Current and former Maryland athletes win medals at Pan American Games

At this summer’s Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, several current and former Maryland athletes helped lead Team USA to a medals in women’s basketball and field hockey.

Rising sophomore Taylor Mikesell was the youngest player on the women’s basketball team, helping the U.S. win the silver medal, while former Terps Anna Dessoye, Linnea Gonzales and Alyssa Parker were on the field hockey team that won bronze.

Mikesell’s playing time varied by game, with more than 80 percent of her minutes in the tournament coming in wins over the Virgin Islands and Colombia in the preliminary round. She averaged 5 points in just 8.4 minutes per game, shooting 34.6 percent from the field and 41.2 percent on three-pointers. Last year in her freshman season at Maryland, Mikesell set a single season record for three-pointers made and was selected as Big Ten Freshman of the Year by league coaches.

Both Dessoye and Gonzales played in every game in field hockey competition, while Alyssa Parker was an alternate. While neither player scored a goal in the tournament, Dessoye had an interception in the bronze medal game against Chile, and Gonzales assisted on the go-ahead goal. The match was Dessoye’s 50th in international competition, and she also had an assist in a quarterfinal win over Cuba.

Dessoye and Parker both played for the Terps from 2012-15, overlapping one year with Gonzales. Gonzales wrapped up her career in Maryland last fall, winning NFHCA National Player of the Year while leading Maryland to a second straight national championship game appearance.

The event takes place every four years the year before the Summer Olympics, bringing together athletes from the nations of the Americas. The U.S. dominated the two-week competition with 293 medals, which was 122 more than second-place Brazil.

In other news

Two other Terps represented their countries at the U-19 Women’s Lacrosse World Championships. Rising freshman Emma Schettig helped Team USA win gold, while rising sophomore Kennedy Lynch played on the Canadian U19 team that won the silver medal.

Wes closed our State of the Program series with a look at the defending national champion Maryland women’s lacrosse team.

Our 2019 football positional preview series wrapped up last week with a look at Maryland’s special teams. You can check out all the links from our coverage this summer in the big Maryland football preview.

Freshman quarterback Lance LeGendre will appear in the upcoming season of the Netflix documentary “QB1: Beyond the Lights.”

To no one’s surprise, Anthony McFarland was a standout in Maryland’s first fall camp scrimmage.

Bruno Fernando now has his own NBA rookie card.

Maryland women’s soccer added a new teammate on Sunday, signing Mikayla Hirsch through a partnership with TeamIMPACT. The 9-year-old was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2014.