MANKATO, Minn. -- Minnesota State women's hockey head coach John Harrington has announced that senior defenseman Anna Wilgren and senior forward Claire Butorac have been named team captains for the 2022-23 season.

In addition, junior defenseman Charlotte Akervik will serve as the Mavericks' alternate captain.

The 2022-23 season will mark Wilgren's third year serving as a team captain for the Maverick women's hockey team. She took a redshirt year during the 2021-22 season after to missing most of the Mavericks' games after accepting an invite to be one of 28 players in the 2022 Olympic Residency Program to prepare for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. In 88 career games sporting the Purple and Gold, the Hudson, Wis., native has scored 11 goals and assisted on 30 others for 41 career points. Among all-time shot blockers at Minnesota State, Wilgren leads the way with 256 blocks in her career since she arrived on campus in 2018. She is a two-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete and WCHA All-Academic Team member and was named to All-WCHA Rookie Team in 2018-19 before being named an All-WCHA Third Team honoree as a sophomore in 2019-20.

Butorac, a native of Andover, Minn., skated in 25 games this past season as an alternate captain for MSU. As a Maverick forward, Butorac posted three goals and a career-high eight assists for 11 points on the campaign. During the season, Butorac had a pair of multi-point games, each for three total points, the first was at Merrimack (a goal and two assists - Sept. 25) during a 9-3 victory over the Warriors before posting another vs. Lindenwood (two goals and an assist - Oct. 9) for a 7-6 overtime win at home against the Lions. Butorac is a three-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete and WCHA All-Academic Team member. 

A 2021-22 member of the All-WCHA Second Team, Akervik set a new standard for points by a Maverick defenseman in a single season, mustering up eight goals and 17 assists for a total of 25 points last season. She ranked fourth on the team in overall points while putting the fourth-most shots on goal (79) and possessing the third-best plus-minus rating (+6) of any Maverick on the roster. In 32 games throughout the season, Akervik ranked third on the team with 41 blocked shots. She is a two-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete and WCHA All-Academic Team honoree.

"Our team did an outstanding job of selecting our captains for the 2022-2023 team," Harrington said. "Leaders create leaders, and this veteran trio of captains will display, encourage and develop leadership within our group as we prepare for and begin play in the 2022-2023 season."

The Mavericks are coming off a season where they finished with a 15-19-1 overall record during the 2021-22 campaign, which marked their best finish win-percentage wise (.443) since their 2006-07 season when they went 16-17-2 (.486).