The Weber State University Wildcat Club announced recently the 2013 class of inductees to the WSU Athletics Hall of Fame. A two-time conference MVP, a three-time conference champion and a national championship-winning team highlight this year’s class, which will be inducted to the Hall of Fame in February.
The 2013 Hall of Fame inductees are Julie Gjertsen-Meurer (women’s basketball), Michelle Green-Froerer (women’s track and field/cross-country) and the 1982 women’s golf team.
This year’s inductees will be honored at the Wildcat Club Hall of Fame Banquet on Friday, Feb. 8 at the Ogden Marriott Hotel. The new inductees will also be recognized at the WSU men’s basketball game at home against Southern Utah University on Saturday, Feb. 9.
Gjertsen-Meurer spend four years at WSU and was a key player for the team, which won two conference titles. A press release from the WSU Athletics Department made Gjertsen-Meurer’s contributions to the school clear.
“Julie Gjertsen is one of the best women’s basketball players in WSU and Big Sky history. She was a standout player for the Wildcat squad from 2001-05 and led Weber State to two Big Sky titles and earned two conference Most Valuable Player awards.”
Gjertsen-Meurer is third in school history and seventh in Big Sky Conference history in career scoring with 1,752 points. She also ranks second in school history in 3-point field goals, fourth in scoring average, seventh in field goals and 10th in rebounding.
In the very first game of her career, she scored 27 points and nine assists. That season, WSU finished with a 22-9 record, captured its first-ever Big Sky title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
Green was a prominent member of WSU’s women’s track and field and cross-country teams in 1984-87. In her time at WSU, she won three Big Sky titles and earned All-Conference honors seven times. Green came to WSU as a walk-on, and had never run track while in high school.
In 1986, Green made history at the Big Sky Conference Championships in Moscow, Idaho, by winning three distance events. It was only the second time in Big Sky history that an athlete had won the 3,000-meters, 5,000-meters and 10,000-meters in the same championship meet.
The following season, she repeated as conference champion in the 10,000-meters to earn All-Conference honors. She was also named one of the Big Sky Scholar athletes.
In cross-country, Green earned All-Conference honors three times in her career and finished seventh at the Big Sky meet in 1984, fifth in 1985 and third in 1986.
The 1981-82 WSU women’s golf team was the first WSU team to win a national championship since the school became a four-year institution. The team was coached by Mike Farrell, who was in his third season with the Wildcats. Farrell was a native of Ogden and had attended Weber College. Kerri Clark, Julie Kelly, Denise Sontag, Lori Vegwert, Elisabet Wahlquist and Heidi Wallin made up the championship team.
The Wildcats captured the AIAW Division II National Championships held at the Eisenhower Golf Course in Colorado Springs, Colo., hosted by the Air Force Academy. It was WSU’s first national championship in any sport as a four-year school.
The Wildcats finished with a four-round total of 1,260 to defeat Troy State University by 15 strokes. Wallin took individual national honors by finishing in first place overall. She had rounds of 76, 77, 74 and 79, claiming first place by four shots.
