The Whippet Girls’ Basketball Team travelled to Clinton for a conference game on Tuesday, January 10.
This game was a true nail-biter and a great matchup. We were outsized at times but our guards played a very physical game with confidence that their teammates were in help defense. Solid defense and grit from both ends of the court made this game so exciting. We were either up or down by a few points to the very end of the game. Unfortunately, we came up short by one, 56-57.
Danielle DePorter
Danielle DePorter had a break-out game with 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals. Mayte Navejas followed with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals (also a season high). Calli Grosinske added 8 points, 4 assists, multiple rebounds, and 5 steals.
The Whippets take on McFarland at home Friday night.
Congratulations to Clinton Cougar, Jayden Nortier, for scoring her 1000th point!
Article Submitted by Kristen Lippens Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach klippens@wwusd.org File Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
The WCCCA (Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association) recently held its annual clinic, and awards were picked up for the Fall 2022 season. This piece of paper certifies that Jack Hefty and Nate Holden have been awarded the individual Academic All-State Award for the 2022 season!
Nate Holden and Jack Hefty
The criteria set is that an athlete must participate in the WIAA State Cross Country Meet and maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or above. This is Nate’s first award and Jack’s second.
Congratulations, guys!
Article and Photo Submitted by Chad Carstens Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach ccarstens@wwusd.org
It was a very busy day of wrestling at the high school on Saturday, January 7, as the Whippets hosted a 28 team JV tournament with 277 competitors in 16 and 32-person brackets. The top three in each weight class earned a trip to the JV Finals in Wausau in two weeks. Whitewater qualified 5 boys.
1st Place: JJ Gonzalez and Jesus Barajas
2nd Place: Richi Kalra
3rd Place: Curtis Rossmiller and Nate Black
Just missing out and being designated as alternates are Keenan Sheffield and Christian Minett.
Full results from the JV Challenge Series event are available at this link.
Our girls traveled to their first Women’s tournament today at Kenosha Bradford to participate in a 12-team tournament. They came in 2nd place as a team!
2nd Place: Lauren Buehler and Ashley Xochipa
3rd Place: Khloe Meyer and Odeling Gonzales
4th Place: Athena Soto
Awesome job to both our men’s and women’s programs!
Article Submitted by John Schimming Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach jschimming@wwusd.org
The gymnastics team had their first home meet this season on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. JV competed for the first time and WON!
Emily O’Donnell and Stephanie Walters both competed for the 1st time on Vault. Stephanie Walters and Alexa Wildenberg tied for 3rd with a season best score of 6.7.
We had 3 compete on JV Bars, which hasn’t happened for a while. We are super excited to have JV girls competing in this rotation. Stephanie Walters took 4th, Grace Coleman took 3rd, and Payton Brautigam took 1st with a 4.2.
On Beam rotation, Stephanie Walters took 4th. We had two girls compete on Beam for the 1st time, Grace Coleman who took 3rd and Alexa Wildenberg who took 2nd with her no fall Beam routine.
We had a full roster on Floor with 4 out of 5 girls doing their routines for the first time. It was a 1st time performance for Grace Coleman, Payton Brautigam, Emily O’Donnell, and Stephanie Walters. Stephanie took 3rd place and Brooke Bazeley took 1st.
Stephanie Walters competed in All-around for the 1st time and scored 17.50, taking 1st place for JV.
On the Varsity side, we had several season bests and lifetime best scores. We love seeing these girls push themselves in practices and continue to improve!
On Vault, Brenda Aguilar scored a season best score of 7.15 while Nola Coburn also scored a season best score of 7.4. Mady Hefty stepped up to the plate and competed in Vault for the 1st time and posted a score of 7.7 to tie with Makayla Bazeley. Halee Peters took 1st place with a score of 8.20. The girls scored their highest team Vault score with 31.0
Mady Hefty took on Bars for the 1st time as well. Halee Peters took 3rd place on Bars. The team again had their highest team Bars score with a 23.9.
Beam proved to be difficult against a very strong Elkhorn performance. However, Makayla and Brooke Bazeley both had season best performances. Both Bazeley girls had no fall Beam routines. The team even had a season best Beam team score!
The girls had a very strong showing on the Floor rotation. Alexa Wildenberg had a season best score of 6.0. Nola Coburn had a season best score of 6.85 – very close to her lifetime best. Mady Hefty also scored a 6.85 in her Floor debut. Makayla Bazeley had a lifetime best of 7.9, while Halee Peters took 1st place with her lifetime best of 8.6. The team score of 30.2 was a season high score and makes it 4 out of 4 season best scores for the varsity team.
In All-around, Makayla Bazeley received a lifetime best of 29.95, while Halee Peters took 2nd with a 31.40.
Come watch the girls in action at their next conference meet at Jefferson High School on Tuesday, January 10. Go crush it, Whippets!
Article Submitted by Shawnda Peters Whitewater High School Head Gymnastics Coach speters@wwusd.org Photos Courtesy of Bob Mischka
By Lynn Binnie Whitewater Banner volunteer staff whitewaterbanner@gmail.com
The Green Bay Packers have enjoyed a four game winning streak, culminating in the New Year’s Day 41-17 blowout against the Vikings. Immediately after his second-half rushing touchdown in the Vikings game, running back AJ Dillon (#28), conducted an “orchestra” in the end zone. The video of the performance may be viewed here.
Dr. Glenn C. Hayes, director of bands at UW-Whitewater, obviously appreciated the performance, as he sent Dillon the following letter, together with a cherished baton that he used in “the most famous music performance site in the world,” Carnegie Hall. Hayes, whom the students affectionately call “Doc,” expressed the hope that the baton will lead Dillon “to the most famous football game in the world,” obviously the Super Bowl. On January 4, Jordan Dajan on cbssports.com wrote, ” I hypothesized last week that Green Bay could be pulling an “anti-Packers” this season, where it disappoints in the regular season and then explodes in the playoffs. Win this week against the Lions, and the Packers are in the dance.” Super Bowl LVII will be played in Glendale, Arizona on February 12. The Packers’ final regular season game is at Lambeau Field, Sunday, January 8 at 7:20 p.m. The game will be broadcast on NBC, with coverage also on WRNW, Milwaukee, 97.3 FM.
The letter is reproduced below.
Dillon expressed his appreciation to Hayes just two days later with the following tweet, which has had over 1.4 million views.
The exchange has also generated considerable media attention, including the following report on Channel 3000 that features a brief interview with Hayes.
Editor’s note: The photo on the homepage is from AJ Dillon’s Twitter page.
The Whitewater Girls’ Basketball Team played a conference game at home on Thursday night, January 5, against Evansville. It was an exciting, defensive battle throughout, ending in overtime.
Calli Grosinske
Both teams battled in the first half, keeping the score low. We went into halftime down by 1, 10-11. Scoring increased for both teams in the second half, sending the game into overtime tied at 35. The Whippets fell short when Evansville connected on their free throws at end, losing 41-47.
We adjusted well to the changes Evansville made defensively, switching between a man and zone. We played with grit even when our shots wouldn’t fall. Being more patient when we have a lead late in the game is something we need to be more disciplined about.
Calli Grosinske led the Whippets with 13 points, followed by Danielle DePorter with 11, and Mayte Navejas with 8.
Article Submitted by Kristen Lippens Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach klippens@wwusd.org Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
The Whippet Boys’ Swim Team competed against Elkhorn on Tuesday, January 3rd. The boys registered 17 best times, and many tried out new events for the first time.
Some highlights include:
Tyler Arnett edged out his competitor to win the 200 Freestyle by .04 seconds with a time 2:02.94
David Enns had a huge time drop in the 200 Freestyle, dropping over 16 seconds.
Cruz Aranda & Xavier Zei both going best time in 200 IM!
Jack Hefty had a stellar night going best times and winning both individual events. Jack continues to put up a strong performance in the 50 Freestyle going a 25.68. He improved his 100 Breaststroke time by 4 seconds!
Miles Nickelsburg had a strong performance in the 100 Freestyle dropping 6 seconds off his previous time.
Onyx Thompson had a great night despite having all four of his events back to back. He tried out the 400 for the first time and then immediately went into the 200 Freestyle Relay where he went a season best split, then continued right into the 100 Backstroke, and then finished off the night 1 race later in the 400 Freestyle relay where he again went a season best split!
Myles Morse swam a great race in the 100 Backstroke where he edged out his competitor by 1.08 seconds.
Andrew O’Toole had a great 50 Freestyle going a best time of 29.45.
Sam Nickelsburg continues to work hard and drop time in the 400 Freestyle.
Jack Hefty
The boys are back in action on Tuesday, January 10th at home against Platteville/Lancaster and PSC starting at 5:30 p.m. Come out and cheer on the Whippet Swimmers!
Article and Photo Submitted by Sarah Reynolds Whitewater High School Co-Head Boys’ Swim Coach sreynolds@wwusd.org
The Whippet Wrestling Team had the opportunity to host and participate in the Mid-States Wrestling Classic held at UWW on December 28 and 29. This is a long-standing tournament that has been going on for over 40 years and has some of the top talent from WI and IL participating. This year this talent consisted of 41 teams partaking in the very talented pool. There were many highly ranked teams from Illinois and Wisconsin in the tournament with 6 of the top 8 teams from Illinois.
Connor Friend on the Podium
Although the Whitewater team did not have as high of finish as they have had in years past, the coaching staff feels this may have been one of the team’s best performances on the mat. The level of competition may have been the best in the 17 years Coach Schimming has been coaching at Whitewater, so team placement is deceiving. Coach Schimming stated that Whitewater has at times struggled in the opening round of this tournament; however, this year the team did outstanding. They won the first 6 matches contested with 5 of them coming with a pin! Of those 5 weight classes, the loss Whitewater saw was against an opponent that ended up making the semi-finals and thereby guaranteed top six placement, so we consider those some quality losses.
Whitewater had 3 wrestlers advance to day two of the competition, placing these individuals into the top 12 of their weight class. Jarvis Porcaro had his best outing of the season on day 1 with 3 great wins, putting him into day 2. Jarvis ran into tough competition on day 2. He wrestled tough but ended up taking 12th place for the tournament.
Aaron Porras also won 3 on the first day and made day two of the tournament. Aaron opened the day with a tough loss but then came back with one of his best matches of the season as he had a strong opponent from Nicollet, and it was a tight match going into the 3rd period. Aaron turned it on and put together a couple of nice takedowns and ended up using basic techniques and pinned his opponent. Aaron ended his tournament in 10th place.
The Mid-States Classic honors the top 8 wrestlers in their weight class on the podium at the end of the night. This year Whitewater had Connor Friend make the podium with a 6th place finish. Connor lost a close quarterfinal match 8-7 that came right down to the end with Connor almost getting a turn to claim back points but just did not quite make the turn. Connor came back on day 2 with a convincing 10-0 win and then a 4-0 win to reach the top 6. He then dropped the consolation semi-final match to go into the 5th place match. Connor wrestled tough in the last match but could not quite pull it out. Connor wrestled well throughout the tournament with quality matches that allowed us to find things we will work on as we enter the back half of the season.
The team is next in action on January 5th when they travel to Jefferson for an RVC Dual. On January 7th the team will host a large JV Tournament with approximately 20 teams at Whitewater High School.
Article and Podium Photo Submitted by John Schimming Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach jschimming@wwusd.org Action Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
Editor’s note: The following was provided by Coach Tony Aranda.
Whitewater United U15 boys played in the Brookfield indoor soccer league and just wrapped up their first session. They were ranked number one (6-0) going into the final game on Saturday, December 17th. With two injured players (Tyler and Caden) and three others players unable to make it (Avi, Richi, and Dylan), that left just enough players to play the final game and no substitutions available.
As the game began, it immediately became clear it was going to be an intense and highly fast paced game. By halftime, Whitewater was down 0-3 and running out of steam. As the 2nd half began, Whitewater knew their season and perfect record were on the line. With encouragement from Coach Tony, plays started coming together for Whitewater. At the 18th minute of the 25 minute 2nd half, Whitewater’s first goal came from Kevin. Four minutes later, Kevin scored his 2nd goal and pushed the team closer. Cruz, Issac, and Ash continued to have unbelievable defending skills to not allow the opponent to score. Casey (goalie) continued stopping shots at goal constantly to keep the score close. Two minutes later, Kevin scored the 3rd goal giving him a “hat trick” and making the score even at 3-3. With nine minutes to go to end the game, Abdi scored the 4th goal for Whitewater taking the lead at 4-3. The final eight minutes were spent with incredible defending skills by every player for Whitewater and they were using every bit of energy they had left. The game ended with Whitewater winning 4-3 in an amazing comeback and hard fought game. The entire game they had no substitutions available so no player was able to take any breaks and they did not allow any goals the 2nd half of the game. They finished their session with a perfect record 7-0 and winning the championship final.
