Upper Iowa University Athletics Hall of Fame
Rochelle (Schmidt) Engels was inducted into the Upper Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame as an athlete. Engels graduated from Upper Iowa in 2009 with a degree in sports management. Engels was half of the combination that put Upper Iowa women’s golf on the national scene under Head Coach Chad Markuson from 2005-09. The Schmidt twins came to Fayette from Elk River, Minnesota.
Engels, along with her sister and Jill (Preeshl) Norton, helped to lead the Peacocks to the NCAA Super Region III Championship and an eighth-place finish at the 2009 NCAA Division II Women’s Golf National Championships. Engels earned a place on the NGCA All-American team as a senior after earning the 2009 NSIC Women’s Golfer of the Year.
As an individual, she earned eight tournament wins during her four-years at UIU and was the best golfer in all of the Midwest over a few weeks her senior season. Engels claimed medalist honors at both the NSIC Women’s Golf Championships and the NCAA Super Region III Championships. She owns the third-best season scoring average, and four of the top 12, in UIU history at 77.89 in 2008–09.
The Engels family recently moved to Side Lake, Minnesota after residing in Florida for the last ten years. Rochelle and her husband Nathan, who is an MRI technologist, are the proud parents of three children; William, Cora and Savanna.
