Kempe, Krnjaic Named Cross High Performance Athletes of the Week

Athletes of the Week

Each week, DartmouthSports.com will spotlight two outstanding student-athletes - one male, one female - as Dartmouth's Athletes of the Week. Student-athletes may be chosen based upon their efforts both on and off the field of competition.

This week's Cross High-Performance Athletes of the Week - football's Conner Kempe and soccer's Melisa Krnjaic - went above and beyond to help their respective teams to big road victories. Kempe, a junior quarterback, led a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback as the football team defeated Columbia, 24-21 in New York. After spending three-plus years on defense, Krnjaic, a senior co-captain, had no trouble adjusting to a role in midfield, tallying five points in a 2-0 week for women's soccer.

Dartmouth Male Athlete of the Week:
Conner Kempe, (Tequesta, Fla.), Football, Junior, Quarterback
For the fourth time this year, Kempe orchestrated a second-half comeback for Dartmouth with the winning score coming on a 5:11 drive late in the fourth quarter. The junior methodically drove the team 69 yards for a touchdown with 2:28 to play, completing four passes during the possession for 35 yards, three of which came on third down. For the game, he completed a season-high 24 passes for 235 yards, including an eight-yard scoring strike in the third quarter. Kempe also had a career-long 16-yard run to the three-yard line to set up a touchdown. The 24-21 victory was Dartmouth's first road win in the league since topping Columbia four years ago.

Dartmouth Female Athlete of the Week:
Melisa Krnjaic (Washington, D.C.) Women's Soccer, Senior, Midfield/Defense
Dartmouth senior captain Melisa Krnjaic (Washington, D.C.) used two big performances to help the women's soccer team pick up two wins this week and extend its unbeaten streak to three games. Krnjaic spent the first three and a half years of her career as a defender and earned All-Ivy accolades at the position in 2009. Less than two weeks ago she was moved to midfield to fill a void for the Big Green and she wasted little time getting comfortable there. Krnjaic started a midweek game at Vermont and scored the first two goals of a 7-0 rout. On Saturday in a critical Ivy game at first-place Columbia, Krnjaic tallied an assist on Peyton Tata's (Virginia Beach, Va.), first-half goal. She helped lock down the Lions defensively en route to a 2-1 win to hand Columbia its first Ivy loss and snap an eight-game unbeaten streak.

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