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There was great energy from the very start of the girls’ basketball game against Big Foot on Thursday night, January 19. We were determined to control the tempo of the game and shoot with confidence, and we did just that. The best part was every player contributed to the win.
In the first half, we played tight defense forcing turnovers, took care of the ball, and rebounded well. We finished the first half up 27-10.
In the second half we kept our momentum up and went on an 11-0 scoring run, putting us up 41-10 with around 10 minutes left in the game. We got stuck at 49 points at the 5:00 mark as Big Foot got a spark on offense, scoring 10 to close the gap to 49-28 with 3 minutes left to play. We held them to 28 with a final score of 52-28 for the win.
Danielle DePorter led the Whippets with 14 points, followed by Calli Grosinske with 12 points and 6 steals. Cali Kopecky added 11 points, 4 assists, and 5 rebounds. Katie Gillette ripped down 6 rebounds and had 3 steals.
We travel to Fort Atkinson on Tuesday for a non-conference match up.
Article Submitted by Kristen Lippens
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
klippens@wwusd.org
File Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
It’s time once again for #FlashbackFriday with the Whitewater Historical Society.
This week’s image from c.1900 shows one of the best Queen Anne style homes built in the late nineteenth century in Whitewater, the house at 166 N. Fremont St., as taken in winter by historic amateur photographer Henry Scholl with a glass plate negative. The three-story square tower gives this house a distinctive appearance and for many years the owner would put lighted Christmas trees in each of the windows of the tower.
Join us next week for more from the Whitewater Historical Society.
(3615GP, Whitewater Historical Society)
The Whitewater Girls’ Gymnastics Team had a triangular meet against Milton and Janesville Parker on Monday, January 16, 2023.
Although all the girls were close to their season bests on Vault, two of the girls exceeded their best scores. Brenda Aguilar scored a season best of 7.4, so close to a lifetime best and a big increase since last week. Mady Hefty continues to improve her season best each meet, scoring a 7.9 on Vault. The Varsity girls tied their best team score with a 31.
On Bars, Mady Hefty scored another season best with a 5.9. Halee Peters earned herself a 7.65 – tying her lifetime score. The Varsity girls had a season high team score on the Bars as well with a 25.55.
Brooke Bazeley had another no fall Beam routine. She’s had quite the streak going from last season through this season! Mady Hefty was added to the Beam rotation for the first time in a meet and earned herself a 6.7.
The last rotation was on the Floor where we got to watch new skills by three of our gymnasts. Stephanie Walters had a solid performance on the Floor which resulted in a season best score of 6.2. Mady Hefty rounded out her season best scores with another one on the Floor where she got a 7.3. That made 4/4 for her at this meet of season bests. She did a front tuck for the first time in a meet, and it was beautiful. Nola just missed her season best with a 6.75. It was fun to see her add a straddle jump out of her 2nd tumbling pass. Makayla Bazeley has been working really hard to reach her goal of becoming part of the 8.0 club, and she succeeded Monday night. Her very strong Floor routine included her new move of a double turn and scored a lifetime best score of 8.0!
The next gymnastics meet for the girls will be Saturday, January 21, 2023. We will be heading to the Southwest Invite.
Article Submitted by Shawnda Peters
Whitewater High School Head Gymnastics Coach
speters@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
The Whitewater Whippets travelled to Delavan for a non-conference girls’ basketball game against the Delavan-Darien Comets Tuesday night, January 17. It was another close game right up until the end.
Hitting our shots from outside gave us the edge as Delavan collapsed on us around the rim. We went into halftime leading by 4, 20-16. In the second half, Delavan played a more aggressive defensive game, but we rallied and picked up the tempo on offense getting a 10-point lead. Delavan forced some turnovers with a full court press to close the gap and went on a scoring run to tie the game up. We made some adjustments and were able to break the press. In the final minutes of the game, Delavan connected on their free throws giving them the edge with a final score of 44-40.
Danielle DePorter led the Whippets with 17 points, shooting 85% from the field, and 4 for 4 from 3-point range. Kindyl Kilar added 13 points and 8 rebounds.
The Whippets take on Big Foot at home on Thursday, January 19.
Article Submitted by Kristen Lippens
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
klippens@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob and Peter Mischka
The Whippet Boys’ Swim Team finished out their last home meet of the season with a win against the Delavan-Darien Comets Tuesday night, January 17.
Tyler Arnett continues to swim strong in the 200 and 500 Freestyle, going right on his season best times and winning both events.
Miles Nickelsburg had an impressive night taking a 2nd place finish in the 200 Freestyle and 100 Freestyle. Miles dropped 10 seconds in his 100 Freestyle going a 1:03.80.
Jack Hefty won the 200 IM going a new best time of 2:30.72. Jack continues to swim fast and went on to win the 100 Freestyle with a new best time of 57.43. He also had a new 50 Butterfly split of 28.92.
Andrew O’Toole went a best time in 50 FR of 28.35 and then went on to lead off the 200 FR relay and dropped more time in his 50 going a 28.23. Andrew also dropped 8 seconds in the 100 Backstroke with a new time of 1:21.98.
Xavier Zei continues to drop more time in the 100 Breaststroke going a new best time of 1:31.97. That’s a 3 second drop from just last week! He also improved his 50 FR relay split by 4 seconds!
Myles Morse brought home the win in the 50 Freestyle going a best time of 28.25. Myles also swam the 500 Freestyle for the first time this season going a time of 6:50.83.
Cruz Aranda had strong races in the 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke winning and going best times in both events! He dropped 2 seconds in his 100 Butterfly with a new time of 1:08.21.
David Enns continues to improve his technique in the 100 Backstroke. He went a solid time of 1:37.40.
Onyx Thompson swam a great race in the 100 Freestyle and 200 Freestyle going right on his season best times.
The Whippets are up again next week Tuesday, January 24th, at 5:30 p.m. against Jefferson/Cambridge in Jefferson. Hope to see you there!
Article and Photo Submitted by Sarah Reynolds
Whitewater High School Co-Head Boys’ Swim Coach
sreynolds@wwusd.org
Over the last week, from January 10 through the 13th, the Whitewater Wrestling Team had the opportunity to continue to see success on the mat, going 3-0 in dual meets.
On Tuesday night, the Whippets hosted the Oregon Panthers. Whippet Alum Brian Hookstead brought his team to his old stomping grounds. Coach Hookstead has a very nice team this year with some hardnosed wrestlers. It was truly a night of wrestling as the youth club from Oregon also came down, setting up 18 matches showing their skills. Overall each team won about half their matches so it was a good experience for the 3rd – 7th grade students. The JV wrestled very well, winning 48-30 in their contested matches with Oregon.
Coming up with nice wins for the Whippets on Varsity included Jasen Porras (Decision), CJ Tomomitsu (pin), Traysen Thomason (pin), Sebastian Cuellar (pin), Hector Arnodo (pin), and Richard Franco (decision). Also winning by forfeits included Connor Friend, Aaron Porras, and Jesus Barajas to help the Whippets win the dual 48-30.
On Friday night, the team traveled to Evansville to participate in the Rock Valley Conference Duals. This included three rounds of wrestling with Whitewater competing in two of those rounds. In their first dual the Whippets had Brodhead/Juda. Although Brodhead does not field a full team, their students are very tough. Whitewater did very well, including those matches that were not in our favor. Whitewater won this dual 54-30.
In round 3 of the RVC Duals, Whitewater defeated Big Foot 63-16. Going 2-0 on the night were Jasen Porras, Jason Villegas, CJ Tomomitsu, Connor Friend, Sebastian Cuellar, Aaron Porras, and Payton Lyon. Going 1-1 included Jarvis Porcaro, Traysen Thomason, Odair Porras, Avi Kalra, Hector Arnodo, and Deavion Olson.
Sprinkled in throughout the night the JV team also had the opportunity to compete. They did extremely well as it is proof that if you do the basics really well you will see success.
The varsity wrestling team is now 8-0 overall, 7-0 in the RVC. The team is next in action when they travel to the highly competitive Monroe Invitational on Saturday, January 21. On Tuesday, January 24, they host Evansville with each team being 7-0 in the conference.
Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
Last Saturday, January 7, the Women’s Wrestling Team traveled to Kenosha Bradford to participate in the program’s first ever women’s tournament. The team wrestled very well with them coming home with a 2nd place team finish.
Leading the way for the ladies were Lauren Buehler and Ashly Xochipa. Each of these ladies took runner up in their weight classes. Both of them had two very nice wins on the day with their only losses coming to very good girls from Whitefish Bay. Ashly improved to 12-2 on the season and Lauren improved to 8-6.
Taking third place for the Lady Whippets were Khloe Meyer and Odeling Gonzales. This was the first time each of these ladies has medaled in a tournament, and they are really starting to put things together on the mat.
Finishing out placement for the Whippets was Athena Soto taking fourth place in her first tournament ever, as well as Stephanie Wence also taking fourth place.
Besides Ashly, wrestling is very new for our ladies as they have never competed before. The coaches are very impressed with the growth they are all making each day in practice, and it shows when they compete. Whitewater is fortunate to have enough ladies on the team so they have enough to have practice partners in the room. The goal is to keep those numbers growing.
The ladies are next in action when they all travel to Wausau West High School on January 21 to complete in the WWCA Women’s State Finals.
Article and Photo Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
Last Saturday, January 7, the Whitewater Wrestling team hosted a huge wrestling tournament at Whitewater High School called the WWCA JV Challenge Series Regional. This is a tournament sponsored by the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association and provides the junior varsity wrestlers an opportunity to compete for a state championship through the coaches’ association. It is a great opportunity for the JV wrestlers around the state to get some extremely great competition.
Whitewater was the host for 28 schools traveling from as far away as River Valley to Oconomowoc. The tournament is all one division, so students from division 3 to division 1 all descended into Whitewater on Saturday. These 28 schools brought 277 wrestlers to compete in this event with as many as 34-person brackets to work through in an attempt to place in the top 3 and earn the right to advance to the state finals in Wausau.
The Whitewater team did very well all weekend, from Friday evening with setting up 6 mats, Saturday competition, and then finally the cleanup of the entire area on Saturday evening. On the mat, Whitewater wrestlers did very well. There were not any disappointments as far as how the team competed. Sure, there were disappointments in not qualifying for the top 3, but there was outstanding competition to work through, and nearly everyone secured at least one win on the day. Whitewater placed 9 of their 14 wrestlers in the top 5 at their weights.
Highlights of the day included the Whippets having two bring home a Championship, one Runner-Up, and two 3rd place finishes, all qualifying for Wausau. There were two more members of the team who took 4th and were named alternates. Prior to writing this article Coach Schimming got a phone call from Wausau asking for those two students to also come, so Whitewater will have 7 students participating on Saturday, January 21, at Wausau West High School.
Bringing home championships for the Whippets were JJ Gonzalez at 160 and Jesus Barajas at 170 lbs. Both of these athletes wrestled very well throughout the day on their way to the championship.
Coming in runner up for the Whippets was Richi Kalra at 170. Richi wrestled very well all day before falling to teammate Barajas in the finals.
Two students won their final match of the day to come in 3rd place and earn their automatic bid. Curtis Rossmiller at 126 lbs and Nate Black at 152 both wrestled very well losing tough matches in the semi-finals before securing their spot at Wausau with their win at 3rd.
Reaching the semi-finals before suffering their first lost were Keenan Sheffield at 145 and Christian Minett at 152. Keenan lost his 3rd place match to finish in fourth. Christian defaulted his match to teammate Nate Black due to a recurring injury. Fortunately for each of them they will still qualify based on a competitor ahead of them not going.
Finishing in 5th place on the day with a record of 5-1 included Max Babcock and Avi Kalra. Each of them lost early in the day, and based on the design of the bracket the best they could do was 5th place. Each did the best they could after the early loss which was great to see.
Closing out placements was Kane Obregon who took 7th. Kane is in his first year ever wrestling and has done very well losing a couple of close matches over the course of the day.
As an entire program the coaches could not be prouder of the effort given by the team, wrestlers and managers, putting this event on. The group not competing had the daunting task of working tables, which can get to be a very long day for them. They did absolutely outstanding with their job, and when the tournament was over did an outstanding job with the cleanup of the 6 mats that were used and picking up garbage in the stands. The wrestlers and managers should be commended for giving up an entire Saturday so Junior Varsity wrestlers around our area had this opportunity.
Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
File Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
Obituaries
Marion Jauch Burrows (Feb. 2, 1930 – June 5, 2026) Her sparkling eyes, warm laugh, and generous ways were gifts Marion brought into this world, touching family members and friends alike over the ninety-six years of her life. She was born and raised in Lombard, IL, and in the course of her life lived with her husband and growing family in Abilene, TX, St. David’s, PA, Arkadelphia, AR, Ada, OK, and Colorado Springs, CO, before settling in Whitewater, WI, in 1965. Generosity of heart, compassion toward those in need in and beyond her community, and an unwavering commitment to fairness … Read more
Patricia “Pat” Lynn Bailey, age 70, passed away peacefully on June 1, 2026 with her daughter by her side. Pat was born February 21, 1956 in Ann Arbor, Michigan to John and Ruth (Hudock) Prentice. After a brief time in Ann Arbor, the Prentice family moved to Whitewater, Wisconsin, where Pat grew up as part of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater community, where her father served as University Registrar. Pat attended the University School and later graduated from UW Whitewater with a degree in Elementary Education. Although she did not pursue teaching, she built a meaningful career in Human … Read more
Gemelino Paris Esperante, 83, long time resident of Whitewater, passed away on Thursday, June 4th, 2026. He was born on January 10, 1943, to his late father and mother, Evaristo and Carmen in Spain. In 1973 he moved to the United States as a sheep herder. On August 21, 1981, he was united in marriage to Cyndie Esperante in Colorado. Gemelino also worked in Mining and construction for many years. He enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, raising sheep and growing things in his garden, and flowers. He will be missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife … Read more
Mary Ann Warner died peacefully on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at Crestridge Assisted Living in Dodgeville. Her physical heart failed, but her actual, loving heart never did. Ann was born June 28, 1939 to Mary and Charles Kearns in Iowa. She moved to Whitewater, Wisconsin and graduated with many dear friends in the class of 1957. Ann married John Warner on September 19, 1959. They lived in Whitewater, Sturgis Michigan, and finally settled in Janesville where they built a beautiful life and raised their family. Together, they ran a business, traveled, played cards, and enjoyed their lives. When they became … Read more
Patricia Ann Jacobson (Bureau), age 81, of Whitewater, WI, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, WI. Born on September 2, 1944, in Marquette, MI, to the late Donald and Margaret Bureau, Pat grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She graduated from Graveraet High School, attended Michigan State University, and later earned her bachelor’s degree from Northern Michigan University. Pat dedicated her professional life to shaping young minds, working as an elementary and junior high school teacher in both Flint, MI, and Whitewater, WI. At the heart of Pat’s life was a beautiful, … Read more
In loving memory of Lois Lauritzen, age 92, who passed away on June 1, 2026 at Lakewood Memory Care in Brookfield. Lois led an active life full of devotion to family and friends. Born July 14th, 1933 in Silvis, IL, daughter of Harry and Elsie Wilson, she grew up in the Quad Cities with older brother Harry Wilson Jr. Lois graduated from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL with a degree in physical education. She met her husband Paul Lauritzen on the college tennis team. Their marriage on June 12th, 1955 lasted 59 years until Paul’s death on September 26th, … Read more
Donald Walter Triebold passed on to his eternal home on May 21, 2026. Don was born on April 23, 1935, in Evanston, IL, to the late Frederick W. and Mildred (nee Stecher) Triebold. Through his teen years, Don lived and worked on the family’s dairy farm, where he developed a life-long work ethic. His first eight years of education were in a one-room country schoolhouse, in which all eight grades were taught by one teacher. He graduated from Whitewater City High School in 1953 and then graduated from UW Whitewater in 1958 with a degree in Business Education. He continued his education, and earned a Master’s … Read more
William Kincaid Davis, age 84, passed away on Tuesday, May 19 at Agrace Hospice Center in Fitchburg. He was born on November 1, 1941, in Madison, Indiana, the second son of Salvation Army Officers Agnes (Dixon) and William C. Davis. He attended several schools in Indiana and Illinois, including University of Illinois Experimental High School (Champaign), and graduated from Galesburg High School in 1958. He earned his bachelor’s degree from UW-Eau Claire in 1964 and his master’s degree from UW-Whitewater in 1972. He had an expansive career in education, beginning as an English teacher in Whitehall, Thornton Township (IL) and … Read more
Magdalene “Maggie” Stetter (nee Fritz), 79, of Whitewater, Wisconsin passed from this life onto the next on Monday, May 4, 2026. She was born on January 16, 1947, to the late John and Mary (Presser) Fritz in St. Stefan, Austria. Maggie immigrated from Austria with her parents and brother, became a US citizen, and grew up and attended school in West Allis, WI and then graduated with a teaching degree from University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. Maggie served as a substitute, English, and German language teacher in the Whitewater, Elkhorn, Delavan, and Palmyra schools and at Divine Word Seminary. Maggie … Read more
Lawrence “Larry” C. Hartung, a proud Marine Veteran of the Vietnam War, and longtime resident of Fort Atkinson, WI, passed away peacefully at his home on May 1, 2026. Larry was born June 7th, 1949, to Levon and Charles Hartung in Chicago, IL. Larry enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 1968 and served 3 consecutive tours in the Vietnam War. During this time, he became pen pals with his future wife, Candy, via a connection through his father. In 1970, he came home on leave to marry Candy. They celebrated 55 years of marriage on October 31st, 2025. During … Read more
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