ALEXANDRIA - Hannah Boraas has been a fixture in the Alexandria golf community. She’s been a part of back-to-back state championship teams for the Alexandria girls golf program and has taken home two Resorters Tournament championships, the Junior 13-15 division title in 2020 and the Women’s Division title this past summer at the Alexandria Golf Club.
Now Boraas, a senior, has announced her college signing to Montana State University. Boraas held a signing ceremony at Alexandria Area High School on Wednesday, Nov. 9, on the first day of the early signing period.
“I'm so excited,” she said. “This is a dream come true for me. I've been working so hard for it.”
The Montana State Bobcats, located in Bozeman, are an NCAA Division I program that competes in the Big Sky Conference.
Boraas said Montana State had been recruiting her before her junior year.
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“They recruited me early in my junior year before the season started, and I visited there twice,” she said. “Then head coach Brittany Basye flew here for a three-day tournament to watch me, which showed that she really cared. That was a huge green flag for me. And she never put a deadline on me with her offer and she knew I was visiting other schools and she stood through me for a year of ups and downs with golf. Just experiencing that made her feel like a second mom to me. She was very comforting.”
Boraas said that she started envisioning herself and working towards being a college student-athlete since about her sixth-grade year.
Growing up in Alexandria, Boraas has developed a love for being outdoors. So with Bozeman, Montana, offering a vast amount of nature, the area is one that Boraas likes.
“I adore the mountains so much,” Boraas said. “It was just a very great vibe out there and I'm a big outdoors person. The campus felt pretty spread out and it's a growing campus. I know that a lot of other people want to go there and it just felt like home for me.”
Boraas said she visited the campus in Bozeman around the end of March/early April and then again around early September.
“It is such a safe community as well,” Boraas said. “And the teammates that I've met out there have been great. One thing I’ve liked is the coaches being loyal, seeing the ups and downs with golf through me. They were just so loyal and so energetic.”
Growing up, Boraas said she went out to visit the state of Montana once.
The academics that Montana State offers also appealed to Boraas, who is a 3.85 GPA student who is taking all college courses and intends on majoring in Business Marketing.
“They have a great business program called the Jake Jabs College of Business and Engineering,” she said. “I've heard really good things about it.”
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The Big Sky Conference is a conference that features schools from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah and Oregon.
The opportunity to travel to these states is another reason why Boraas likes the idea of playing for Montana State.
“They go to places like Arizona, Utah, Washington, plus Hawaii every other year,” she said.
Since playing varsity for the Cardinals as a seventh-grader in 2018, Boraas has racked up a plethora of honors.
She’s a four time All-Central Lakes Conference golfer (first place as individual in overall conference in 2019 and 2021) and she has won the last two CLC Individual Championships.
Boraas has won the Section 8AAA Individual title three times and has qualified for the MSHSL State Tournament four times, recently placing 10th at the 2022 state tournament. Boraas is also a three-time All-State golfer and a two-time Team Minnesota selection for the Minnesota-Wisconsin PGA Junior Cup matches in 2021 and 2022.
In addition to those accomplishments and the two Resorters titles, Boraas won the 2021 Midwest Junior Championship at Glen Oaks Country Club (80-74-71) in Des Moines, Iowa.
She also placed fifth at the Minnesota Golf Association Women’s Amateur Championship at Rochester Golf and Country Club from July 27-29, 2022. That field, along with the field in the Resorters Women’s Championship division, featured a bevy of college student-athletes.
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In her sophomore year, Boraas tied the school record with a 3-under par score of 69 at Geneva Golf Club on May 1, 2021. In 2017, Boraas converted a hole in one at the Sand Hollow Golf Club in St. George, Utah, while golfing with her brother, Noah, who is a senior on the South Dakota State men’s golf team.
“They have been so supportive of me with golf since I first picked up a golf club,” Boraas said. “They’ve just supported me so much and that has been huge for me.”
Boraas shared Alexandria Team MVP honors, following the 2021 and 2022 seasons, with Cora Larson, who is now a freshman on the North Dakota State golf team. Boraas was named the Team MVP after the 2019 season.
With one season left in high school for Alexandria, Boraas is still setting her goals for the senior season but wants to help the team get back to state and she wants to leave a solid positive impact on the younger players in the program.
“I really want to represent Alexandria well,” she said. “I want to be a positive influence on the next generation for Cardinal golfers. So they can carry on the tradition of excellent golf. One of my bigger goals is just to be a positive influence on the younger girls, and keep them going. I want to help get them stronger and work harder. For me, I would love to set another record, individual-wise and team score-wise. That'd be awesome. And I just have really high hopes for the season.”
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