Several Harvard W. Hockey Players Picked for U.S., Canadian Olympic Evaluation Rosters

Harvard defenseman Angela Ruggiero ’02-04 and Harvard captain-elect Jaime Hagerman ’03 were among 45 athletes selected for the 2001 U.S.A. Hockey Women’s National Team Festival, which will be held in Lake Placid, N.Y. from Aug. 13 to Aug. 22.

Forward Julie Chu, who is expected to attend Harvard after the Olympics in fall of 2002, and former Harvard co-captain A.J. Mleczko ’97-99 were also among the selections.

The pool of 45 players will ultimately be pared down to a roster of 20 athletes who will make the U.S. Olympic Team. At the end of the August camp, 25 skaters will be chosen to play a full schedule with the 2001-02 U.S. National Team. The final Olympic roster cut will be made in January prior to the Salt Lake Games.

“After a full season of evaluation we feel we’ve zeroed in on the top 45 players in the nation,” said U.S. National Team Coach Ben Smith. “We are looking forward to these outstanding athletes competing for a spot on the National Team this August and then potentially for a final roster spot on the Olympic Team.”

The stakes for the 2002 Olympic Team are particularly high since the Games will be played on American soil.

“We really want to win the gold medal in front of our own crowd,” said Ruggiero last October.

Ruggiero, Mleczko and Chu were on the 2000-01 U.S. National Team that earned a silver medal at the Women’s Ice Hockey World Championship last April. Hagerman has yet to appear in action with the national team, although she has played for the U.S. Under-22 Select Team.

The Canadian National Team, which featured 2000-01 Crimson co-captain Jennifer Botterill ’02-03 and winger Tammy Shewchuk ’00-01, won the world title. Botterill was named the tournament’s most outstanding player after scoring a world-best eight goals in five games.

Players with Harvard ties accounted for three of the five goals in Canada’s 3-2 win over the United States in the gold medal game as Shewchuk, Botterill and Mleczko each managed to find the back of the net.

Canada and the U.S. have finished one-two respectively at each of the previous seven world championships, but the U.S. won the sport’s inaugural Olympic Gold at Nagano in 1998. Ruggiero and Mleczko both earned gold medals as members of that 1998 U.S. team, while Botterill earned a silver medal with the Canadians.

In April, Botterill and Shewchuk were among 30 players selected for Canada’s centralization roster. The Canadian National Team will begin training together on Aug. 5.

Ruggiero, Mleczko, Shewchuk and Botterill were all members of the 1999 Harvard team, which won the national collegiate championship, two years before women’s ice hockey became an NCAA sport. Botterill scored the game-winning goal in overtime of the national championship, and Mleczko earned the Patty Kazmaier Trophy given to women’s ice hockey’s top college player.

“We had a very special team that year,” Mleczko said last November. “It was an amazing year which we’ll all look back on fondly. We’ll always carry special friendships from that team. It’s always so interesting when we play Canada because [Botterill and Shewchuk] are our opponents, but we’ll always be friends off the ice.”

Ruggiero, who chose to train with the U.S. National Team rather than play for Harvard last fall, still has two years of college eligibility remaining. During each of her first two collegiate years, she led the nation’s defensemen in scoring.

Botterill and Shewchuk led the 2000-01 Harvard women’s ice hockey team to a third-place finish at the inaugural NCAA Women’s Frozen Four in March. Botterill became the second Harvard player in three years to win the Kazmaier last season, while Shewchuk closed out her Harvard career as the school’s all-time leading scorer.