Today is Friday, June 26, 2026
By Chris Lindeke
Marketing and Communications Manager
University Marketing and Communications
Behind strong performances from current and former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student-athletes, the Team USA wheelchair basketball men’s and women’s teams each captured a gold medal and punched their ticket to the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris over the weekend at the 2023 Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
The men secured first place with a convincing 81-45 victory against Colombia in the championship game to finish an impressive 5-0 showing at the tournament. Team USA raced out to a 26-7 lead in the first quarter and didn’t look back. Jake Williams, a former player and the current head coach for the UW-Whitewater men’s team, led the team with 24 points.
Current Warhawks AJ Fitzpatrick and Talen Jourdan, former Warhawk and current staff member John Boie, and former Warhawk and current graduate student Jeromie Meyer were also part of the gold medal-winning performance.
The Team USA women avenged two consecutive losses against Canada with a win in the final to claim their spot in Paris next summer, finishing off an unbeaten week in Santiago.
Former Warhawks Lindsay Zurbrugg and Rebecca Murray were among four Team USA players in double figures in scoring, together accounting for 27 points in the team’s 62-56 victory. Former Warhawk Josie DeHart was also a part of the gold medal run.
The 2024 Paralympic Games are scheduled from Aug. 28-Sept. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. Williams and Boie won gold as members of Team USA at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and Williams was a part of the gold medal-winning Team USA at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Murray’s dominating performance led the women’s Team USA to gold, also at the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
The Warhawk men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams begin the 2023-24 season this Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1-2, with a home tournament at the Williams Center.
UW-Whitewater is recognized consistently for exceptional programming and outcomes for students with disabilities. The Warhawk men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball teams are club sports that compete nationally.
The Warhawk men’s team has won 13 national championships since 1982, while the women have claimed three national titles. Several of each program’s alums are Paralympic medalists.
The Whitewater Girls’ Basketball Team won their conference opener on Tuesday night, November 21, with a 50-42 win at Delavan-Darien High School.
The Whippets jumped out to an early lead, but the game was within single digits for most of the night.
Calli Grosinske and Mayte Navejas had a few key steals late in the second half to break the game open and secure the win.
Article Submitted by Mike Dowden
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
dowmi01@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
Grand Rapids, Mich. — The No. 9 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s basketball team topped Calvin University 64-55 on the road Saturday afternoon.
Box Score
The Warhawks came back from an early deficit to take a narrow lead, 32-30 at halftime. The Knights registered the first bucket of the second half, but Aleah Grundahl responded with an old-fashioned three-point play to give UWW a 35-32 lead. A pair of Mallory Oloffson free throws extended the lead to five, but Calvin used a triple and a free throw to pull within one, 37-36, with under four to go in the quarter.
The Knights knotted the game 41-41 with 1:59 on the scoreboard. Kacie Carollo reclaimed the advantage for UW-Whitewater with two more free throws and the Warhawks never trailed the rest of the way. Grundahl dropped in one more free throw before the teams went into the final quarter with UWW leading 44-41.
UW-Whitewater tallied the first six points of the fourth. Grundahl hit a layup and Maggie Trautsch followed with a rare four-point play to widen the margin to 50-41. After a Calvin layin, Grundahl scored the next six points of the game to give UW-Whitewater the largest lead of the game, 56-43, with 6:25 remaining. The lead hovered near double figures the rest of the way.
The Warhawks outscored Calvin 20-14 in the final quarter bolstered by a 9-4 sway in free throws. For the game, UWW was 21-30 compared to 15-20 for the Knights.
Grundahl led all players with 21 points on 7-17 from the field and 7-9 from the free throw line. She added nine rebounds, a block and a pair of steals. Carollo added 19 points on 6-16 from the floor and 6-8 from the charity stripe while adding eight boards and four assists. Oloffson rounded out the double-digit scorers for UWW with 10 points bolstered by a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line.
By Broderick P. Frye
Asst. Sports Information Director
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men’s basketball team picked up their first road win of the year, improving to 5-0. The Warhawks defeated Ripon 77-56 in the Saturday afternoon match-up.
Straight out of the gates, the Warhawks jumped up to a 7-0 lead before Ripon scored their first basket. The Warhawks led by 11, at 16-5 about halfway through the first, but a string of turnovers led to the Red Hawks tying the game up at 19 a piece at the under eight media.
Ripon used the momentum to put together a 12-0 run and went up by five (24-19), their largest lead of the game, but the Warhawks battled back, regaining the lead and going up by five before the end of the half, 34-29.
After the break, UW-Whitewater outpaced the Red Hawks, putting together a string of runs to go ahead by double digits. The Red Hawks tried closing the gap hitting three-pointers, but the Warhawk lead never dropped below double-digits, cruising to the 77-56 victory.
Trevon Chislom (McFarland, Wis./McFarland) led the way with scoring, putting up 20 points and also pulling down 8 rebounds. James Kelley (Milwaukee, WI/St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy) added 12 points of his own, with Miles Barnstable (Sheboygan, Wis./Howards Grove) chipping in 11. Carter Capstran (Franklin, Wis./Franklin) nearly had a double-double, with 10 points and a team-high 9 rebounds.
As a team, the Warhawks shot 50.9% (28-for-55) from the floor with an impressive second half (53.8% from the floor). Ripon only shot 32.7% from the floor (18-for-55). UW-Whitewater heavily outrebounded the Red Hawks, pulling down 40 rebounds to Ripon’s 24.
Next for men’s basketball is another road game, heading to Kenosha to take on Carthage on November 28th at 7:00 p.m. The Firebirds are ranked 18th in the D3hoops.com preseason poll, but a new poll comes out on November 27th, the day before the matchup.
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