Sports

The Whippet Football Team came up short in a comeback attempt against the visiting Spartans of McFarland on Friday, September 17.

The first points of the game came from McFarland in the middle of the first quarter, but the Whippets responded with a 10-play drive capped off by an 11-yard touchdown run by Evaristo Soto. The Whippets missed the extra point leaving the score at 6-7. That score was maintained until halftime as the Whippets came up with two big end zone interceptions by Marcus DePorter and Nate Black.

McFarland was able to score twice in the 3rd quarter taking a 21-6 lead.

Early in the 4th quarter, Whitewater came up with another nice drive and finished with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Brock Grosinske to Marcus DePorter. After a successful two-point conversion, that would be the final score of the game, as the Whippets fell by a score of 14-28.

Statistic Highlights:
Grosinske: 14/26 passes, 147 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT
Friend: 19 carries, 73 yards
Soto: 3 carries, 20 yards, 1 TD
DePorter: 5 receptions, 73 yards, 1 TD
Friend: 15 tackles
Raglin: 11 tackles
Stevenson: 10 tackles
Black: 4 tackles, 1 INT, 1 FR
DePorter: 1 tackle, 1 INT
Ortiz: 4 tackles, 1 FF

Article Submitted by Jason Bleck
Whitewater High School Head Football Coach
jbleck@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka

UW-Parkside was the host site for Saturday’s CC invitational. The Whippets haven’t been there in two years due to COVID, and it was thrilling being back. Although it is very tough to spectate, it is absolutely awesome for runners with the trails, forests, and varying terrain throughout the entire 3.1-mile racecourse. Bouncing back for their second race in the same week, several Whippets came away with strong races and a great effort notched on their belt. 

Jack Hefty continues to lead the boys and was the 3rd best freshman in the Varsity race that featured a significant portion of the event with D1-sized schools; Jack placed 30th in 17:27. Although his first three races have been close overall in terms of time, this is his best race so far due to the difficulty of the race course and level of competition at this meet. Cooper Hammond found himself in 83rd, with a time of 18:37. He is getting stronger on the hills and confident in the second half of the race. The boys’ varsity team placed 21st out of 34 complete teams. In the JV race, Sterling Truesdale has been cutting large chunks of time off his race, and it is happening with his early race toughness to get out faster. He and Onyx Thompson were running side by side heading into the second mile, with Keith Cameron in pursuit. By the finish, Keith and Sterling had the same time of 24:37 and placed 187th and 188th, with Onyx not far back in 191st. It is great to see teammates finding each other and challenging each other on the race course. Senior Casey Schilling ran his lifetime best by placing 236th with a time of 28:19. Also running a lifetime best was freshman Xavier Zei placing 245th, with a time of 30:27. The JV boys’ team finished in 20th out of 20 complete teams.

The girls’ program had Sophie Walton resume the number one position by placing 99th in 23:52, which is the third race in a row she has run that time, but with the difficulty of the course, is her best race so far. Gwen Truesdale then led a trio of Whippets by placing 111th in 24:23, with Caelyn Caputo in 114th in 24:35, and Emma Weigel in 115th, completing the race in 24:41. Running strong races and once again cutting a few seconds off their best times of the season so far were Nole Coburn and Isabella Aranda. Rounding out Varsity was Jenny Villarreal, who also was just off her season best from Tuesday on the challenging course. The girls’ varsity finished in 19th out of 21 complete teams.

The girls’ JV race didn’t have a minimum of 5 scoring runners required for a team score, but Evie Troxel was the top Whippet and ran a great race to place 108th in 28:12, showing the way for the two freshmen, Lucy Troxel and Sami Van Daele, who were not far behind in 111th and 112th overall. 

Next up is the Janesville Midwest Invitational on Saturday, September 25th. Races are set to begin at 9:00 am from Blackhawk Golf Course. 

Full Results: http://wisconsinrunner.com/results/2021/2021angelinvite/

Article Submitted by Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org

By Chris Lindeke
Assistant Athletic Director, Strategic Communications and Branding
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

The No. 2 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team scored 30 first-half points, including 17 in the final two minutes of the second quarter, on Saturday on its way to a 39-7 triumph against 25th-ranked Berry (Ga.) in a non-conference game in front of 8,102 fans at Perkins Stadium.

The Warhawks (3-0 overall) totaled 450 yards of offense and held the Vikings to 198 yards on the other end, and forced a pair of key turnovers to lead to UW-W scoring drives.

Quarterback Max Meylor continued his strong start to the 2021 season, completing 16-of-26 passes for 256 yards and three touchdows. Wide receiver Tyler Holte caught three passes for 68 yards and two touchdown, and wide receiver Ryan Wisniewski picked up six receptions for 54 yards.

Running back Tamir Thomas paced the UW-Whitewater rushing attack with 68 yards, while running back Alex Peete carried a team-high 16 times for 55 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Defensive back Mark McGrath led the defense with six tackles and one fumble recovery. Defensive lineman Reed Farrington made four stops, including two for a loss. Farrington, Shane McGrail, matt Burba and Mackenzie Balanganayi each posted one sack.

The two teams exchanged punts to start the game before the Warhawks found the end zone. UW-W converted three third downs on a 10-play, 80-yard drive highlighted by Holte’s 33-yard touchdown catch from Meylor with 5:38 to play in the first quarter.

On its next drive, UW-Whitewater drove 81 yards in 11 plays as Meylor completed 20- and 22-yard passes to Wisniewski and Sam DeLany, respectively, in third-and-long situations to set up a 13-yard touchdown to DeLany at the 10:42 mark of the second quarter.

Berry (2-1) punted back to the Warhawks on the next drive, and UW-W put together a nine-play, 73-yard drive, capped by a 24-yard field goal by Kacper Lupa.

On the next play from scrimmage, Balanganayi stripped the Vikings’ quarterback and recovered the fumble, and Peete barrelled in from two yards out to make it 23-0 with 45 seconds left in the half.

The Warhawks forced another quick turnover on the next drive as Niko Lemke stripped the quarterback. Meylor hit Holte for a 13-yard score with 32 seconds on the clock for a 30-0 UW-W lead.

The defense forced a three-and-out to start the second half, and a short Berry punt resulted in Peete’s second touchdown of the day, a one-yard run to make it 36-0 with 9:21 remaining in the third quarter.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Matt Maldonado converted a 33-yard field goal to increase the UW-Whitewater advantage to 39-0.

The Vikings found the end zone with 3:40 on the clock in the fourth to account for the final margin.

The Warhawks tallied 122 rushing yards on 15 carries in the fourth, holding the ball for more than 11 minutes to preserve the big lead.

UW-Whitewater enters its bye week before starting Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play Oct. 2 against UW-Stout. Kickoff for Alumni Day at Perkins Stadium is slated for 2 p.m.

The Whitewater Whippets traveled to Beloit Turner on Tuesday night, September 14, and came away with an all level sweep for the second time in a row. The JV2, JV, and varsity all defeated the Trojans in an exciting night of volleyball.

Cali Kopecky started the varsity off by rattling off 9 straight points. The Whippets went on to win 25-7. The Trojans had a lot of fight in them and ended up winning the next two sets 25-23 & 22-25. Whitewater dug in in the fourth set and went on to win decisively again 25-13. In the last set, Cali Kopecky once again went back to the service line and helped the team string together a 6-point run. Turner sided the Whippets out but were not able to gain any momentum. Whitewater went on to win 15-6!

Thursday night the Whippets travel to Clinton for their third conference match of the year. Whitewater is currently 2-0 in the Rock Valley and 8-6 overall.

Article Submitted by Kathy Bullis
Whitewater High School Head Volleyball Coach
kbullis@wwusd.org

The Whippet CC teams were in Cottage Grove for the Dana Waddell Invitational hosted by Marshall High School on Tuesday, September 14. Fans who were in attendance were treated to a special performance, as the team saw significant improvement over their last meet with many runners throwing down lifetime best race times.

The boys started things off first with a strong showing in the top three runners of Jack Hefty (5th), Cooper Hammond (17th), and CJ Tomomitsu (18th). All of these boys earned a medal by being in the top 20 and looked really strong in their efforts. Miles Nickelsburg and Ben McCulloch rounded out the top five by placing 64th and 67th, respectively. The varsity team placed 9th out of 12 teams. 

In the JV race, Onyx Thompson did the heavy lifting and was the team’s top runner by placing 24th. Payton Lyon got his first taste of the finish line by crossing in 48th. The JV team finished 5th out of 12 teams at this invite.

The girls followed after with some fun racing by the top three runners as well. Seniors Gwen Truesdale and Sophie Walton are very steady and consistent in the early stages of the race and did so again today. Caelyn Caputo has shown some great improvement lately and pursued them late in the race, and was nearly the team’s top runner. Gwen finished in 39th, Caelyn 40th, and Sophie in 43rd. Fourth and fifth runners Emma Weigel and Isabella Aranda finished 47th and 53rd, respectively. The varsity team finished in 8th out of 12 teams at the invite.

The JV race featured Lucy Troxel and Sami Van Daele in 22nd and 23rd as the team’s top runners. Both ran season bests on this day. Taiya Kolb completed her first race by placing 44th in this field. The girl’s JV team finished in 4th out of 12 teams.

It was a great day for many of these Whippets as they now turn their attention to the Racine St. Cats Invitational at UW-Parkside on Saturday. The first race is set to go off at 8:40. #OneTeamOneFamily

Full Results: https://wi.milesplit.com/meets/440943-2021-dana-waddell-invitational-2021/results/762713/formatted#.YUHkn51KjIU

Article and Photo Submitted by Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org

The Girls’ Swim Team competed in the Elkhorn Invite over the weekend and had a great day! The girls took 6th place overall out of 10 teams, which included some Division 1 teams. 

Out of 17 individual races, 15 were personal best times! 

The top 8 in each event take home a medal. On Saturday, we were able to take home 9 medals which included:

200 Medley Relay (Grace Foucault, Emerson Dunham, Makayla Bazeley, and Brooke Bazeley) – 2nd place 2:17.72

200 IM (Emerson) – 7th place 2:57.50

50 Freestyle (Grace and Brooke) 1st place 28.80 and 7th place 31.22

100 Fly (Makayla) – 2nd place 1:10.09

400 Freestyle (Makayla and Brooke) 2nd place 5:05.12 and 6th place 5:26.42 

200 Freestyle Relay (Grace, Emerson, Brooke, and Makayla) – 4th place 2:04.92

100 Backstroke (Grace) – 2nd place 1:09.13

The girls swim next at Edgerton on Tuesday, September 14.

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

The Whitewater Girls’ Tennis Team visited Edgerton on Saturday for a Quad against Portage, Lake Mills, and Edgerton. As a team, Whitewater placed third but it was a successful day for several athletes.

Emilia Houwers, Whitewater’s 1 singles player, won 2 out of 3 matches with wins against Portage 6-2, 6-0 and Edgerton 6-3, 6-1, and lost in a competitive last match to Lake Mills 6-3, 6-3.

Anisa Dauti, Whitewater’s 2 singles player, went 1 for 3 on the day. Winning 6-4, 7-4 against Edgerton, losing 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 in a tiebreak against Portage, and losing 6-3, 7-5 in a close match against Lake Mills.

Brennan Fox-Simes, Whitewater’s 3 singles player, won 2 out of 3 matches, winning 7-5, 6-3 against Lake Mills, 6-2, 6-2 against Portage, and losing 6-3, 7-6 against Edgerton.

This week, Whitewater took on McFarland in a dual match where the Whippets fell 6 matches to 1, with Whitewater’s win coming in the 1 singles spot from Emilia Houwers. Emilia won her first set handily 6-1 and was able to battle back down in the second set and won 6-4. Emilia has now won 4 out of her last 5 matches.

On Wednesday, the Whitewater team travels to Janesville Craig and then finishes up Conference play back at home on Thursday for senior and parent night against Edgerton starting at 4:15.

Article and Photo Submitted by Baron West
Whitewater High School Head Tennis Coach
bwest@wwusd.org