Story prepared by Tim Petermann, UW-Eau Claire Sports Information Director emeritus
The UW-Eau Claire Blugold Hall of Fame Class of 2023 includes three conference players of the year, three first-, second- or third-team All-Americans, three WIAC All-Centennial picks, one member of a national championship team, four players who played in three or four consecutive NCAA championships, two players who played on the winningest team in their sport's history and two coaches who coached a national champion.
The new class includes softball players Casey Leisgang and Sarah Weinke Murphy, women's basketball player Michelle Burns O'Connell, soccer player Anna Talbot Willkom, golfer and golf coach Meghan Sobotta Murphy and gymnastics coach
Jean DeLisle.
This 34th class of women's inductees along with the previous 46 men's classes, brings the number of athletes, coaches and administrators who have been honored to 259. This will be the 50th year since Ade Olson and Bill Zorn became the charter members of the Blugold Hall of Fame on April 29, 1973.
The class will be inducted during Homecoming weekend with an on-campus banquet on Friday, October 6 and introduction at the football game versus UW-River Falls on Saturday, October 7.
The Blugold Hall of Fame was established to pay tribute, to give deserved recognition and to enhance school tradition by honoring former athletic letterwinners, coaches or administrators who demonstrated distinctive, unique or exceptional ability while on the campus at Eau Claire and have distinguished themselves in their profession or personally since leaving the institution.
There must be a lapse of 15 years from their final season of eligibility before an athlete can be considered for induction and five years from their resignation for a coach.
The five athletes being recognized this year all competed between 1997 and 2008 while the coaches served between 2003 and 2018.
Casey Leisgang, a shortstop-second baseman, was a second-team NFCA All-American who hit a school-record .477 in leading the Blugolds to an NCAA national championship in 2008. Sarah Weinke Murphy, a third baseman, was a two-time NFCA All-Region first team selection, a member of the two winningest softball teams in school history and a member of two teams that finished fourth in the national tournament. Anna Talbot Willkom, a defender, was the WIAC Player of the Year in 2007 when she also earned NSCAA All-American third-team honors. She helped the Blugolds go unbeaten in WIAC play for three consecutive seasons including the most successful campaign in school history in 2006. Michelle Burns O'Connell, a 5-11 forward, was the WIAC Player of the Year in 2007-08 as the Blugolds tied for the conference title and advanced to the NCAA tournament. Meghan Sobotta Murphy was a WGCA first-team All-American as a senior when she was also the WIAC's conference tournament medalist and was an WGCA All-American second-team selection as both a sophomore and junior. As a player, she helped the Blugolds tie for third place in the 2005 NCAA championship and as the Blugold coach, led the team to a third-place finish in 2012 when the Blugolds' Catherine Wagner was the NCAA national individual champion. Jean DeLisle served as the Blugold women's gymnastics coach from 2003-2018 with six teams qualifying for the NCGA nationals. Her 2004-05 team placed fourth in the NCGA nationals, the highest finish ever for a Blugold team. She also coached national floor exercise champion Theresa Lynch and national balance beam champion Michaela McCamey-Metropulos.
CASEY LEISGANG
A four-year letterwinner and four-time All-Conference first-team selection, Leisgang finds her name sprinkled throughout the WIAC and UWEC single season and career record books. She shares the school and conference career records for home runs with 38. As a senior, she set the school single season batting average (.477), slugging percentage (.824) and on base percentage (.559) marks. She ranks second in the conference in runs scored (184) and walks (88). A career .395 hitter with 687 plate appearances, Leisgang struck out just 51 times while drawing 88 bases on balls.
Among her honors, Leisgang was selected to the WIAC's All-Centennial team in 2012 after being named a second-team NFCA All-American in 2008 and the conference's position co-Player of the Year in 2006. In each of her four seasons, she was named to either the first or second Great Lakes All-Region team. When the Blugolds swept through the 2008 national tournament unbeaten, Leisgang earned a spot on the All-Tournament team.
During her career, the Blugolds won two regular season conference titles and two conference tournament crowns. Ironically, the Blugolds' national championship came in a season in which they placed third in both the conference and conference tournament. But they powered through the regional and national tournaments unbeaten in eight games, topping conference champion UW-Whitewater for the national title.
The Blugolds won 144 games during Leisgang's career against just 42 losses. They were 18-4 in NCAA tournament play, reaching the regional final in 2006 and taking third in 2007 before bringing home the first-place trophy in 2008.
Leisgang competed against the U.S. National Softball Team in a pre-Olympic exhibition game in 2008 and recorded the Midwest All-Star's only hit of the game.
Leisgang's illustrious Blugold career followed on the heels of a stellar prep career at Seymour High School where she was All-State in softball, the Bay Conference player of the year in volleyball and a three-time All-Conference player in basketball.
A 2009 graduate of UWEC with a journalism major and history minor, Leisgang has been employed by Plexus Corp. , which is headquartered in Neenah, since 2010. She currently is the Manager of ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) Market Analysis and Strategic Communications, supporting environmentally sustainable and responsible operations and customer products, diversity and inclusion and ethical business practices.
In addition to a successful career with Plexus, Leisgang has been involved in giving back to various communities in a number of ways. She served on the coaching staff at East Ridge High School in Woodbury, Minnesota in the first year of its softball program. She was the varsity girls basketball coach at Seymour HS for three seasons, taking one team to the regional final and served as assistant softball coach at St. Norbert College for five seasons, making one NCAA regional tournament appearance and coaching the school home run record holder. She also served as a WIAA basketball official for seven seasons and was selected to officiate three WIAA Girls State Tournaments.
Leisgang resides in the Denver, Colorado metro area and is a fervent supporter of anti-gun violence/common sense gun law organizations. She fundraises for Movember, a global organization focused on mental health, suicide prevention and cancer prevention among men. She has volunteered time and donated resources to various organizations in the Denver Metro, including Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, The Delores Project, an organization providing a safe shelter and services to unaccompanied women and transgender individuals experiencing homelessness, and the Denver Rescue Mission, serving the needs of the homeless and needy in the Denver Metro.
Like Leisgang, Sarah Weinke Murphy was a four-year letterwinner and finds her name scattered among the UWEC and WIAC single season and career leaders. She also had the distinction of playing on the first Blugold softball team to qualify for the NCAA tournament in 1997. She would end up playing in four consecutive NCAA tournaments with the Blugolds taking fourth place in the national tournament in both 1999 and 2000.
Murphy played every game in her sophomore and junior seasons when the team accumulated a school-record 40 wins. The Blugolds ended up with 144 victories against just 53 losses during her career. With the conference split into divisions for regular season play, the Blugolds produced a 27-5 division record from 1997-2000 and won the conference tournament three times.
A two-time All-Conference and All-Region selection, Murphy also was named to the 2000 All-Tournament teams in both the regional and national tournaments.
Murphy was a career .333 hitter with a .383 average as a senior. Typically the No. 2 hitter in the lineup, the left-handed swinger had a great eye, striking out just 42 times in 666 plate appearances while also walking 48 times. She ranks second in Blugold career doubles (42) and ranks second in team and conference at bats (183) for a single season. She is also second in UWEC season (26) and career (45) sacrifice hits. She also ranks among the top 10 in WIAC career at bats (564) and doubles (43).
A former St. Paul Cretin-Derham Hall High School letterwinner in softball and basketball, Murphy graduated from UWEC in 2001 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in management.
Murphy is currently the controller and human resources director for Top Gun Technology, Inc. in Prior Lake, Minnesota. She has served in that capacity since 2019 after previously serving the company as the CFO. She has also worked for two other businesses as a bookkeeper, HR generalist and Director of Finance. She has also been a Notary Public since 2005.
Sarah has served as a volunteer fastpitch coach since 2013. She and her husband also started Team Sugar Shay in honor of their daughter Shanley who at the age of 2 was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. They have raised over $200,000 the past nine years for research to help find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Sarah and her husband Tim, a realtor and former Blugold hockey player, are the parents of two children: Ireland, age 16, and Shanley, age 12. They reside in Apple Valley, Minnesota.
MICHELLE BURNS O'CONNELL
Michelle Burns O'Connell stands in elite company as a Blugold women's basketball player who scored over 1,000 points and pulled over 500 rebounds in her career. She poured in 1,230 points in 100 career games. She became a starter in the third game of her freshman season and started every one thereafter except for two as a sophomore when she was coming off a broken thumb that sidelined her for 11 games.
O'Connell was a two-year All-Conference selection as well as the WIAC Player of the Year as a senior when the Blugolds went 14-2 in league play and 23-7 overall including two games in the NCAA tournament. Michelle was also named to the conference's five-player All-Defense team as a junior.
O'Connell pulled 664 rebounds during her career, a 6.6 average, and ranked third in conference rebounding as a junior. She hit 47 percent of her field goals and 76 percent of her free throws for her career.
An outstanding student in the classroom, O'Connell received the WIAC's Judy Kruckman Scholar-Athlete Award as a senior when she was also a Blugold Super Six winner.
A prep standout in volleyball and basketball at Eau Claire North, O'Connell was the Huskies' Outstanding Athlete in 2004 after making the All-Conference team in volleyball and the All-State third team in basketball. She was also the Big Rivers' player of the year in basketball as a senior.
O'Connell graduated in 2008 with a degree in elementary education. She recently completed her master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She has been a 7th and 8th grade math teacher in the Spooner school district since 2009.
O'Connell has served as a track, basketball and volleyball coach at the middle school, JV and varsity levels at Spooner.
She was a finalist for the Herb Kohl Educator Fellowship Scholarship Program.
In 2018, O'Connell was the recipient of UWEC's Sandy Schumacher Courage Award after battling and overcoming breast cancer.
Michelle and her husband Ryan, also a teacher, are parents of two children: Madison, age 9, and Mason, age 7. They reside in Shell Lake.
ANNA TALBOT WILLKOM
If, as the saying goes, defense wins championship, then Anna Talbot Willkom was a major cog in UW-Eau Claire's only three conference championships in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and became the first defender to be named WIAC Player of the Year.
Those three seasons saw the most success achieved by a Blugold women's soccer team in the 34-year history of the program. The Blugolds produced an overall record of 56-8-7, a conference record of 21-0-3 and a conference tournament record of 8-0. The Blugolds also played in their first three NCAA tournaments, splitting six games and advancing to the third round in 2006. The Blugolds have not won a conference championship since and have advanced to the NCAA tournament only one other time.
How did they do it? Well, in 2005, they outscored their opponents 40-13 while finishing 15-3-5. The following year, they set school and conference records for wins with 23 and for shutouts with 18. That year, they outscored their opponents, 64-10. In 2007, they outscored their foes, 61-12, and finished 18-2-2. All of this occurred with Willkom as a midfield defender.
As a senior in 2007, Willkom was All-Conference, WIAC Player of the Year, NSCAA All-Region first team, NSCAA All-American third team and NSCAA Scholar All-American first team. She also served as co-captain and received team awards for MVP and Practice Player of the Year.
In 2008, Willkom was a Blugold Super Six winner, received the Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges award, UWEC's Outstanding Senior Award, and was an NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. In 2012, she was named to the WIAC's All-Centennial team for women's soccer.
Anna played her high school soccer in Apple Valley, Minnesota at Eastview High School where she was team captain and All-State honorable mention. She was also a member of Eastview's Dance Team State Champions in High Kick.
Willkom earned both a bachelor's degree in Communication Sciences & Disorders and a master's degree in Speech Language Pathology from UWEC in 2008 and 2010, respectively. She is currently a speech language pathologist in the Eau Claire Area School District, serving at Roosevelt Elementary School.
Willkom serves as a volunteer and board member for her husband's non-profit, Jesus Fit Inc. She has coached her boys' U12 and U7 soccer teams and taught a co-ed kids hip hop class. She has helped chaperone youth group trips, leadership retreats, and vacation bible school camps.
Anna and her husband Bryan, a non-profit director and former Blugold cross country and track athlete, are the parents of three children: Vincent, age 11; Fiona, age 10; and Walter, age 8. They reside in Fall Creek.
MEGHAN SOBOTTA MURPHY
Meghan Sobotta Murphy, a four-time Coulee Conference medalist at Arcadia High School, had two different stints with the Blugold women's golf program. The first was as a four-time All-Conference first team and four-time WGCA All-Region player and the second was a four-year stint as a highly-successful coach.
Murphy is one of only four Blugold players to earn All-Conference first-team honors every season, the others being Kelly Harper, Maggie Loney and Catherine Wagner.
She was the conference tournament medalist as a senior and never finished lower than fifth individually in the conference championship meets. The Blugolds won three conference team championships with Murphy on the roster and appeared in four national tournaments as a team with three top seven finishes. Her best individual finish in the 72-hole NCAA championships was a fourth in 2008 when she fired four sub-80 rounds. She earned a spot on the WGCA All-American first team as a senior and was a WGCA second team All-American as both a sophomore and junior.
During her career, Murphy was the meet medalist five times in addition to winning the conference tournament. She averaged 80.8 for 82 career rounds as a Blugold. She was named to the WIAC's All-Centennial team in 2012.
As the Blugold head coach from 2010 to 2014, Murphy led the team to three conference championships and was named the WIAC co-Coach of the Year in 2011-12. She took three teams to the NCAA championships with two top 10 finishes including a third in 2012, which ranks as the best ever for a Blugold team, matching the tie for third she achieved as a player. In 2012, Blugold player Catherine Wagner captured the NCAA individual championship.
Murphy continued to play competitively after graduation. She competed in an open event in Canada in addition to the Wisconsin and Minnesota State Opens and a U.S. Open Qualifier. She also became the first female to compete in the Chippewa Valley Golf Association's Tournament of Champions, going head-to-head against the men of the Chippewa Valley on the CVGA Tour.
Murphy served as the assistant golf pro for Wild Ridge and Mill Run Golf Courses from 2009-13 and the assistant food and beverage manager for Wild Ridge from 2014-17.
A business management graduate of UWEC, Murphy was an Account executive with EO Johnson in 2017-18 and with Bill's Distributing from 2018-22. She is currently a National Account Executive with Gator Garb Promotions.
Meghan and her husband Adam, a Turf and Landscape Technician, are parents of three girls: Hattie, age 7; Lennon, age 3; and Blakely, born this past March.
JEAN DELISLE
Jean DeLisle spent 15 seasons as the Blugold women's gymnastics coach and when she retired in 2017-18, she was the second-longest tenured coach in program history, exceeded only by Hall of Famer Mary Mero who coached 21 seasons.
This past spring, DeLisle was inducted into the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Hall of Fame after a 25-year career that also included 10 seasons as head coach at UW-River Falls.
During her tenure at Eau Claire, she coached two national champions in Theresa Lynch who won floor exercise in 2006 and Michaela McCamey-Metropulos who captured the balance beam in 2012. Under her guidance, 13 Blugold gymnasts achieved 37 All-American performances.
DeLisle was named the WIAC Coach of the Year in 2005-06, 2011-12 and 2012-13. She also won the award in 1995-96 at River Falls.
With DeLisle at the helm, the Blugolds finished conference runner-up three times and went to the NCGA nationals as a team six times with a fourth-place finish in 2004-05 as the best in school history.
During her 15 seasons as the Blugold headmaster, DeLisle drove daily to Eau Claire from St. Paul where she was raising her children Jacques, now 27, and Paris, now 25.
DeLisle grew up as a gymnast, competing four seasons on varsity at River Falls High School. She started her collegiate career at UW-River Falls. But during the pre-season of her sophomore season, she sustained a career-ending injury which was the segway into her collegiate coaching career. She became a volunteer assistant under Connie Foster at UWRF for the remainder of her undergraduate program. Following her graduation with a physical education major, she became an assistant at River Falls High School. She then ran a private gymnastics club program in Lakeville, Minnesota for a year until returning to UW-River Falls as an assistant coach in 1991-92. She was hired as the head coach the following year.
Currently, DeLisle is an Administrative Specialist at the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services in St. Paul, focusing on purchasing and inventory control.
Acronyms
WIAC = Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
(current conference for men's and women's sports)
NCAA = National Collegiate Athletic Association (current national organization which UWEC joined provisionally in 1986-87)
WIAA = Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association
NSCAA = National Soccer Coaches Association of America
WGCA = Women's Golf Coaches Association
NFCA = National Fastpitch Coaches Association
WBCA = Women's Basketball Coaches Association
NCGA = National Collegiate Gymnastics Association
D3 = Division III of the NCAA to which UWEC is a member
Blugold Super Six Award – highest award given to a Blugold student athlete, based on athletics and academics, three men and three women selected annually.
