Sports

By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information

Platteville, Wis. – The No. 4 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s basketball team came back from a first half deficit to defeat UW-Platteville 67-42 on the road Wednesday. The Warhawks improved to 16-0 on the season and 5-0 in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. 

Box Score

The Warhawks trailed 27-21 at the half but allowed just 15 total second half points leading to the win. In the final 20 minutes of play, UWW outscored the Pioneers 46-15. UW-Whitewater also capitalized on Platteville miscues with a 24-10 sway in points off turnovers. 

UWW struggled offensively in the first quarter shooting under 15-percent from the floor. The Warhawks picked it up in the second quarter hitting 56-percent of their shots before shooting 49-percent in the second half. 

Coming out of the intermission, Aleah Grundahl knocked down the first bucket of the second half and Bri McCurdy followed with a three-pointer to pull UWW within one. Grundahl registered the steal and layin just seconds later to give the Warhawks a one-point lead, 28-27. The Pioneers hit the next field goal, but Mallory Oloffson responded with an old-fashioned three-point play to put UWW up 31-29 with just under seven minutes left in the third quarter. From that point, UW-Whitewater never looked back. 

The Warhawks built a double figure lead over the next seven minutes. The margin eventually hit 27 late in the fourth with UWP tallying the final bucket of the game for the final, 67-42. 

Grundahl led all scorers with 22 on 8-16 from the floor. She added five rebounds, four assists and five steals in the game. Kacie Carollo dropped in 14 points, all in the second half, on 5-8 from the floor, 1-1 from long range and 3-3 from the free throw line. She was a rebound shy of a double-double. Lunden Alexander was 4-5 from the field and 2-2 from three-point range for a 10-point outing adding five boards and three assists. 

The Whitewater Whippet Boys’ Swim Team secured two HUGE conference wins against PSC and Delavan-Darien on Tuesday, January 16! 

Whitewater 80 – PSC 79
Whitewater 94 – Delavan-Darien 56
Whitewater 60 – Elkhorn 109

The boys came to compete, so here are a few highlights from the meet: 

Jack Hefty beat all competitors by 2 seconds in the 100 Freestyle with a time of 1:00.92.

In the event following, Cruz Aranda also beat all competitors by 6 seconds in the 400 Freestyle with a time of 4:57.16.

Langdon Coburn took first in his heat and placed 4th overall in the 200 IM with a time of 2:53.63. 

Angel Kilar competed in the 100 Backstroke for the first time this season.

Isaac Straight had an impressive swim in the 100 Breaststroke. It’s been exciting to see him evolve in this stroke throughout the season! 

Wyatt Esch competed in the 400 Freestyle for the first time this season. 

The Whippets are back in the pool on Saturday, January 20, in Jefferson for their invite. We hope to see you in the stands!

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

After hosting three large wrestling tournaments this season, the Whippets had the opportunity to host their first dual meet of the season on Thursday night. The Monroe Cheesemakers made their way to Whitewater to participate in a first ever dual meet against each other. Whitewater has often seen Monroe in tournaments but due to distance never scheduled a dual meet. This all changed as Monroe and Whitewater are both part of the Rock Valley Conference in the Rock Division. The coaching staff knew this was going to be a challenging home dual meet as Monroe has a very solid team this year.

The dual started off at 138 pounds where Curtis Rossmiller came out strong but could not keep up the pace against a defending state qualifier and ended up getting pinned in the match. Traysen Thomason (144) followed up with a very well wrestled match picking up the decision to get the Whippets on the board. After a couple of weights going against the Whippets, Sebastian Cuellar (165) got things moving in the right direction for Whitewater in a tough match, coming up with a big pin to put the home team down 9-17. Jesus Barajas (175) followed with a very good match, nearly pinning his opponent on a couple of occasions but ended up getting a 10-3 victory and closing the gap to 12-17. Payton Lyon (190) put the Whippets on top with a second period pin. Ethan Barels followed with a very hard fought match coming up just short before Junior Soto got a forfeit at heavyweight putting the Whippets up 24-20 with five weights to go. At 113 Jasen Porras had the opportunity to see his way back on the mat after an early season injury, wrestling a very good match winning 8-4 and putting the Whippets up 27-24 with three to go. Jarvis Porcaro (120) got a major decision 12-4. Freshman Brady Friend walked out on the mat knowing that a victory by him would seal the win for the home team. Brady showed lots of grit, wrestling potentially the best match of the season winning 7-4 and sealing the win for the Whippets 34-25. The win improved their record to 7-1 on season and 3-0 in the conference.

The team is next in action on Thursday night, January 18, when they host the Jefferson Eagles. This will mark both Parents Night and Senior Night for the team. JV will start at 6:00 with the varsity competing at 7:00. The team would love to see a packed house in their battle against Jefferson.

Article and Photo Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org

Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers

7 p.m. CST| Fox

The Green Bay Packers pulled off a massive 48-32 upset win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday as the No. 7 seed in the NFC. As a result, they’ll head to the Bay Area to take on the top-seeded 49ers on Saturday night.

Five takeaways on packers.com

Homepage image: Aaron Jones from packers.com

According to si.com, former UW-W football coach Lance Leipold was reportedly offered the open head coach position at the University of Washington, but he has decided to stay at the University of Kansas. Quoting Sports Illustrated, “The news is absolutely huge for the Jayhawks, as they have seen one of the biggest improvements in the sport under Leipold. After taking over a team that went 0-9 during the 2020 season, the Jayhawks have steadily improved. With two consecutive bowl appearances in the last two seasons, capped by a win over UNLV at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, optimism is high for the future of the program.”

On Saturday, January 6th, the Whippet Girls’ Wrestling Team traveled to Kenosha Bradford High School for a scramble format tournament. The wrestling tournament was made up of 19 different schools. This girls’ tournament doubled in participants from the year before. Our Whitewater Whippets returned to this tournament having placed third last year, and set a goal to finish in the top again this year. With the tournament doubling in size, that was a great goal. Our twelve girls scored a total of 86 team points, which placed them in third at the end of the tournament. 

As a team, the girls wrestled really well. Out of the twelve athletes, five placed in the top three for their respective weight classes. Leading the way was Marianna Kubicz, as champion at 185 pounds. Marianna pinned her way through the tournament.

Myia Cobb placed 2nd at 138 pounds, also pinning her way to the finals. Myia dropped her first loss of the day to a girl from Burlington.

A’lani Ross also placed 2nd at 126 pounds. A’Lani wrestled really well throughout the tournament, losing her last match in the final to a girl from Milton High School who took 2nd in the state last season.

Ema Aranda, wrestling at 100 pounds, and Lauren Buehler, wrestling at 120 pounds, both placed 3rd in their weight classes. 

Overall, the Whitewater girls improved on Saturday, with some picking up their first win. The team taking third place was a team effort, and everyone who wrestled on Saturday helped solidify that team score. All our girls helped pick each other up and supported each other throughout the day. As a coach, it is nice to see teammates help each other the way these athletes did. This tournament will help them prepare for one of the biggest girls’ wrestling tournaments in the state, in Wausau, on January 20th. 

Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
Photos Courtesy of Johnny Gomez

The Whitewater Girls’ Basketball Team jumped out to an early 12-2 lead on Wednesday, January 10, but Big Foot battled to be within three at halftime. The game was close throughout with Whitewater up four with about four minutes to play. The Whippets eventually secured a 45-38 victory.

Even without shooting the ball well, Whitewater’s defense was able to keep them in the lead for most of the night. Whitewater was able to push it double digits with about three to play, but credit Big Foot’s shooting for keeping them in the game all night.

Calli Grosinske led the Whippets with 24 points, and Leah Paulsen put in 25 for Big Foot.

Whitewater is scheduled to host Edgerton on Friday, January 12 [presumably this game is canceled] and then travels to Evansville next Thursday, January 18.

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

By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater senior outside hitter Jenna Weinfurt (Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial) has been named a Third Team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators.

Weinfurt holds a 3.88 grade point average with a major in digital marketing. The 2023 CSC Academic All-America Teams for volleyball feature 83 student-athletes across three divisions of the NCAA and NAIA including 24 that compete in Division III. 

The 2023 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year, Weinfurt also garnered Second Team All-America honors from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. She ranked among the top 30 nationally in kills per set (4.03) and total kills (463) this season. The senior reached the 1,000 career kill milestone this season and currently ranks 14th in the program record book with 1,150 kills. 

Academic All-America Teams are voted on and selected by CSC members. Student-athletes must earn All-District honors to be considered for All-America recognition. To be eligible for Academic All-District honors, student-athletes must be of at least sophomore status, hold a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.50 and have competed in 90-percent or started in 66-percent of sets played this season.