Sports

Whippet Tennis Goes 4-1 at Altoona Invite

The Whippet Girls’ Tennis Team just returned from the Altoona Invite which was played in Altoona and Chippewa Falls. Whitewater went 4-1 over the two-day tournament.

On Thursday, the Whippets opened with a 2-5 loss to Ashland. Picking up wins were Josie Hintz at 4 singles, and Katelyn Lashley and Emily Scherer at 3 doubles. There were close matches at 2 singles, and 1 and 2 doubles, but the Whippets just couldn’t quite pull them out.

Coach Tim Nelson stated, “We continued to improve throughout the rest of the day and were able to carry it over into the next day as well. One of the things that we need to work on is starting out. We are notoriously slow starters, and if we are to continue to improve, this will become a key area. Most of our remaining matches are dual meets; we only play one match, and thus can’t think that we can use the first match of the day to get into it.”

Photos Courtesy of Greg Stewart

The Whippets took 11 players to the tournament, so there was quite a bit of moving positions from singles to doubles and changing of doubles teams. Several kids had a very successful tournament; Josie Hintz was 5-0, Tessa Papcke, Sophie Olson, and Katelyn Lashley were all 4-1, and Anisa Dauti was 2-0 in her varsity matches.

 Whitewater is right back at it on Monday morning, August 26, with a dual meet in Columbus.

Team Scores
Whitewater 2, Ashland 5
Whitewater 5, Chippewa Falls 2
Whitewater 7, Mondovi 0
Whitewater 4, Altoona 3
Whitewater 5, West Salem 2

Whitewater Hosts Six-Team “Quad”; Nelson Secures 300th Career Coaching Victory

The Whitewater Invite on Tuesday, August 20 was a rather long day with many logistical problems. In order to help out a couple of teams that had some schools back out of their quad, the Whitewater Quad ended up with six teams. In order for this to work, it was going to require some schools moving back and forth between Whitewater and Fort Atkinson. The weather decided to make things even more difficult with a few rain delays in Whitewater, which forced even more teams to move to Fort. Of course a half an hour after teams moved to Fort it rained at the Aquatic Center courts, but not over at the Fort Atkinson High School courts. With all of the delays and moving around there were a few teams that were only able to get two matches in, and others were able to get all three in.

Whitewater was one of the schools that only finished two of their matches with 6-1 wins over both West Salem and Fort Atkinson.

Photos of Kaitlyn Partoll Courtesy of Bob Mischka

Coach Tim Nelson stated, “I was quite pleased with how we played today. We showed improvement from yesterday’s quad and continued to make the strides that we need to. The match of the day was between Kaitlyn Partoll and Olivia Granec of Fort. The two girls played a number of incredible points in a match that went back and forth before Kaitlyn was able to pull it out with the closest of super tie-break scores.” Wednesday the Whippets headed up to Altoona to participate in the Altoona Invite on Thursday and Friday.

The Whippet victories secured the 300th career win for Coach Tim Nelson.

Whippet Tennis Team Opens Season with Quad

The Whippets started their 2019 tennis season at the East Troy Quad on Monday, August 19, facing some very solid competition. East Troy went 3-0 on the day taking the championship followed by Union Grove at 2-1, Whitewater at 1-2, and Monroe at 0-3.

Cassidy Laue (photo courtesy of Bob Mischka)

Coach Tim Nelson stated, “We are going to face some growing pains to begin the season as we have several new players and many others that have had to move up quite a bit in the line-up. Today I felt that we were moving in the right direction. Every match the kids played better;  they started making strides in many areas and did what we needed to do to start improving. We definitely have things that we need to work on, but that is what these early matches are good for, showing where your strengths and weaknesses are and what you need to do to get better.”

The team was right back at it on Tuesday with three more matches in the Whitewater Quad.

August 23rd Whippet Football Game to be Youth Night; Meet the New Athletic Director

Come cheer on the Whippets for their first home football game under new Head Coach Jason Bleck on Friday, August 23, 2019, as they take on Beloit Turner at 7:00 p.m. at WHS.

Also, be sure to introduce yourself to new Athletic Director Justin Crandall as he greets people at the gate.

This game will also feature a Youth Night where Whitewater Youth Football Players wearing their jerseys will be admitted for free.

WHS JV Tennis Team Hosting Annual Gilda’s Club Fundraising Tournament August 17

Every year the Whitewater High School Tennis Team hosts a JV Tournament to fundraise money for Gilda’s Club. This year’s tournament will be held on Saturday, August 17, from 9 am – 1 pm at the UW-Whitewater Tennis Courts and the Whitewater High School Tennis Courts.

Gilda’s Club is a nonprofit organization founded by Gene Wilder, in memory of his wife, Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer. This organization provides a place where cancer patients and their families are empowered by knowledge, strengthened by action, and sustained by community.

To help support this vital organization, the tennis team is selling concessions the day of the tournament, and Rocky Rococo’s has been generous enough to donate a portion of the profits they make on August 17 to the fundraiser. The team is also selling tickets for raffle baskets the day of the tournament as well as at the Whitewater High School football game on September 6 and the Whitewater High School soccer game on August 29.

Anyone can come and enjoy the tournament for free, but we hope that you support Gilda’s Club by purchasing concessions, raffle baskets, Rocky Rococo’s, or by donating directly. Thank you to everyone who has donated, and we hope to see you there!

Whitewater teen wins USTA 16s title

Reese Brantmeier, pictured here in this file photo, won the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 16s National Championship.

Reese Brantmeier, a 14-year-old girl from Whitewater, came armed with a serve that occasionally hit 100 mph and sharp forehand shots that could leave her older opponent flat-footed.

So, with that arsenal and an aim at her first national title, 14th-seeded Reese Brantmeier went from underdog to champion in the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s and 16s National Championships.

Brantmeier took the 16s crown 6-2, 6-0 over No. 1 Valencia Xu, 16, of Livingston, N.J., at the Barnes Center on Saturday.

For more, head over to view the entire article at San Diego Union Tribune.

WHS Softball Players Earn Honors

Pictured are Alyssa Schumacher (left) and Morgan Gransee (right) holding their certificates for making the All-District Softball Team this past season. Schumacher made the team as a catcher while Gransee was selected as an outfielder.  Both players also made first team all-conference along with Bryce Hibbs and Sara Johnson.

Alyssa Schumacher and Morgan Gransee

In addition, Whitewater put three softball players on the Academic All-State Team. To be considered for this award the players must be seniors who have a 3.50 or higher cumulative GPA. Receiving this honor in softball were Jocelin Beecroft, Sara Johnson, and Catherine Yang.

Brianna Staebler Earns National Championship and Double All-American Honors

Brianna Staebler had a week to remember in her young wrestling career as she traveled to Fargo, North Dakota, to participate in the National Freestyle Wrestling Tournament. This is a tournament that sees some of the best high school wrestlers in the country converge in the Fargo Dome to participate on 25 wrestling mats in both Freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling.

To start her week off, Brianna participated in the Cadet (16U) Women’s Freestyle tournament. Brianna was very dominant in this tournament winning her matches 10-0, 8-0, 4-0, and 3-2 in the National Championship match. In the finals, Brianna scored a takedown as time expired to win the match, winning the championship and coveted “Stop Sign,” which is the award in an octagonal shape.

Brianna Staebler

After having a couple of days off to relish in her victory, Brianna was back on the mat, moving up to the next age group, to participate in the Juniors (19U) Women’s Freestyle tournament. Brianna started off strong, but then had a setback in the round of 16 putting her into the consolation bracket. After two shutout wins, Brianna had the opportunity to avenge her only loss up to his point defeating the girl who had defeated her the previous day. This put Brianna into the 3rd place match and locked up All-American Honors in the Juniors Division. Brianna wrestled an aggressive match but ended up falling in her final match in Fargo for 2019 and placed 4th. This accomplishment is nothing to scoff at as it is an outstanding achievement. 

As the week closed out, Brianna was 10-2 on the week, with her avenging one of those losses. After healing up from a very competitive week Brianna will get back to training for the High School Super 32’s, which takes place October 12-13 in North Carolina. 

Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkgsDlqRDJE to watch  the interview of Brianna after winning the Cadet Championship. It’s a very nice interview and worth watching. 

Article Submitted by John Schimming

Whitewater 14U Girls Complete Successful Softball Season

On Sunday the Whitewater Buehler Law Office 14U softball team completed their season. Although the final game was not a win for the girls they had a very successful year finishing 12-4-1 on the season in Quad County Rec play.

Whitewater Buehler Law Office 14U Girls’ Softball Team

In tournament action this weekend the girls started off on Friday night with a late game vs Big Foot, starting at 9:00. Big Foot is a very competitive team whom the girls defeated earlier this year 16-14 and tied 8-8. Yet again the young Chiefs and the young Whippet girls had a barn burner of a game. Whitewater was down five in the last inning and proceeded to score six in their bottom half to win the game 9-8, pushing them into the semi final game.

Against Lakeland the girls played very well, down only 1-0 in the 5th against a team that had outscored their opponents 118-16 in their last 6 games leading up to our game. Unfortunately the girls could not get their bats going and did end up losing 9-1. This put the girls in the 2nd place game against East Troy.

Yet again the girls were down going into the last inning, this time by six. They began to play much smarter ball and were more patient at the plate. The girls were able to get their six to force extra innings. Unfortunately the girls gave up one in the extra inning and lost 10-9 to finish in 3rd place. 

Third Place Finish

Although the girls did lose that last game, I was proud of how they battled back when down by a lot to force extra innings. They showed a lot of heart in their last game of the season together.

As a coach it was very fun working with these young ladies and I look forward to watching them in the future as they grow as players. Thank you to the girls for a great season that provided a lot of excitement. Thank you to the parents for your support of the girls. Thank you to Josh Kubicz for his help coaching. It was a fun summer.

Article Submitted by John Schimming