Today is Tuesday, July 23, 2024
By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information
Platteville, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater wrestling team finished third while a pair of Warhawks claimed individual titles at the 2024 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Wrestling Championship hosted by UW-Platteville Saturday.
Dominik Mallinder defended his 2023 title at 133 pounds by defeating the same opponent he faced a year ago. Ethan Pogorzelski secured the 141-pound crown after battling his teammate in the final. The Warhawks advanced six wrestlers to title bouts Saturday.
Mallinder received a pair of byes to open his day in the semifinal against UW-Eau Claire’s Travis Moelter. He needed just over three minutes (3:18) to register the win by technical fall, 22-3, to punch his ticket to the final. In the championship, Mallinder topped UWEC’s Tyler Fleetwood by 9-3 decision to claim a second consecutive WIAC title at 133 pounds.
Pogorzelski and Justin Fortugno each won their first two matches of the day at 141 pounds to set up an all-Warhawk title bout. Fortugno opened his day with a fall over UW-Stevens Point’s Mohammed Abbosov in 2:46. He defeated Kaiden Schrandt (UW-La Crosse) by 4-1 decision to claim his spot in the final. Pogorzelski went through Bo Niewiadomski (UWEC – 7-4 decision) and Cooper Peterson (UWSP – 6-5 decision) to advance to the final. The pair of Warhawks battled it out taking the bout into extra time with Porgorzelski taking the crown in sudden victory 4-1.
Scott Busse made his way to the championship at 149 pounds. After receiving a first round bye, Busse defeated Riese Thornberry (UWSP) by 7-2 decision. He punched his ticket to the final after Zach Sato of UWEC was disqualified in the semifinal but was forced to forfeit the title bout to finish as the runner-up.
Jermaine Butler, UW-Whitewater’s representative on the All-Sportsmanship Team this season, went 2-1 on the day to finish as the WIAC runner-up at 157 pounds. Following a first round bye, Butler won by major decision over UWL’s Cooper Larson. He topped David Cushman in sudden victory in the semifinal to advance to the championship. In the title bout, Butler fell to undefeated Nolan Hertel of UW-La Crosse by 5-0 decision to claim second.
Ryan Riser added a third runner-up finish for UWW in the 2024 championship. Riser received a first round bye at 174 pounds before taking down Bryce Buchanan (UWSP) by major decision 11-0. In the semifinal, Riser defeated Eddie Simes (UWL) in sudden victory 4-1. Riser fell to UW-Eau Claire’s Jared Stricker by major decision in the title bout.
At 125 pounds, Jalen Dunson advanced to the semifinal before working his way back to a third-place finish. Dunson opened his day with a technical fall (6:47, 22-6) win over Thomas Giere of UWL. He dropped the semifinal bout to Luca Paladino of UWSP by 6-4 decision. Dunson secured his spot in the third-place match with a major decision victory of Platteville’s Chris Karbash, 21-7. He took bronze with a 6-3 decision over UWL’s Quintin Wolbert.
Aden Byal battled back to finish third after dropping his first match of the day at 157 pounds. Byal fell to Colton Sund of UWEC by 4-3 decision in the quarterfinal but worked his way back with a technical fall victory (4:04, 16-1) over Joey Ahern (UWSP) and a major decision (14-3) over UWP’s David Cushman. In the third-place bout, Byal won in sudden victory, 11-8, over UWL’s Cooper Larson.
John Fortugno (133 pounds), Jalin Conner (149 pounds) and Cadin Koeppel (285 pounds) were fourth in their respective weight classes. Warhawks finishing in fifth place included Caden Kirchner (165) and Gavin Kohel (184). Jordan Lewis added sixth-place points to the team total for his finish at 197 pounds.
UW-Eau Claire and UW-La Crosse scored 161.5 to share the WIAC team title with the Warhawks totaling 121 points as a squad. UW-Stevens Point finished fourth (70.5) followed by UW-Platteville (29.5) and UW-Oshkosh (13).
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By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information
River Falls, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater came back to defeat UW-River Falls 72-71 Saturday. Kacie Carollo hit a pair of free throws in the final two seconds to seal the win.
Box Score
The Warhawks battled back from a 25-19 deficit after the first quarter, cutting the margin in half by the break. UWW trailed by as much as nine partway through the third quarter but continued to fight. With the Falcons leading 57-48 with 4:32 left in the third, Aleah Grundahl knocked down a jumper to spark an 8-2 run capped by a Katie Hildebrandt triple to pull within three. Hildebrandt connected from deep again to narrow the gap to one, 64-63, by the end of the third.
The fourth quarter was low scoring with the teams trading the lead throughout. Carollo found Grundahl in transition for a fastbreak layup to claim the lead with the first bucket of the fourth, 65-64. After a three-pointer for UWRF, Grundahl dropped in a jumper to knot the game 67-67 before the offenses went cold.
The Falcons ended the nearly four-minute scoring hiatus with a layup to pull ahead 69-67 with 4:26 to go. Another three minutes ticked away before another score as UWRF hit another layup to extend the margin to four, 71-67, with 1:07 remaining.
Carollo picked the pocket of a Falcon player and hit Grundahl for a triple to pull UWW to within one, 71-70. UWRF called timeout immediately to advance the ball with 36 seconds left. The Falcons took their time, but as the shot clock ran down, the Warhawk defense surrounded the ball with Grundahl knocking the ball free and Lunden Alexander claiming possession.
UW-Whitewater took a timeout, but because a dribble had occurred, the Warhawks were unable to advance the ball. UWW had just 6.3 seconds to go the length of the floor with one timeout in bank. Bri McCurdy inbounded to Carollo who sprinted up the floor before being fouled with 2.7 seconds on the clock.
Before the sideline inbounds pass was made, UW-River Falls was whistled for another foul – their next foul would put the Warhawks at the line. McCurdy set to inbound in front of the UWW bench, but once again Carollo was fouled before the ball was inbounded. Carollo stepped to the line and drained both to give the Warhawks the 72-71 lead with 2.7 left.
The Falcons took a timeout to advance the ball to their front court. UWW head coach Keri Carollo saw the inbound set and called the Warhawks’ final timeout. UWRF found a guard on the inbound and was able to get a shot off before the buzzer, but it fell short sealing the UWW win.
Grundahl posted a game-high 23 points on 10-17 from the floor and 2-4 from beyond the arc. Carollo registered a double-double with 16 points bolstered by a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line while adding 14 boards and seven assists. Hildebrandt rounded out the double-digit scorers for UWW with 12 points on 4-8 from long range.
UW-Whitewater secured a first round bye in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament as the number two seed. The Warhawks will host the semifinals Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Kachel Gym. UWW’s opponent will be the highest remaining seed after the first round games that include UW-River Falls (#6) at UW-Stout (#3) and UW-La Crosse (#5) at UW-Platteville (#4).
The winners of the semifinal games will advance to the WIAC Tournament Championship. The highest remaining seed will host the final Friday at 7 p.m. The WIAC Tournament Champion will receive the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The following information was received from Sam Bartlett, Whitewater High School Head Football Coach:
Below is a link to our Football Team Donation page. If you are willing and able, you can use it to donate towards our Football Team! It would be greatly appreciated as the funds will go directly towards the athletes we currently have in the program. Thank you for all your help! If you could share this link as well, that will help a ton! If you do not know an athlete on the team, you can select a random athlete as they are competing to see who raises the most!
Jefferson beat Whitewater 46-41 in a Rock Valley Conference girls’ basketball game on Thursday, February 15. The two teams will play again in round 2 of the WIAA tournament next Friday night at Whitewater.
Jefferson jumped out to a 9-0 lead and a 14-4 lead before Whitewater closed the half on a 9-1 run to cut the lead to two. The game went back and forth in the second half, but Jefferson was able to pull it out in the end.
Whitewater will host Jefferson on Friday, February 23 at 7:00 p.m. in round 2 of the WIAA tournament. The winner will play Saturday night against an opponent to be determined.
Article Submitted by Mike Dowden
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
dowmi01@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Peter and Bob Mischka
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