With the winter sports season coming to an end, 10 St. Thomas athletes earned First-Team All-America honors, and six others earned Second-Team or Honorable Mention recognition.
Women’s basketball
The women’s basketball team had two players receive All-America honors. Guard Jenna Dockter averaged a team-leading 13.9 points per game throughout the season and was named to the first team, while center Maggie Weiers was named to the second team after averaging 12.3 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. Dockter and Weiers, both seniors, led the team to the most victories in program history.
Swim and dive
Seven members of the St. Thomas swim and dive team earned All-America honors at the NCAA championships in Shenandoah, Texas. Junior Mike Lanz earned First-Team All-America honors in two events and sophomore Emma Paulson received First-Team honors in three events. Paulson, along with five other swimmers, also earned Honorable Mention honors.
Lanz was the only St. Thomas male swimmer at the national meet. His two individual All-America performances were in the 100 and 200 butterfly. He also received Honorable Mention in the 200 individual medley.
Paulson placed fourth in the 200 backstroke, her third individual All-America honor in the three-day championships. She also received an individual All-America honor for the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
Paulson also competed in the 200-medley relay with senior Mariann Kukielka, senior Emily Punyko and sophomore Courtney Grunewald. The relay placed 12th with a time of 1:44.84, the best a Tommie women’s relay has placed at nationals in the last five years. Paulson and Punyko joined freshmen Alix Glassbrenner and Tiana Molitor in the 200 freestyle relay, which placed 16th. All six swimmers in the 200-medley and 200-freestyle relays earned Honorable Mentions. The women’s team finished in 15th place overall at the championships.
Women’s track and field
The St. Thomas women’s track and field team closed out the NCAA Championships in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with 14 team points, tying for 13th place. Senior Melissa Engstrom clocked a career-best 5:02.39 in the mile, placing seventh and receiving her first All-America honor.
All six athletes that competed received All-America honors. St. Thomas’ distance medley relay team finished first for the second time in six years. Megan Terukina, Angela Tripp, Kayla Goeman and Emily Gapinski crossed the finish line with a time of 11:45.26, two seconds ahead of runner-up MIT. The Tommies came in seeded ninth. Junior Gabrielle Pepin also received All-America honors after placing seventh in the 5,000, gaining two team points.
Women’s hockey
The St. Thomas women’s hockey team won the MIAC tournament and advanced to the NCAA playoffs for the second consecutive season, thanks in large part to junior defenseman Megan Juricko. Juricko was named to the First-Team West All-American by the American Hockey Coaches’ Association last weekend.