The gymnastics team traveled to Southwestern High School for another Invite on Saturday, January 21. There were a lot of amazing gymnasts competing and some super fun routines to watch and cheer on. It was fun to see all the teams supporting and cheering for each other despite being from different schools. Our girls had a great day and posted some awesome scores!

Our strongest rotation was on the Vault where the girls crushed it. Not only did the varsity team have their highest team score of 31.075; 3 girls had lifetime best scores. Makayla Bazeley posted a 7.95, Nola Coburn posted an 8.0, and Mady Hefty posted an 8.275. These scores were all significantly higher than their previous Vault scores.

The girls took on the Beam, and despite a few falls amongst the team, we did have one gymnast have a no fall Beam routine – Brooke Bazeley.  We also had some notable improvements in scores. Nola Coburn scored a season best with a 6.6, while Brenda Aguilar knocked her old score out of the way and scored a season best of 6.8. The varsity team had their highest score of the season with a 26.8. We love seeing these numbers climb!

On the Floor, we heard a lot of teams cheering for us which always gives us a boost. The girls are really pushing themselves and it shows. Brenda competed for the first time this season on Floor and slayed the day with a lifetime best of 7.2. Nola improved her season best with a 6.9, while Stephanie Walters improved her season best with a 6.3. Makayla Bazeley added a beautiful shushunova into her routine and earned herself a 7.85.

Last rotation was on Bars where the girls continued to shine. Stephanie fought for and earned a season best of 4.3. Mady upped her score from last week with another season best score of 5.95. Makayla decided at the last minute to add in a new move on Bars to spice it up and be adventurous – she likes to keep us guessing. She added a switch kip after her double cut catch to earn a 7.05. Love watching the girls attempt and succeed in new moves. 

Mady competed in All-Around for the first time this season and earned 27.525. It’s such an awesome deal when the girls compete in all 4 rotations. Stephanie earned her highest All-Around score with 20.05. Both Nola and Makayla scored lifetime bests in All-Around as well with 26 & 30.1, respectively. 

We have a little break from competition through finals week and then will be back to competing on January 31st against Badger.

Article and Photos Submitted by Shawnda Peters
Whitewater High School Head Gymnastics Coach
speters@wwusd.org

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