Submitted photo Minot State junior Alexandra Demko competes in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championship this past weekend in Morton, Minn.

When Alexandra Demko received the text message from head coach Kayla O’Keefe she couldn’t believe what she was reading.

All her hard work had paid off.

“Kayla texted me yesterday and said, ‘You did it,” Demko said on Tuesday. “I thought, ‘No, I didn’t. Like what are you talking about.’ I looked at her text and I actually did this. It’s still very surreal to me. I’m still shaking a little bit about it, but I’m so excited. I can’t believe I did it. I’m so excited to go play next week.”

Demko, a junior, has become the first Minot State women’s golfer to qualify for the NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championships.

She advances to compete in the Central Regional being hosted by Northeastern State at the Muskogee County Club in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

The NCAA DII Women’s Golf Championships feature four regionals, held May 6-8, with 12 teams and six individuals from non-qualifying teams at each site.

The top four teams along with the top four individuals not with a team will move on to the national championship. That will be held May 14-18 at the PGA National Resort and Spa in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In total, 96 golfers will qualify for the final event.

Demko finds herself in the regional meet after a solid season and a seventh place finish at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championships this past weekend.

She shot a three-round total of 241 and improved on her 11th-place finish from the 2018 NSIC Championships.

“I had a decent amount of Top 10 placings, so my scoring average was pretty good,” Demko said. “Once I heard that I really had a chance to qualify, I really kicked it up into gear and tried to grind, practice as much as possible.”

The accomplishment of just reaching this point has given Demko the mindset that she doesn’t have anything to lose moving forward.

“I hope all the pieces will come together and I will put some good rounds in and go from there,” she said. “I’m just going to try and enjoy every minute of it, now that my golf season got to be extended. I am just going to have as much fun as I can and play as well as I can.”

Pushing Demko to get to this point was O’Keefe, and that support was invaluable.

“When spring came, my coach Kayla (O’Keefe) said, ‘You really have a chance’ and ‘You can do this,'” Demko said. “That really stuck. That she believed in me so much. She actually believed in me more than I believed in myself.”

Confidence soaring, Demko tees off on Monday (May 6) in Oklahoma already having left a lasting mark on the Minot State women’s golf program.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.