The Whippets placed 7th in the Southern Lakes Conference Swim Meet with several best times and one medal winning performance on Saturday, February 5. All of our swimmers helped earn points towards our finish with only the Top 16 places scoring points.

Zach Tomomitsu continues to race fast in the 100 Freestyle, going right on his season best time. He also raced hard in the 100 Backstroke, where he finished in the Top 16!

Tyler Arnett was able to take home a medal with his 3rd place finish in the 500 Freestyle. Tyler also swam two great anchor splits in the 200 and 400 Freestyle Relays, and had a 7th place finish in the 200 Freestyle, going a season best time.

Jack Hefty placed in the Top 16 in both of his individual events. He went a season best time in the 200 Individual Medley, and ended up going a season best 100 Freestyle, while leading off the 400 Freestyle Relay!

Miles Nickelsburg continues to improve his time in the 100 Backstroke, where he dropped 2.5 seconds of his previous best time, and was able to place in the Top 16!

Andrew O’Toole was able to place in the Top 16 in the 100 Breaststroke, and was right on his previous best time! He swam a really nice split in the 200 Freestyle Relay.

Next up is the Sectional Meet at Baraboo on Saturday, February 12.

Article and Photo Submitted by Sarah Reynolds
Whitewater High School Co-Head Boys’ Swim Coach
sreynolds@wwusd.org

The Whitewater Gymnastics Team competed in a tough invitational on Saturday, February 5th, in Dodgeville, against 10 other teams. Our girls fought hard to have their highest team scores of the season on Beam, Floor, and overall!

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Jackie Franco was told at the last minute that we needed her for Vault. Not only was she willing to step in – she got a season best score! Brooklyn Griswold had a season best score on her Floor routine, while Halee Peters tied her season best score on her Floor routine. Nola Coburn had a great Beam routine that earned her a season best score as well as her highest All-Around score of the season. She also tried out some new skills on Bars where she did a back hip circle on the high bar, upping her difficulty. Makayla Bazeley changed up her passes on her Floor routine by adding a front handspring into a roundoff back-handspring tuck to score her a season best score which contributed to her highest All-Around score.

Impressively, we had 4 out of 5 no fall Beam routines by Lexi Kuhnke, Brooklyn Griswold, Makayla Bazeley, and Halee Peters. This was by far our best day for the Whitewater girls on the Beam! We have been working really hard to achieve a lower percentage of Beam falls, and this meet was a success.

There is only one dual meet left for the season – in Waterford this Tuesday, February 8th. Then we will compete next Saturday, February 12th, in Platteville, for another invitational. After that, we are on to our post season meets. 

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

On Saturday, February 5, the Whitewater Wrestling Team traveled to Brodhead to participate in the 2022 Rock Valley Conference Wrestling Championships. This was a battle between the nine conference teams, each looking to win a team title, and individuals looking to be crowned champions.

Whitewater wrestled well throughout the day, with seven students achieving a medal for placing in the top three. The Whippets had five individuals in the championship matches, winning three of the five bouts. Marcus DePorter, Carter Friend, and Mason DePorter each earned their first conference championship, with all of them winning convincingly throughout the day. Marcus was the first to claim a championship, with a commanding 12-3 victory over his opponent from Turner. Friend then followed two weights later, wrestling a very controlled match, defeating his opponent from Evansville by a score of 9-3. Finally, Mason wrestled outstanding in his championship match, taking a commanding lead early, and never letting off the gas on his way to a 12-0 victory. This is a great accomplishment for these young men as a lot of hard work has been put into these championships and now they have their name etched in Whippet History.

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Also reaching the finals for the Whippets included Jarvis Porcaro and Connor Friend. Each of these young men wrestled well all day, but came up short in the finals. Porcaro pinned his way to the championship match, before falling to his opponent from Evansville. Friend had an extremely exciting match in the semi-finals, avenging an earlier season loss, to win 5-4 to reach the championship. Connor came up short in the finals to a senior from East Troy, falling 6-0.

Bringing home the bronze medal for Whitewater were Aaron Porras and Leo Ortiz. Both of these students lost heartbreakers in the semi-finals, but came back and finished their day strong to bring home third place.

As a team, Whitewater came in Runner-Ups to a very good team from Evansville. The coaching staff is happy with the performance of the team, as they did give Evansville a run for part of the day, until they started to pull away in the final round.

The Varsity is now off until Saturday, when they travel to Jefferson to participate in the Regional Tournament. The Junior Varsity team closes out their season this week, as they travel to Clinton on Monday for the RVC JV Conference tournament and then travel to Badger High School on Tuesday to compete in their last tournament.

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

The Whitewater Girls’ Basketball Team traveled to Jefferson for a conference match up on Thursday, February 3. We played aggressively on defense but struggled to stop Jefferson’s Johnson in the paint in the first half, giving her 20 of her 24 points. At half we were down 20-28. 

We kept the game close in the second half, holding Johnson to 4, but we needed to foul at the end and came up short, losing 39-51. 

Nine Whippets contributed in scoring. Danielle DePorter led the Whippets with 12, going 6 for 7 from the free throw line. Kindyl Kilar contributed 7 points, going 4 for 4 from the free throw line. Gwen Truesdale added 5, Calli Grosinske scored 4, and Josie Treder contributed 3. Two points each were scored by Mayte Navejas, Aidyn Amundson, and Cali Kopecky. 

Article Submitted by Kristen Lippens
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
klippens@wwusd.org
File Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka