WOLVES ADD FOUR ON NATIONAL SIGNING DAY

April 10, 2002

ABERDEEN, S.D. - Four high school standouts have signed National Letters of Intent to attend and play women's basketball at Northern State University. That announcement was made on National Signing Day today by head coach Curt Fredrickson.

The list includes two players from South Dakota and twin sisters from Foley, Minn. Here are the recruits:

With early signees Krista Rambow (Litchfield, Minn.) and Melissa Braaten (Stillwater, Minn.), Fredrickson's recruiting class is up to six.

Sara Jensen led Waverly-South Shore to the 2000 State Class B Championship and to another state tournament appearance as a senior. The 5-foot-6 point guard earned first-team all-state honors as a senior and set a state tournament record for points in a game, putting up 43 points against Baltic this season. Waverly-South Shore finished with a 23-2 record this season, with Jensen averaging 28 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals per game. She finished her career with 1,819 points. Jensen also earned Sioux Falls Argus Leader First Five honors this season.

Tondi Jens averaged 12 points and seven rebounds per game for Hamlin High School. The 6-foot post also shot 50 percent from the field. A versatile athlete, Jens was also a middle hitter on the HHS volleyball team.

Ali Chmielewski earned all-state honors for helping lead Foley High School to a state tournament appearance and 20-8 record. As a senior, the 5-foot-9 guard poured in 53 3-pointers while averaging 21 points, five rebounds and six assists per game. She ended her prep career with 1,957 points.

Kristi Chmielewski made up the other half of the twin duo for the state-bound FHS squad this season. The 5-foot-9 forward averaged 14 points, five rebounds and five assists per game. She ended her career with 1,326 points.

Fredrickson is pleased with this year's recruiting class.

"Sara is one of the top point guards in South Dakota, Ali and Kristi were two of the top guard-forward combinations in the St. Cloud area, and Tondi gives us some size with this class and is an excellent all-around athlete," Fredrickson said. "With these four outstanding players added to the early signings of Melissa Braaten and Krista Rambow, we feel like we've really helped our perimeter game and our entire program."

Fredrickson will have another interesting dynamic next year with this recruiting class as well.

"It will be interesting to have two sister combinations on our team next year with the Chmielewskis and the Rambows (early signee Krista will join sister Carin, who will be a junior on next year's squad).

Northern State University competes under the NCAA Division II affiliation and finished 19-9 overall last season. Fredrickson has won more games at Northern (545) than any other coach in school history. No coach in NCAA II has won a greater percentage of games through a longer period of time than Fredrickson (81 percent winning percentage through 23 years of coaching).

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