Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Wisconsin's D1 Collegiate Programs

Last week we linked to the Wisconsin D2 Collegiate Women's Conference, The Great Waters Women's Conference.  This week we turn to the two D1 Collegiate programs in our state and the WGR alumni who are playing the game throughout our state.

The Wisconsin Rugby Union has links and contact info for all the collegiate programs.

UW-Madison is the oldest women's program in the state.  Former KM rugger, Taylor Rozman, can be seen playing there.  She's been spotted reffing as well, so some current ruggers may run into her from time to time.  Memorial alumns Erin Kautz and Kristina Zignego are there too.

UW-Milwaukee:  Word on the street is that former KM coach Liz Entwhistle has joined the coaching staff and that the roster size has been growing.  Former DSHA scumhalf Alyssa Blavat has played there for years, along with KM's Lauren Becker, CMH's Holly Bohlman,Vernon's Sam Bruni, and some others whose names escape us at the moment!

It was a tough week in their opening weekend of D1 play, but for different reasons.  UWM played one of the top programs in the country, UNI.  Northern Iowa has loaded up with Wisconsin talent in recent years, adding Memorial flanker Eileen Lieb to this fall's incoming freshman class.  She joins former KM captain Talia Carrasquillo, and Brookfield center Kaisee Wiesmeuller .  Both Talia and Kaisee are Kevin Higgins Scholarship winners from 2011.  Not sure if Kaisee is back playing, as she injured a knee a few seasons, but she had made an immediate impact upon her arrival, as did Talia who jumped right into the starting lineup upon her arrival.

Madison lost a close one to a good side, U of Minn., who coincidently have former CMH flanker Ellen Moyer joining their squad this fall as well.   Best of luck to all the D1 programs.

Thunderbird Conference
Sept 21st, 2013
Minnesota 33-31 UW Madison
Northern Iowa 134-0 UW Milwaukee
Lindenwood 84-7 Western Illinois

2 comments:

Liz Entwhistle said...

The UW-M program is proud to count the players you mention as Lady Panthers, but none of them are on the team this fall due to various reasons from work to transferring schools to grad school. I had been helping the program for 2 years prior to this fall season, working around my own playing/practice schedule in Chicago, and this fall committed to the head coaching role. We do boast the Dunn twins and Alexandra Murphy from Vernon; Erika Winner, Sara Glomski and Keena that played for Brookfield and/or Pius team that existed, and Tiff Crouse from KM all on the team though! And have alums also from Muskego (Katie Rademacher) and DSHA (Julia Thorne, Tina Gill and more) as well as ther other teams prior mentioned! Having local talent and seeing former WI HS players in our first two matchups is wonderful for growing the game of rugby competitively and for camaraderie. . . . Even recognized players from Armstrong and Hopkins in MN (from Midwest and National playoffs as well as the Border Battle tournament) across the scrums from us!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update! We knew there had to be more girls out there playing than we were aware of. Great to hear of so many alumni continuing to play rugby collegiately.