Sports

The Whitewater Whippet Gymnastics JV won against Waterford on Tuesday, February 13, 79.5 to 74.9.

On Vault, Maddie Joseph scored a 7.05 with her front hand spring.  The other four girls competed a straddle over.

On Balance Beam, Emy Islas scored her personal best with a score of 5.8.  Maggie Maas also scored her personal best with a 4.8.

On Floor, Maddie Morton scored a 5.85 which is her personal best this season.  Gabi Pena scored her personal best with a 5.7.

The Whippets had two new team members compete on Bars at this meet, Amaya Conner and Maggie Maas.  

The girls will be competing in Elkhorn on Friday, February 16th for the conference meet starting at 6:00.

Article Submitted by Shawnda Peters
Whitewater High School Head Gymastics Coach
speters@wwusd.org

On Tuesday night, February 13, the Whitewater Wrestling Team hosted the Team Sectional Wrestling Tournament as well as had the opportunity to compete in the duals. The evening started with Whitewater wrestling Campbellsport High School. Whitewater came out strong going up 13-6, but then the wind was taken out of the team’s sails as the Cougars were able to come away with a stretch of some big wins. 

Coming up with wins for the Whippets included Brady Friend (132) with a big second period pin to give the Whippets a lead. Connor Friend (138) then followed with a very well wrestled match, winning 11-1. Traysen Thomason got a nice win for himself at 144 pounds winning his match 11-4. Traysen worked hard to get the major decision but came up just short. After a dry spell in victories, Payton Lyon (190) wrestled a very quick student and was able to chip away and keep his offense alive, coming out on top 7-1. Jarvis Porcaro (120) ended the night and the dual meet season for the Whitewater team with a pin.

The coaching staff is very happy with the grit the team showed not only at the team sectional but all season long. From the start of the season, the team had a goal of reaching team state, and it did hurt to miss out on the opportunity, but they need to hold their heads high as they represented their school very well in all the dual meets this season. 

The nine boys who qualified for individual sectionals as well as the girls will be on a bus early Saturday morning as they travel to Campbellsport to attempt to punch their ticket to the individual state tournament in Madison.

Whitewater beat East Troy 34-32 Monday night, February 12, in a Rock Valley Conference girls’ basketball game.

Whitewater trailed by no more than one point all game but spent most of the night with only a one possession lead. Whitewater was able to push the lead to 28-21 late in the second half and hold on to win the game down the stretch.

With the win, the Whippets are Valley Division Champions in the Rock Valley Conference.

Whitewater will finish the regular season on Thursday, February 15, hosting Jefferson, and will then turn around to host Jefferson again on Friday, February 23rd in a WIAA regional semi-final.

Article Submitted by Mike Dowden
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
dowmi01@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka

Monroe is the conference leader and played very good basketball at both ends as they defeated Whitewater 89-54 on Monday, February 12.

Whitewater was led by Jaylyn Ewing with 13 points, all in the first half. James Seagraves led the Cheesemakers with 17 points. 

Whitewater High School hosts Fort Atkinson at 5:40 p.m. on Thursday, February 15. This will again be a doubleheader of basketball with the girls’ varsity game against Jefferson to follow.

Article Submitted by Mike McCabe
Whitewater High School Head Boys’ Basketball Coach
mccmi01@wwusd.org
Photo courtesy of Bob Mischka

The Whippet Boys’ Swim Team closed out the season with some exciting and fast racing at the WIAA Division 2 Sectionals at Whitefish Bay on Saturday, February 10th.

The meet started off with the 200 Medley Relay, where Wyatt Esch, David Enns, Miles Nickelsburg, and Onyx Thompson bettered their seed time by 1 second. David Enns had a great split in the 50 breaststroke going a 36.82!

Miles Nickelsburg dropped 2 seconds in his 200 Freestyle to go a new time of 2:11.53 and finished 14th overall! Cruz Aranda, a heat later, bettered his time by 1 second going a time of 1:59.09 to finish 11th overall. Cruz is now 6th on the Whippet Top 10 List!

All the 50 Freestylers on the day went best times. David Enns went a 29.25, Wyatt Esch went a 26.86, Myles Morse went a 25.90 to place 16th overall, and Langdon Coburn went a 25.19 to place 14th overall!

Jack Hefty and Cruz Aranda both swam fast in their 100 freestyles. Jack finished 12th overall and Cruz finished 14th overall!

Wyatt Esch went a best time in the 500 by 2 seconds, going a new time of 6:34.33 and placing 15th overall! Myles Morse swam a strong 500 to finish 10th overall!

The 200 Freestyle relay had an exciting race as they battled against conference opponents Elkhorn and Delavan-Darien. Jack Hefty led off the relay with a 24.33, Cruz Aranda split a 24.32, Langdon Coburn split a 24.33 and Myles Morse brought it home with a 25.51. The team dropped 2 seconds off their time from last weekend at Conference!

Langdon Coburn had a 9th place finish in the 100 Backstroke, going a time of 1:02.58. He is now 9th on the Whippet Top 10 List. Miles Nickelsburg had a 13th place finish with a new time of 1:08.34.

David Enns and Jack Hefty both had best times in the 100 Breaststroke.  David Enns dropped 3 seconds to go a time of 1:22.71. Jack finished 10th overall with a time of 1:13.95 and is 10th on the Whippet Top 10 List!

The 400 Freestyle Relay of Cruz Aranda, Langdon Coburn, Myles Morse, and Jack Hefty finished 6th overall with a time of 3:47.38.

The Whippet Boys’ Swim Team had an amazing season! We can’t wait to see what they accomplish next year!

Article and Photo Collage Submitted by Sarah Reynolds
Whitewater High School Head Swim Coach
sreynolds@wwusd.org

By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information

The No. 10 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s basketball team picked up a huge 73-67 comeback win over UW-La Crosse Saturday afternoon. The Warhawks outscored the Eagles 23-10 in the final quarter of the instant classic in Kachel Gymnasium. Senior Aleah Grundahl set the UW-Whitewater single game scoring record with 39 points to lead UWW to the win on senior day. 

Box Score

UWW seniors (L-R: Aleah Grundahl, Lunden Alexander, Kendall Roquet) pose with their families at the halftime recognition Saturday (Olivia Zinanni)

The Warhawks jumped out to a 9-2 lead, bolstered by seven points from Grundahl, just over three minutes into the game. UW-La Crosse whittled away at margin and eventually took the lead courtesy of a pair of three-pointers late in the first quarter. 

The Eagles built up an eight-point lead by the 6:35 mark of the second quarter but UWW battled back to pull within two by the break, 40-38. 

The third quarter belonged to UWL as the Eagles outscored UWW 17-12 to take a seven-point advantage into the final period. The Warhawks continued to battle putting forth an incredible fourth-quarter effort to come back for the win. 

The final 10 minutes went back-and-forth early on with the teams trading runs. UWW used a 7-0 spurt early to cut the lead to two, but the Eagles would extend their advantage back to six, 67-61, with less than four minutes to play. The stifling Warhawk press and defense held UWL scoreless the rest of the way. Although Grundahl had been scoring all game, she took over in the final minutes. The senior knocked down a three, hit a layup, dropped in a pair of free throws and hit a jumper for a 9-0 solo run that gave the Warhawks a 3-0 lead – 70-67 with 1:35 remaining.

After a scoreless minute, UWL was fouled to send Maggie Trautsch to the line. She hit one to extend the gap to 71-67 with 22 seconds on the clock. A miss on the second free throw had the clock running right away and the Eagles bolting down the floor. The three-point heave was no good and Trautsch ran down the defensive board. She was quickly fouled and headed back to the line. 

This time UW-La Crosse called timeout after the miss to move the ball into their offensive end with nine seconds left in a four-point game. The Eagles got a shot off with just over three seconds on the clock with Bri McCurdy crashing the glass for a defensive board to all but seal the game with 2.7 left. 

UWW called timeout and advanced the ball for an inbounds play in front of their bench. McCurdy took the ball, surveyed and found Grundahl who was quickly fouled. She hit both to seal the game with her second breaking the program’s single game scoring record. 

Grundahl’s 39 points surpasses the mark set by Jody Landish (38) that had stood as the UWW record since 1995. That mark is tied for eighth-most in a single game by any player in WIAC history. Grundahl’s 39 came on 11-16 from the floor, 2-4 from beyond the arc and a phenomenal 15-16 from the charity stripe. She added six boards and three steals in the game. 

Trautsch was the most active on the glass with 13 rebounds including multiple late-game defensive boards that were integral in the comeback win. 

The Warhawk press, especially late in the game, led to a hefty advantage in points off miscues – 20-7 – in favor of UWW. 

With just two regular season games remaining, the Warhawks maintain a hold on second place in the WIAC standings with a 9-3 record. UW-Oshkosh leads the league with a 10-2 mark with UW-Platteville standing third at 7-5. 

The Whitewater Whippet Gymnastics Team went to Elkhorn Thursday night, February 8. The JV team took 2nd with a score of 65.2750.  It is the JV’s highest score this year.

Vaulting for the first time, Maddie Morton scored a 7.050.  Maggie, Amaya, and Gabriella scored their highest on vault.

JV Balance beam was once again a no fall beam routine from the four girls that competed.

JV had 5 girls compete on the floor, with all the girls scoring the personal best for the year so far.

Whitewater Whippets Gymnastics has two more meets left in the season. They will be in Waterford on Tuesday, February 13th and then head to Elkhorn for Conference on the 16th.

Article Submitted by Shawnda Peters
Whitewater High School Head Gymnastics Coach
speters@wwusd.org
Photos Courtesy of Bob Mischka