Twedt Looks To Take Leadership Role at UNI

By Jeff Holmes

ST. LOUIS – If you have never seen Jenna Twedt play basketball, but you met her off-court, you might get the idea that she is always smiling and having fun. On the floor she’s intense. Off of it, she’s much more relaxed.

Last week, on the floor of the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Twedt had lots of smiles at the Missouri Valley Conference’s March To The Arch basketball media day. The lone senior on the University of Northern Iowa’s women’s basketball team, she will be one of the leaders of a team picked to finish fourth (picking up a first-place vote) in the MVC race.

“It really is true,” Twedt said. “They say time flies; I swear it was just the other day when I was a freshman moving into Kirkwood. Being a senior is weird, being the only senior is even weirder.”

“I get called old every day of my life that I see them (teammates),” she added with that smile. “But it’s exciting; it’s been a long ride, but it’s also been a really, really good one.”

The ride started back in Van Horne, where Twedt was a four-year starter for Coach Jeff Zittergruen’s Benton Community Bobcats, leading them all the way to the Class 3A State finals in 2023. She ended her high school career as the Lady ‘Cats’ all-time leading scorer with 1,815 points, passing Madison Weekly, who coincidentally was also a standout guard at UNI.

From there it was on to Kirkwood Community College. In her freshman year, Twedt led the Eagles to the 2024 NJCAA National Championship and was named MVP of the National tournament. She was the Iowa Community College Newcomer of the Year as a freshman and Player Of The Year as a sophomore. And last season she was the full-time starter as shooting guard for Coach Tonya Warren’s Panthers.

All of this by a player who was not heavily recruited out of high school.

“She didn’t have any D-1 offers,” Zittergruen said. “She finally decided Kirkwood was best for her and it turned out pretty well.”

Zittergruen said that Twedt’s role as the senior leader for the Panthers is a natural one for her.

“Jenna’s not an in-your-face leader,” he said. “She leads because she is a tough competitor, and it has a way of rubbing off on other people. She leads by example.”

During that State runner-up run in 2023, Benton and arch-rival Vinton-Shellsburg met in the State semifinals at then-Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. As was the case pretty much every time the Bobcats and Vikettes squared off in those days, it was close. Benton led 34-33 going into the final eight minutes, and Twedt had managed to pick up her fourth foul right before the end of the third quarter. Zittergruen had to sit her, but not for long.

“We put her back in with six minutes left and I think she scored our last 11 points,” he said. “And it showed her level of maturity at that age. Jenna has a great basketball mind and that with her maturity, she knew what she had to do not to foul out.”

Last season, Twedt got to play with former Center Point-Urbana rival Ryley Goebel and this season it will be Iowa-transfer and former Solon standout Callie Levin.

“I can’t escape the WaMaC Conference,” she said with a grin.

Levin didn’t get a lot of playing time with the Hawkeyes, but she was the spiritual leader on the bench, a trait that Twedt said made things fun.

“Callie brings that energy to the floor,” she said. “We play really well off each other, and we both play similar, but also very opposite in some scenarios. It’s fun though. She’s a very good spark on the floor. She’s full of energy all the time.”

Twedt got to greet her old summer teammate Halli Poock, a Waterloo native, now playing at Murray State, the reigning MVC Player of the Year who hit for 27 against Maryland in the 2026 NCAA tournament. The two took a picture together; more smiles.

“We played a summer of AAU ball together,” Twedt said. “We know each other pretty well; she’s amazing.”

On top of basketball, Twedt is also a nursing student at UNI and she said it’s a big load.

“Playing basketball has always been in my life,” she said. “But it can be a lot sometimes. I have a Monday class that lasts seven and a half hours; I go straight from there to practice.”

“I’ve learned how to put in a catheter,” she added, “and I just learned how to do injections; next we start IVs. Yeah, it gets long, but like I said, it’s nothing impossible. And as long as I keep working hard, I’ll be good.”