Former Badgers Invited to U.S. Olympic Women's Hockey Team Festival
July 13, 2005 | Women's Hockey
Former Badger women's hockey standouts Molly Engstrom (2001-05) and Kerry Weiland (1999-2003) were invited along with 38 other elite hockey players to participare in the 2005 USA Hockey National Women's Festival in Lake Placid, N.Y., Aug. 18-25. The festival will serve as the selection camp for the 2005-06 U.S. women's national team that will train in preparation for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy next February.
Defenders Engstrom and Weiland will represent Wisconsin and join 11 other current and former Western Collegiate Hockey Association athletes in representing the conference. Among the 40 player roster, 11 are returning Olympians from 1998 and/or 2002.
All 20 members of the 2005 world-champion U.S. women's national team, a team Engstrom skated with during breaks in the Badgers' season, are slated to attend the festival along with top players from the collegiate and professional ranks. The players will be divided into two teams to compete in daily practices and a round-robin tournament at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid.
Recent graduate and a native of Siren, Wis., Engstrom's capped an already prestigious career as a Badger garnering first-team All-America honors. Last season, she was named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Year, for the second consecutive year, as well as a first team All-WCHA selection. She ranked among the league and national leaders in scoring among defenders and was a top-10 finalist in the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. Wisconsin's only other All-America first team honor was Wisconsin women's hockey pioneer and former USA national team member Weiland.
Weiland has played most recently with the National Women's Hockey League's (NWHL) Brampton Thunder in Ontario, Canada. The Palmer, Alaska native and two-time AHCA All-American, Weiland capped her career at Wisconsin with 34 goals and 90 assists for 124 points in 133 games and was the Badgers' first-ever four-time All-WCHA honoree. She was selected second-team All-WCHA as both a freshman and senior and first-team All-WCHA during her sophomore and junior seasons.
On Aug. 25, at the conclusion of the camp, USA Hockey will announce the roster for the 2005-06 U.S. women's national team. That team will train and compete in cities around the country leading up to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Prior to the Games, the roster will be trimmed to 20 players.
For a complete roster for the 2005 Festival visit the USA Hockey web site.
