Sports

In the 82nd running of the Janesville Midwest Cross Country Invitational, the Whippets walked away with a slew of personal bests in what was the fastest course and best weather so far in the 2019 season. This meet has 45 teams represented from across Wisconsin, neighboring states and a team from Houston, Texas. With the size of this meet, there are 3 races contested for each gender, they include the varsity race, blue race and white race. With a tremendous amount of large school representation, this meet can have a little bit of a “small fish in a big pond” type of feel to Whitewater. Rubbing elbows with the best runners, no matter what division, helps the program take a step forward both in growth and experience as they move closer to the goal of running their best in the championship portion of the season.  

Every varsity boy ran a personal best either for the season or a lifetime personal best. Trenten Zahn placed 50th with a time of 16:57. He was steady in his pacing and was rewarded with a nice time and place in the loaded field. Gio Anello, Cooper Hammond, Peter Zimdars, CJ Tomomitsu, Will Hofmann and Mason West all ran gutsy races and propelled the team to a 5th place finish within D2 schools and 26th overall.  The blue race was led by Manny Rodriguez who debuted in his first race after a nagging knee injury to place 171st in 19:20. Jack Mayer, Evan Schepp and Jaden Salmieri all ran personal bests for the season in this race. They finished in 23rd overall as a team.The white race featured Broderick Frye leading the team to a 38th place finish. He ran a new personal best of 22:00 and was flanked by teammates Josiah Holder, Keith Cameron and Ben McCulloch throughout the race. Seeing them pack together and feed off each other in the race was great to see as that was a team goal for this meet. They were all rewarded with big time drops. Senior Justin Mitchell also cut more than a minute off his person best.

On the girls side, the varsity girls placed 35th and led by sophomore Gwen Truesdale. She dropped her personal best down to 24:18 and placed 225th. Sabrina Bomberg is crushing every time she toes the line and cut just over a minute off her previous best which was set last week. Rounding out the varsity team were Olive Coburn, Sophie Walton and Nikole Pelot. In the white race the Whippets were led by Jenny Villarreal as they place 29th overall. She blazed the course in 27:53 and looked strong. Emma Weigel and Caelyn Caputo really rocked it and smoked  the course together. They each cut in excess of 2 minutes off their previous season bests. Not to be left out of the fun, Jeannette Falcon equaled that time drop by posting a new person best of close to 2 minutes as well. 

This is the first of three meets the Whippets will be racing over the course of the next six days. On Tuesday the teams travel to Jefferson for a 12-team invite and finish on Friday at the 4th annual Nightfall Classic, which is a meet contested entirely under large flood lights. It’s gonna be a great week!

Full Results:  https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/161479/results

The Whitewater volleyball team played in the Kettle Moraine Invitational this past weekend where they achieved many small victories on their half of the court.  The Whippets played scrappy defense by reading their hitters and blockers more effectively.  From the serving line Whitewater was able to serve aggressively and hit specific zones which often kept their opponents from running a fast offense.  Unfortunately these small victories didn’t equate to any match victories, but nonetheless the weekend helped provide strong competition which prepares them for this upcoming week where the Whippets will see two more conference opponents.  

Whitewater will be looking to improve to 3-3 in conference play on Tuesday, Oct. 1st as they host Edgerton, which is also 2-3 in the Rock Valley. This will be the “Play for Trey” night as they honor Treyton Kilar. The event will not only honor Trey but be a way to continue to think about making good decisions in all aspects of life. The High School SADD group and VB team will have some fun events planned. Be sure to wear Blue and Gold- both the Brewer colors and Treyton’s Field of Dreams colors! Game time- JV at 4:45 and Varsity at 6:30!

Thursday, Oct. 3rd the Whippets travel to Brodhead to take on the Cardinals who are sitting at 4-1 in conference play. With the opportunity to win these next two conference matches, the Whippets could move into the top tier teams of the conference. This year there is a lot of parity in the conference, so picking up two more wins this week would really help with seeding for the conference tournament.
Weekend Stat LeadersAces: Cora Linos – 9Kills: Kacie Carollo – 19Assists: Cora Linos – 30Digs: Kacie Carollo – 22
Thanks,

The No. 3 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team earned a hard-fought 28-20 victory at NAIA foe St. Xavier in a non-conference contest in Chicago, Ill.

The Warhawk (3-0 overall) closed out the non-conference season by holding the Cougars (1-1) to 3-of-15 on third-down coversions and posting 14 points off St. Xavier’s turnovers.

Sophomore quarterback Max Meylor passed 16-for-26 for 204 yards and two touchdowns. Junior linebacker Kaleb Kaminski led the defense with 17 takles.

After a field goal by the Cougars, senior running back Ronny Ponick capped a drive with a 1-yard touchdown to give UW-Whitewater a 7-3 advantage with 10:18 to play in the second quarter.

St. Xavier scored the next 10 points before the Warhawks responded with another rushing touchdown as junior running back Alex Peete plunged in from one yard out to make it 14-13 with 43 seconds left in the first half.

The Cougars took their last lead before UW-Whitewater took the lead for good on a 34-yard pass from Meylor to sophomore wide receiver Sam DeLany late in the third quarter.

The Warhawks tacked on seven more points when Meylor hit junior wide receiver Derek Kumerow for a 19-yard score with 25 seconds on the clock.

UW-Whitewater opens Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Oct. 5 against UW-Eau Claire. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. at Perkins Stadium.

In muggy conditions, soft footing and storms looming, the Whippets were able to get all their races in before the storms hit in Kenosha on the campus of UW-Parkside for the Racine St. Catherine’s Cross Country Invitational. This invitational features 40 teams from all 3 divisions.

On the girls side, freshman Sabrina Bomberg took the #1 position for the Whippets and finished 135th with a new 5K personal best time of 25:59. Sabrina continues to improve each race as she grows more confident on race day. Sophia Walton finished in 159th, and rounding out the final 3 scoring spots on varsity were Nikole Pelot, Morgan Stillwagon and Jenna Lee. There was a 3 second spread between them and finished in places 168, 169 and 170. The team finished in 27th place. Caelyn Caputo, also a freshman, led the JV team to a 17th place team finish while she claimed the 166th place in the field with a new personal best of 30:53.

On the boys side, Trenten Zahn continues to impress with a 12th place finish out of 236 runners. His time of 17:16 isn’t his best, but his technical race savviness was on full display as he slayed the field to a medal finish. Gio Anello took 32nd, Cooper Hammond 144th, Peter Zimdars 157th, Will Hofmann 177th, CJ Tomomitsu 182nd and Jack Mayer placed 215th. The team finished 19th overall. Mason West led the JV boys with a 136th finish with a time of 21:50. Running season best times on this day were Keith Cameron, Andy Vo, and Justin Mitchell. The JV team placed 21st overall. Full results: http://wisconsinrunner.com/results/2019AngelInvite.php

Next up for the Whippet runners will be the 82nd edition of the oldest inter-state cross country invitational in the country as they travel to Janesville to compete in the Midwest Invitational on Saturday. First race starts at 9:05.

By Tim Nelson, Coach

A shorthanded Whippets team fell to McFarland 1-6, in a series of very close matches.

I was very pleased with how we played this evening. We were without half of our 3 doubles team and our 4 singles player. McFarland is definitely a top-notch team and we pushed them in almost every spot. Their 1 singles player is a returning state qualifier and Cassidy pushed her to a third set tiebreaker. At three singles, Tessa has been fighting a cold all week, yet still pushed her player who will be one of the top seeds in the conference tournament to a 3^rd set tiebreaker.

Doubles also saw some tight matches. At two doubles, Melanie and Mariana played one of their best matches all year and were in control the whole way. At both 1 and 3 doubles we played right with them the entire way, but just couldn’t quite get over the top losing 6-4, 6-4.

Next Thursday, at UWW and WHS, the Rock Valley Conference Tournament will take place beginning at 3pm.

Results:

1S Cassidy Laue lost Michelle Butcher 6-2, 2-6, 10-6

2S Kaitlyn Partoll lost Aeryn Olson 6-0, 6-1

3S Tessa Papcke lost Laura Maudlin 6-4, 4-6, 10-3

4S Crystal Chan lost Lexi Mazzara 6-0, 6-1

1D Odessa Sonn lost Grace Henes 6-4, 6-4

Sophie Olson Greta Corcoran

2D Melanie Reyes beat Sadie Bartzen 6-2, 6-1

Mariana Cano Sarah Kopp

3D Katelyn Lashley lost Lauren Shields 6-4, 6-4

Anisa Dauti Kimiya Pournik

From Coach Tim Nelson

Whitewater celebrated senior night with a 5-2 victory on Sept. 17 over Edgerton. The win puts the Whippets at 14-7 on the year.

Overall, I was pleased with our effort. Our footwork was a little better this evening and we didn’t try and overdo things. Cassidy Laue played well this evening. She was down most of the first set but at 4-5 in the first set, she really started picking her game up and won the next three to take the first set and then kept it going in the second. Tessa and Josie at 3 and 4 singles were steady throughout the evening. Our 1 and 2 doubles teams were both pretty solid. They each had a game or two when they were a little flat, but were able to turn things around right away so that the matches were never in doubt.

We finish up the conference season at McFarland on Thursday evening.

Results:

1S Cassidy Laue beat Kelsey Lien 7-5, 6-2

2S Kaitlyn Partoll lost Sylvia Fox 6-0, 6-2

3S Tessa Papcke beat Ashley Ulset 6-2, 6-1

4S Josie Hintz beat Kylee Houfe 6-4, 6-1

1D Odessa Sonn beat Elizabeth Oetzel 6-1, 6-2

Sophie Olson Taylor Shaw

2D Melanie Reyes beat Johanna Rusch 6-2, 6-2

Mariana Cano Jordan Bauer

3D Katelyn Lashley lost Isabella Gilmour 6-3, 7-6(4)

Emily Scherer Karlye Smrecek

The No. 3 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team scored 17 unanswered points Saturday afternoon, Sept. 14 to defeat Concordia-Moorhead 20-10 in a non-conference affair at Jake Christiansen Stadium in Moorhead, Minn.

The Warhawks (2-0 overall) finished with 267 yards passing offensively and held the Cobbers to 62 yards rushing at a 1.8 yards-per-carry clip on the defensive side. UW-Whitewater also forced four turnovers, including two interceptions and two fumbles.

Junior quarterback Zach Oles finished 19-of-29 passing for 248 yards and one touchdown and rushed for a team-high 56 yards on 14 carries with one score. Senior running back Jarrod Ware rushed for 49 yards.

Junior wide receiver JT Parish collected four receptions for 99 yards and one touchdown, and junior wide receiver Derek Kumerow registered six catches for 68 yards.

Senior linebacker Matt Anderson totaled a team-high nine tackles, and senior defensive back Jacob Frey recorded eight stops.

Junior kicker Wojciech Gasienica opened scoring for the Warhawks with a 23-yard field goal midway through the first quarter after an interception by senior defensive back Garrett Purdy set up UW-W near midfield.

The Cobbers (0-2) tallied the next 10 points, finding the end zone five minutes into the second quarter and kicking a field goal with 2:38 left in the period for a 10-3 advantage.

UW-Whitewater closed the first half strong in just two plays. After a 16-yard completion to Kumerow, Oles hit Parish for a 54-yard touchdown with 1:53 on the clock to tie the game at 10-10.

Gasienica knocked through his second field goal of the game from 33 yards out five minutes into the third quarter to complete an 11-play, 58-yard drive that started the second half.

Early in the fourth quarter, Concordia drove deep into Warhawk territory, but junior defensive back Mark McGrath picked off Blake Kragnes in the end zone for a touchback with 11:52 to play in the contest.

On the ensuing drive, UW-Whitewater drove 80 yards on 14 plays, converting two third downs and a fourth down late in the drive. On second-and-10 from the Cobbers’ 14-yard line, Oles took a quarterback draw untouched into the end zone for a 20-10 lead with 4:59 to go.

The two teams exchanged punts, but the Warhawks forced and recovered a fumble on the punt return with 1:54 remaining to seal the win.

UW-Whitewater closes the non-conference regular season next Saturday, Sept. 21, at St. Xavier. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. in Chicago, Ill.