Arlene Meinholz Beardsley was a national champion high jumper for the Blugolds and a Kodak All-American basketball player.
Beardsley was an impact player for head coach Lisa Stone already her freshman season, averaging 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game despite not starting any games. The 6-foot center started the final 84 games of her 112-game career and scored what is still a school record 1,834 points while pulling 758 rebounds. She shot 56.9 percent from the field and 72.7 percent from the free throw line. She went to the charity stripe a school-record 492 times and made a school record 358 points there. She still ranks fifth in career rebounds and is 173 points ahead of anyone else in scoring. She set the school record for blocked shots in a season with 73 as a junior and holds the school career mark of 213. Twice, Beardsley scored 35 points in a game, which at the time was a school record, but has since been broken by a single point. She once hit all 13 of her field goal tries in a game which rates as the school record for percentage.
Beardsley was a Kodak All-American first team selection as a senior and a three-time All-Conference player. As a senior, she was named both the conference Player of the Year and the league's Scholar-Athlete winner.
During her career, the Blugolds compiled a 92-20 record. She played in 14 NCAA post-season games as the Blugolds reached the Final Four in 1994 and the Elite Eight in 1995. She played on three conference championship teams and one runner-up squad.
Beardsley won the NCAA outdoor high jump championship in 1995 and the NCAA indoor high jump title in 1996. She placed three other times in that event to become a five-time All-American in track. She was a four-time conference high jump champ. She still holds the school indoor (5-7.25) and outdoor (5-8) high jump records as well as the Ade Olson fieldhouse record and the Simpson Field record. She is still the school record holder in the pentathlon (3,295 points).
She was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, earning third team honors in basketball in '94-95 and second team at large honors for track in '95-96. She was the state of Wisconsin's NCAA Woman of the Year in 1995.
After graduating in 1996 with a degree in Math Education, Beardsley taught at Johnson Creek High School for one year (1996-97) and at Wautoma High School for three years (1997-2000). She was the head girls' basketball coach at both schools and an assistant track coach at Wautoma. Since 2000, she has been a math teacher, freshman basketball coach and assistant track coach at DeForest High School, her alma mater. She has been a member of the coaching staffs for three conference championship track teams at DeForest as well as five conference championship basketball teams and three state qualifying basketball teams.
Her husband Brian is currently taking classes at the UW-Madison and volunteering at the university's orthopedic clinic. He is looking to get into the UW Physician's Assistant program. He also coaches the parent-run swim club at DeForest.