Michelle Lynn Lomnicki (; born May 3, 1987) is an American former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who played as a defender.

Early life

Born in

Aurora, Colorado Aurora (, ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Arapahoe, Adams County, Colorado, Adams, and Douglas County, Colorado, Douglas List of counties in Colorado, ...

, to parents Pat and Sherri Wenino, Michelle attended

Smoky Hill High School Smoky Hill High School is located in Aurora, Colorado, United States. It enrolls around 2,600 students. Smoky Hill is part of the Cherry Creek School District and was the second high school built by the district in 1974. It goes by the short name ...

and played all four seasons for the girls soccer team. A four-sport, and 15-time letterwinner, she received the school's Athlete of the Year with Honors award in 2005. Wenino was a Tulsa All-Tournament team member in 2004 and received the Fair Play Award in 2000 State Cup play. She was first-team Centennial league as a senior and second-team as a junior and was named MVP for Smoky Hill as a senior. In 2003, the team were the 2003 Centennial League Champions. Wenino also ran track (200-800m distances) and cross country as a member of the 2002, 2003 and 2004 5A state championship teams that finished second at nationals in 2004 in Portland, Oregon. She was also a point guard on the school's basketball team that won the 2002 Centennial League Championship.

Club career

Chicago Red Stars (WPS), 2009

In 2009, Wenino played for

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

in the WPS during its inaugural season. She made one appearance during a game against

Saint Louis Athletica Saint Louis Athletica was an American professional soccer club that was based in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. Athletica started the 2009 season playing its home games at Ralph Korte S ...

Toyota Park SeatGeek Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, about twelve miles southwest of downtown Chicago. It is the home stadium of the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League, Chicago Fire FC II of the MLS Next Pr ...

for a total of 34 minutes played.

SC Freiburg, 2010

In 2010, Wenino played for

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

. She played seven games with five starts for a total of 476 minutes, scoring one goal.

Sky Blue FC, 2011

In January 2011, Wenino signed with

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

. She made three appearances and scored one goal.

Chicago Red Stars (NWSL), 2013–2015

In February 2013, Wenino joined

in the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

. Wenino started 17 games and appeared in 18 games in the 22-game season, usually playing defender on the right wing. She scored one goal and had one assist. She announced her retirement on March 1, 2016.

Post playing

Lomnicki returned to the Chicago Red Stars in 2020 as the Director of Camps and Clinics. In January of 2022 she was named the Associate General Manager, and in January of 2023 she was promoted to General Manager.

References

External links

Chicago Red Stars player profile

Colorado player profile

Sky Blue FC player profile
* Living people 1987 births University of Colorado Boulder alumni American expatriate soccer players in Germany American women's soccer players National Women's Soccer League players SC Freiburg (women) players Pali Blues players NJ/NY Gotham FC players USL W-League (1995–2015) players Chicago Red Stars players Women's Professional Soccer players Women's association football defenders Colorado Buffaloes women's soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players Women's Premier Soccer League Elite players {{US-women-footy-bio-stub