like after graduation.
“I have been accepted into nursing school,” Lewis said. “ I haven’t totally decided where yet, but I’ve narrowed it down to about three choices.”
The senior hopes to complete a one-year accelerated nursing program and eventually become a pediatric nurse practitioner. But before then, Lewis hopes to soak in all the time she has left as a Hawkeye.
“Don’t wish any time away, and be as present as you can,” Lewis said. “I’ve been very, very grateful lately for everything I’ve had here.”