Feb 08, 2023
By Priscilla Contreras, '21, '23
The triad of preparation, practice and patience is paying off for St. Bonaventure University senior golfer Lance Sininger.
From waking up at 5:36 a.m. on tournament days to enhancing his ability as an athlete through nutrition and strength training to finally finishing his day by hanging out with his teammates, Sininger sets his determination on and off the greens.
The small class sizes and personal touch are what attracted the Georgetown, Ohio, native to Bona’s.
“St. Bonaventure’s golf coach reached out to me, and I was interested from that point on. I came for a visit soon after and just fell in love with the campus,” said Sininger, a
sports media major. “Being from a small town and with the small student enrollment here, it was set up perfectly for me.”
Four years later, Sininger’s passion for golf and Bonaventure remains the same.
Though his freshman and sophomore years were interrupted by the pandemic and its protocols, he says that he’s had “the perfect college experience.”
During his junior year, Sininger began to utilize the nutrition and weight room resources at Bona’s to greatly improve as a golfer. “I was open about what I wanted to achieve with my meal plan by gaining more weight while working out a fitness plan to gain muscle to help with my athletic ability,” he said. “I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to just get better on and off the court, field, course or whatever you play on.”
Sininger has seen improvement in his performance. This past season, he led the Bonnies into the finale during three days of action at the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate at Kilmarlic Golf Club in North Carolina. Finishing in 20th place, Sininger posted a final total of 218, one over par, after rounds of 75, 71 and 72.
Darryn Fiske, director of St. Bonaventure’s strength and conditioning center, remembers when Sininger arrived at Bonaventure with the drive to improve.
“He asked what he needed to do in terms of training to help him overall,” said Fiske. “I gave him the plan and he ran with it. Now he is reaping the benefits, not only on the golf course but in his overall life.”
A typical conditioning day for Sininger starts with stretching, jogging and getting loose, then shifts to focusing on core strength and flexibility, then later finishes with running the stairs in the Reilly Center.
Sininger is excited about the new opportunities that will be available for Bonaventure athletes with the fundraising campaign,
A Bolder Bonaventure: Ignite. Inspire. Invest. One of the campaign’s top priorities is to transform St. Bonaventure’s athletics facilities and ensure a strongly competitive NCAA Division I experience for every student-athlete.
“Right now, we have a small area to train. But with the new additions the campaign will bring, it will benefit every team here because there will be more room to specialize and to focus on what each sport needs in terms of conditioning and training,” said Sininger. “It also opens up a bigger and wider schedule so multiple teams can be training at the same time.”
When Sininger is not in the weight room, you can find him hanging out with his teammates. Although they may have different schedules, Sininger said, whenever they see each other, the togetherness they have feels like a family.
“It is partly to do with the veteran leadership we have in the team, welcoming guys in and not making them feel out of place when they join here,” said Sininger. “But also, our head coach, Ryan Swanson, does a good job recruiting kids who represent what it means to be a Bonnie.”
Once he receives his bachelor’s degree this May, Sininger will begin the master’s in
sport administration program at Bona’s. His post-graduate goals include pursuing a career in golf and eventually landing a role with a professional sports team, perhaps as a scout.
Reflecting on his four years at St. Bonaventure, the advice Sininger would offer others is: “Don’t rush things. You have to be patient and stick to what you know when it comes to practice and preparation for your sport.
“You’re used to being the best player in high school, then you come to college and everyone’s pretty much on that level playing field. You’ve got to learn how to not work harder but work smarter than everyone else.”