The Gophers women’s hockey team’s top scorer from last year will play for Minnesota-Duluth this fall. Jenny Schmidgall, who left the University for personal reasons after her freshman season, will join a roster of local and international stars to be coached by Shannon Miller.
Schmidgall said she likes the former Canadian Olympic coach’s philosophy and that UMD will be a “national-caliber team” in its first season this fall. Schmidgall was one of the stars on the U.S. Olympic team that defeated Miller’s Canadian squad for the gold medal in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.
Miller has signed 19 players and is expected to complete her roster this week. She said Schmidgall, who is immediately eligible through a one-time transfer rule, is a great boost to the program. Schmidgall led the Gophers last season with 33 goals and 38 assists for a school-record 71 points en route to a third-place finish in the American Women’s College Hockey Alliance Division I tournament.

Gophers sports place 21st
The Gophers placed 21st in the final standings of the 1998-1999 Sears Directors’ Cup Competition with 330 points in men’s and women’s athletics performances in NCAA championships. Stanford won its fifth-straight Sears title with 970 points.
The Gophers, who have finished in the top 25 the last four years, finished fourth among Big Ten schools. Penn State finished third nationally, and sixth place Michigan and 15th place Ohio State also placed ahead of the Gophers. All Big Ten schools placed among the top 50 in the all-sports standing.
The award is presented by Sears and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. The Gophers’ previous best finish was 14th place for the 1993-1994 season.

Big Ten names top athletes
Northwestern and Purdue are homes to this year’s Big Ten Conference top athletes. Luke Donald, a sophomore golfer at Northwestern who won the 1999 NCAA individual title, received the Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year award. Stephanie White-McCarty, the top women’s basketball player on Purdue’s 1999 NCAA national championship team, received the Suzy Favor Female Athlete of the Year award. A media panel of voters selected the winners.
Donald was also recently named 1999 Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year after breaking Tiger Woods’ NCAA record of a 70.61 stroke average. Donald finished the year with a GolfStat Cup score of 70.45. He led Northwestern to its first Big Ten title since 1948 and to a third-place finish at the NCAA championship.
White-McCarty was runner-up for national player of the year honors after earning First Team All-America status. She led Purdue to the NCAA title over Duke with a season average of 20.2 points per game. White-McCarty was also named Academic All-American of the Year in women’s basketball.

— This article contains information from wire services.