When the North Dakota State University men’s basketball team earned a berth in the 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, Menomonie graduate Noah Feddersen found himself headed to the Big Dance, or March Madness, if you prefer.
Feddersen, who recently was voted the Sixth Man of Year Award by the Summit League, is an integral cog in the Bisons’ regular season and conference tournament championship team, coming off the bench to average around 10 points and five rebounds per game. The Bison lost to Michigan State in the opening round.
The question was asked “Are there any other Menomonie High School graduates who have participated in the Division I Basketball Championships as a player?” I decided to take a look. John Ellensen played basketball for Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin in the late 1980s, but neither team qualified to the NCAA tournament during his career.
Dave Sjuggerud was an outstanding three-sport athlete at Menomonie in the late 1950s and is an inaugural member of the Menomonie High School Hall of Fame. Sjuggerud went on to have an outstanding football career with Navy. During the 1963-64 football season, Navy was ranked second in the nation behind Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Roger Staubach and took on top-ranked Texas in what was considered the national championship game. While Sjuggerud hauled in several passes from Staubach that day, the Midshipmen lost 28-6 to the Longhorns. Even if Sjuggerud had played basketball for Navy, the boys from Annapolis qualified for the 1960 NCAA Tournament, the school year before Sjuggerud arrived, and then not again until 1985.
I looked through the Menomonie High School basketball record books for leading scorers and at the list of inductees in the MHS Athletic Hall of Fame. Cole Kraft played Division I baseball at UW-Milwaukee and Nate Stanley played Division I football at Iowa. Diane Slinden participated in Division I track and field at Tennessee.
But one name stood out and that was Clare Barnard, who played for Menomonie High School, became the school’s all-time leading scorer (since passed by Kylie Mogen, who played at Michigan Tech and UW-Eau Claire) and went on to play at Division I Marquette University. The Golden Eagles advanced to the NCAA Division I Championship three times during Barnard’s career – 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1996-97.
Barnard, who was inducted into the Menomonie Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015, the same year as Sjuggerud, averaged 16.7 points over her high school career, tallying 1333 points. Barnard holds the MHS girls single season scoring record with 517 points in 1992-93, breaking her own record of 440 points from 1991-92. She holds the school record for most points in a single game with 36 vs. Ellsworth on Dec. 12, 1992. Barnard played in 80 games over her high school career and pulled down 720 rebounds, averaging 9.0 rebounds per game for her career.
Barnard saw playing time as a true freshman at Marquette, playing in 27 games, including her first NCAA playoff game. During her sophomore year, when the Eagles again advanced to the NCAA tournament, Barnard averaged 12.5 points per game. The Eagles had a down year in 1995-96, winning only eight games and did not make the tournament. Barnard led the team in scoring with 390 points for an average of 17.0 points per game and was an all-conference third team selection.
The following year, 1996-97, Marquette would return to the NCAA playoffs and Barnard again led the team in scoring, averaging 15.4 point per contest over 31 games with 477 points. The Eagles won their first-ever NCAA contest and Barnard – who was a second team all-conference pick that season – led the charge, scoring a team-high 23 points as 12th-seeded Marquette defeated fifth-seeded and 21st-ranked Clemson, 70-66, on March 15, 1997. Marquette bowed out to ninth-ranked LSU in the next game, 71-58.
Barnard finished her Marquette career with 1356 points, which is currently 18th on the all-time scoring list. She is sixth in field goal percentage at 50.3 percent and is 19th in career rebounds with 644. Barnard found herself at the free line quite often, and is third in school history with free throws made (410) and free throws attempted (579), shooting at 71 percent.
Barnard went on to play professionally, playing one season in Australia and then playing in Europe in the Luxemborg and German leagues.
Barnard has two daughters that are playing at the NCAA Division I level in women’s tennis in the Big 10. Aiva Schmitz is a senior at the University of Minnesota and Stella Schmitz is a freshman at Rutgers University. Minnesota played at Rutgers March 21. Avia defeated Rutgers’ Karina Jumazhanova, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0; and Stella teamed with Naomi Karki to down the Gophers’ Jeselle Ante/Yinong Ma, 6-1.
If anyone knows of any other Menomonie High School graduates who played in the NCAA Division I Tournament, please let me know.
The story “Going Dancing” by Layne Pitt is licensed under a CC BY SA 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
