Annie Pankowski (Photo by David Stluka).
Wisconsin women’s hockey standout Annie Pankowski has been named a top-30 honoree for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year.
Pankowski captained the Badger women last season to their fifth NCAA title. She was named All-American three times, was a three-time finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, a Hockey Humanitarian Award finalist and was named the 2019 WCHA Player of the Year.
The Laguna Hills, California native is the second UW student-athlete to be named a top-30 finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year as former women’s hockey player Sara Bauer was an honoree in 2007.
Pankowski ranks sixth in school history in points with 206 while her 95 goals rank fifth in the UW record books. She also set the school record for most short-handed goals with nine, while her plus/minus rating of +156 was the fourth-best mark in program history.
Pankowski received the NCAA Elite 90 Award in 2016 for having the highest grade-point average at a championship site and became the first Badger to be named a four-time WCHA Scholar Athlete. She earned the Big Ten Medal of Honor in 2019, the highest individual honor in the conference, and received the Big Ten Postgraduate Scholarship this year that she will use for continuing her studies at the UW School of Veterinary Medicine.
Pankowski spent almost her entire college career volunteering with OccuPaws, an organization that trains and pairs service dogs with the visually impaired in Wisconsin and neighboring states.
The NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee will choose nine finalists, with the finalists revealed in early October. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will ultimately select the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year recipient from those nine finalists, with the Top 30 honorees recognized and the award winner announced at a ceremony Oct. 20 in Indianapolis.