On Friday night, January 20, seven boys and five girls traveled to Wausau to take part in the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association Challenge Series Finals on Saturday.

The Challenge Series is a qualifying tournament where the top three boys from eight different regionals come together to compete. This shows some great competition for the Junior Varsity Level students across the state. Whitewater was fortunate to have seven boys qualify for this event. They included Curtis Rossmiller, Keenan Sheffield, Nate Black, Christian Minett, JJ Gonzalez, Richi Kalra and Jesus Barajas. Each of these individuals had some very competitive matches throughout the day. 

Barajas was the top place winner, coming in 8th place. He started out the day with his best match of the season in a close 6-5 victory. He continued to wrestle well but came up short, just getting out of positions.

Curtis Rossmiller also had a very nice day going 2-2 with two pins and one close 8-7 loss. Curtis is a first-year wrestler and is progressing nicely.

Nate Black started his day with a pin and then wrestled extremely well before getting caught after being aggressive for a takedown. He learned that he has to have a short memory in tournaments like this as he struggled to get past the upsetting loss. Although he did not do as well as he hoped, he continued to show great improvement on the mat.

Sheffield, Minett, Gonzalez, and Kalra all also wrestled well showing nice things in each match but came up short. In personal reflection on the drive home as they slept I realized we had a lot of losses on the day that we were doing extremely well in. That is tough for students to understand. They often just look at the outcome and not the process along the way.  Each of the boys did very well on Saturday.

Five girls from the wrestling team also competed at Wausau on Saturday in the Wisconsin High School Girls Challenge. All but one of these ladies are first time wrestlers so this may have been quite an experience as there were eight mats, people on all sides of the gym, and brackets of 24-32 competitors in each weight class.

The girls did well, and as was the case with the boys, I felt like I had the same reflection; they wrestled well but came up short. They all seemed to have a good attitude and will learn from this experience.

Khloe Meyer and Ashly Xochipa each lost their first match to the young lady who ended up taking runner-up in their weight classes.

Xochipa came back from her loss and wrestled very well. She ended up pinning her next two opponents and then winning the 3rd by a 2-point decision to come in as Consolation Champion.

Adalynn Frye wrestled for the first time ever in competition and did well. She came out and scored a takedown and almost had her second girl turned, but lack of experience put her out of position.

Athena Soto came out strong against her first opponent scoring three takedowns and wrestled well. Again, more mat time is needed to get the experience of position for her.

Finally, Odeling Gonzales started her day off with a girl who had lots of experience based on the techniques she was showing. In her second match Odeling was aggressive, getting a couple of takedowns but came up short.

Overall, I was happy with both the boys’ and girls’ team at this event. They should be proud of their accomplishment at this large event.

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

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

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