Wilsey named Athena Award winner

Harvard-bound Orioles standout skier earned 14 letters as 5x captain

Hanna Wilsey’s favorite sports memory didn’t have to do with crossing a finish line first or scoring a goal in soccer.

It was getting the St. Louis Park Nordic ski team glitter box signed by Olympic champion and Minnesota native Jessie Diggins and “putting sparkles on my teammates before every race,” Wilsey wrote in her Athena Award profile.

Wilsey, a senior at St. Louis Park High School, was honored along with the other Athena Award recipients during a May 3 luncheon at Heritage Center in Brooklyn Park.

Wilsey is a 14-time varsity letter winner for the Orioles between her time with the Nordic skiing (six), soccer (four), and track and field (four) programs as a five-time captain.

Wilsey’s decorated prep career includes three MVP awards with the Nordic ski team, five conferences, four sections, and three state awards.

Her top three sports accomplishments come from Nordic skiing including a fourth-place finish at the state meet, a two-time qualification for the Nordic skiing junior nationals, and Metro West and Section 6 individual champion titles in 2024.

Outside of sports, Wilsey is even more busy after becoming a lifeguard, certified nursing assistant, and newspaper photography editor, and serves as the Youth Chair on the St. Louis Park Police Department advisory commission.

Academically, she is a member of the National Honor Society, earning Academic All-State honors for Nordic skiing and Academic All-Conference honors in soccer and track and field.

Wilsey plans to continue to ski in college at Harvard University while majoring in Biology on a pre-medical track.

So far this track season, Wilsey continues to churn out first-place finishes in the 400-meter dash, 800-meter dash, and part of the winning 4x400 relay. She can add three runner-up finishes including the 1,600m run and twice with the 4x800m relay.

She turned in a personal best time of 1 minute, 2.72 seconds to win the 400m dash at the inaugural Eric Jones Invitational at St. Louis Park High School on April 22. She was also part of the winning 4x400m relay, running the anchor leg in a time of 4:18.97 joining Anna Healey, Jersey Miller, and Ruby Massie. The 4x800m relay on that day finished second in 9:48.46 with Wilsey anchoring as Healey, Miller, and Adeline Stewart opened the race.

She was part of the Metro West Conference champion 4x400m relay anchoring the group of Ellie Frank, Miller, and Addy Chenvert in 4:16.00.

At the Conference championships last spring, she was third in the 800m (2:25.01) and fifth in the 1,600m (5:22.33 PR).

The 4x800m relay team with Miller, Massie, and Healey, anchored by Wilsey placed second at the Section 6AAA meet to qualify for state in 9:54.16 and placed 12th at the state meet finishing in 9:50.40.