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. 

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.

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.

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