Colorful terrace chairs and tables in the foreground with a blurred bride and groom holding hands with Lake Mendota in the background.

Badger Love Matches

UW sweethearts share stories of how they met on campus.

November 12, 2025

Jeff Miller

In true college tradition, many UW grads gain not only a degree, but also a partner. When the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) put out a call for how-we-met stories, it elicited a huge number of responses. From an ugly-sweater party to a modern literature class, from a residence hall to the UW Marching Band — everyplace on campus is fair game for meeting your soulmate when you’re young and carefree and in the market for a lifelong connection.

Below are just a few of the love stories you shared. WAA will post a new batch of stories in 2026. To submit your own story of how you met, go to uwalumni.com/news/badger-sweetheart-submission.

Two people wearing red sports jerseys pose together outdoors in front of modern gray buildings.
A couple dressed in wedding attire shares a kiss under a large black-and-white umbrella while standing on a track near a hurdle labeled 'Wisconsin.'

Kelly Widule ’14 and Matt Widule ’15 met at an ugly-sweater party and reunited through a Facebook shout-out when Matt wrote, “You were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

A couple in tuxedos stand close together on a city street at night with decorative lights and a large building in the background in a black and white photo, while an inset photo shows them sitting on terrace chairs by the waterfront wearing red shirts.

Ryan Parkos ’10 and Chris Sina ’10 met at an Allen Centennial Garden event and married 10 years later.

Two college-aged people dressed in red clothing are at a crowded St. Randall stadium, with one wearing a striped knit hat and the other wearing a necklace of large white beads.
A couple standing indoors in a well-lit room, one wearing a light checkered shirt and the other in a sleeveless light-colored top.

David Bryant ’02 and Jennifer Rens ’02 met in Witte in 1998 when she walked into his room and introduced herself.

A couple stands arm in arm on a scenic overlook with snow-capped mountains in the background, while an inset photo shows them at Camp Randall Stadium wearing red Wisconsin shirts.

I met my now-husband, Mike, in Bascom Hall on the first day of spring semester in 2012. I was on a mission to sit next to the cutest boy in class, so I scanned the big lecture hall and picked him out of the crowd. We introduced ourselves but then didn’t talk for months (I was too nervous). We eventually bumped into each other again after class one day, and we’ve been together ever since!

We got engaged in front of Bascom Hall on a frigid January day, the seven-year anniversary of when we met. We’ve now been married for five years, live in rural Wisconsin, and love traveling the world together. It’s crazy to think how we might have never met if it weren’t for that cultural anthropology class!

— Austin Yantes ’15 and Mike Kubisiak ’12

A marching band member kneels and holds the hand of another band member during a proposal on the field at Camp Randall Stadium, with other members of the band in the background.
A bride and groom in wedding attire pose with Bucky Badger at an indoor reception.

It all started our freshman year when we were both in the same Chemistry 103 class. You could say Rachel and I had chemistry. Our first date was going to see Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and we still love that series today. We had the best times with band, and almost all our best friendships to this day were made in the band. So the obvious choice was to propose to Rachel in the biggest way possible, during the Fifth Quarter of our final home game in 2015 against Northwestern. I had let band director Mike Leckrone know my plan and had him make sure to play “Hey! Baby” as the first song of the Fifth Quarter. As soon as the song started, I grabbed Rachel by the hand and sprinted out to the center of the W at midfield and started singing “Hey! Baby” to her while a good portion of the band surrounded us to sing and play along. After the first chorus was finished, I popped the question in front of 80,000-plus Badger fans, band members, and our family and friends in the stands.

— Karl Schmirler ’16 and Rachel Schmirler ’16

A bride and groom walk hand in hand outdoors on a grassy hill, with an inset photo showing them casually dressed and standing together in a park.

Xai Xiong ’15 and Maisee Her ’15 were part of the Summer Collegiate Experience program, but Xai says they didn’t meet “until I followed a couple of folks down to the docks on the lakeshore.” They started dating in 2010 and married in 2019.

I was a nursing student, and Paul was in landscape architecture. We were introduced by mutual friends on a blind date. From then onward, we dated exclusively, enjoying every UW event and the beautiful campus and falling in love. We were married in 1975 and will celebrate 50 years by taking an alumni trip in November. Two of our three children graduated from UW–Madison, and the grandchildren want to be Badgers as well.

—Barbara Bergum ’73 and Paul Bergum ’73

Two people dressed in formal attire stand together in front of a patterned backdrop.
A couple sits at a restaurant table with a white cake topped with fruit and a “Just Engaged” decoration. The woman holds out her hand to show an engagement ring.

Joaquin and I met through PEOPLE [the Precollege Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence] when we were in high school, but we began a relationship our freshman year at UW–Madison. We would spend a lot of time walking down the Lakeshore Path to Picnic Point and looking at the koi fish at Allen Centennial Garden until we both graduated in 2019. We are now coming up on our 10-year anniversary. We are also engaged and planning to marry at Allen Centennial Garden next year.

— Alma Sida Ontiveros ’19, JD’21 and Joaquin Lara ’19

A person kneels on a dock on a lake holding an open ring box toward another person in a floral dress, with an inset photo showing the same pair sitting together in graduation attire outside Bascom Hall.

We met in College Library (Helen C. White Hall) during our freshman year through a mutual friend. Our first date was during the beginning of the next school year at the Farmers’ Market on the Capitol Square. We then worked together at Gordon Dining and Event Center. We recently got engaged and are planning to get married in 2026.

— Maria Wedig ’21 and Garrison Kohn ’21

We met in Introduction to Occupational Therapy, though neither of us became OTs. We were instructed to introduce each other to the class on the first day and discovered we had many similarities. We hung out occasionally the rest of the semester. We started dating about a year and a half later after prompting from mutual friends and have been together ever since. We have lots of great Madison memories from the library to the Library [bar] to football games, including a Rose Bowl. We still make the trip back to Camp Randall a few times a year.

— Jordan Seitz ’13 and Nathan Seitz ’13, DPT’16

Two people stand outdoors on a sunny day, both wearing red clothing.
A couple sits close together on stone steps holding hands.

I met Alex during my sophomore year and his junior year. We were both enrolled in a modern literature class in the Mosse Humanities Building. We sat near each other every Tuesday and Thursday and had minimal conversation. One day, the professor offered an extra-credit movie, and I asked him to watch it with me. Our first date after the movie was late-night ice-skating at the Shell. After dating for six years, we got married in May 2025. Since graduating, we have bought Badger season football tickets and love going back to cheer on our team in the place we fell in love.

— Sophie Sjo ’21 and Alex Pillard ’20

To view all the responses, visit uwalumni.com/news/badger-love-stories.

Thanks to Andrea Stegman of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association for collecting these stories.

Published in the Winter 2025 issue.

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