Today is Tuesday, July 23, 2024
By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information
The No. 10 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s basketball team picked up a huge 73-67 comeback win over UW-La Crosse Saturday afternoon. The Warhawks outscored the Eagles 23-10 in the final quarter of the instant classic in Kachel Gymnasium. Senior Aleah Grundahl set the UW-Whitewater single game scoring record with 39 points to lead UWW to the win on senior day.
UWW seniors (L-R: Aleah Grundahl, Lunden Alexander, Kendall Roquet) pose with their families at the halftime recognition Saturday (Olivia Zinanni)
The Warhawks jumped out to a 9-2 lead, bolstered by seven points from Grundahl, just over three minutes into the game. UW-La Crosse whittled away at margin and eventually took the lead courtesy of a pair of three-pointers late in the first quarter.
The Eagles built up an eight-point lead by the 6:35 mark of the second quarter but UWW battled back to pull within two by the break, 40-38.
The third quarter belonged to UWL as the Eagles outscored UWW 17-12 to take a seven-point advantage into the final period. The Warhawks continued to battle putting forth an incredible fourth-quarter effort to come back for the win.
The final 10 minutes went back-and-forth early on with the teams trading runs. UWW used a 7-0 spurt early to cut the lead to two, but the Eagles would extend their advantage back to six, 67-61, with less than four minutes to play. The stifling Warhawk press and defense held UWL scoreless the rest of the way. Although Grundahl had been scoring all game, she took over in the final minutes. The senior knocked down a three, hit a layup, dropped in a pair of free throws and hit a jumper for a 9-0 solo run that gave the Warhawks a 3-0 lead – 70-67 with 1:35 remaining.
After a scoreless minute, UWL was fouled to send Maggie Trautsch to the line. She hit one to extend the gap to 71-67 with 22 seconds on the clock. A miss on the second free throw had the clock running right away and the Eagles bolting down the floor. The three-point heave was no good and Trautsch ran down the defensive board. She was quickly fouled and headed back to the line.
This time UW-La Crosse called timeout after the miss to move the ball into their offensive end with nine seconds left in a four-point game. The Eagles got a shot off with just over three seconds on the clock with Bri McCurdy crashing the glass for a defensive board to all but seal the game with 2.7 left.
UWW called timeout and advanced the ball for an inbounds play in front of their bench. McCurdy took the ball, surveyed and found Grundahl who was quickly fouled. She hit both to seal the game with her second breaking the program’s single game scoring record.
Grundahl’s 39 points surpasses the mark set by Jody Landish (38) that had stood as the UWW record since 1995. That mark is tied for eighth-most in a single game by any player in WIAC history. Grundahl’s 39 came on 11-16 from the floor, 2-4 from beyond the arc and a phenomenal 15-16 from the charity stripe. She added six boards and three steals in the game.
Trautsch was the most active on the glass with 13 rebounds including multiple late-game defensive boards that were integral in the comeback win.
The Warhawk press, especially late in the game, led to a hefty advantage in points off miscues – 20-7 – in favor of UWW.
With just two regular season games remaining, the Warhawks maintain a hold on second place in the WIAC standings with a 9-3 record. UW-Oshkosh leads the league with a 10-2 mark with UW-Platteville standing third at 7-5.
On Thursday night, February 8, the Whitewater Girls’ Wrestling team made history when they traveled to Beloit Turner High School to participate in two dual meets against Muskego and Turner. Over the course of the season the girls have been doing an outstanding job competing but never in a situation where it was set up as an official dual meet.
Whitewater started off against Muskego in a fun dual meet. Coming up with wins for the Whippets were Ema Aranda, Silvia Harris, Isabelle Cantu, Lauren Buehler, A’Lani Ross, and Myia Cobbs. At the conclusion of the last match the teams were deadlocked so the rule book was broken out to find the tiebreaker criteria. The coaches and official had to go down to criteria letter i, most first points scored in a match, in which the Whippets lost by two points.
In the second dual of the night, the Whippets competed against Beloit Turner. Again, this dual was quite the meet. Coming up with wins for the Whippets were Ema Aranda, Lauren Buehler, A’Lani Ross, Atreya Wilson, and Marianna Kubicz. With Atreya getting her pin, it put the Whippets yet again tied, as the dual meet ended once again having us pull out the rule book. This time the Whitewater girls came out on top in the criteria by filling out more of the weight classes for the victory. Future trivia question: What was the date that the Whitewater Girls’ Wrestling Team won their first official dual meet? The answer will be February 8, 2024!
Outstanding job by all the girls for hard fought matches. It was very exciting to watch the girls compete in this capacity.
Next up for the girls’ team is when they travel to Campbellsport on February 17 to compete in the Girls’ WIAA Sectional Tournament, vying for a trip to the state wrestling tournament.
Article and Photos Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
Team Photo Courtesy of Jeff Hefty
The Whitewater Whippet Gymnastics Team went to Elkhorn Thursday night, February 8. The JV team took 2nd with a score of 65.2750. It is the JV’s highest score this year.
Vaulting for the first time, Maddie Morton scored a 7.050. Maggie, Amaya, and Gabriella scored their highest on vault.
JV Balance beam was once again a no fall beam routine from the four girls that competed.
JV had 5 girls compete on the floor, with all the girls scoring the personal best for the year so far.
Whitewater Whippets Gymnastics has two more meets left in the season. They will be in Waterford on Tuesday, February 13th and then head to Elkhorn for Conference on the 16th.
Article Submitted by Shawnda Peters
Whitewater High School Head Gymnastics Coach
speters@wwusd.org
Photos Courtesy of Bob Mischka
Whitewater beat Clinton 57-38 Thursday night, February 8, in a Rock Valley Conference girls’ basketball crossover game.
Whitewater slowly built a double-digit lead towards the end of the first half and kept that lead the rest of the night.
Grosinske led Whitewater with 22, Navejas contributed 13, DePorter added 8, and Kohl scored 7, balancing out the scoring.
Whitewater is at Oconomowoc on Friday, February 9. They finish the regular season on Monday, February 12 (vs. East Troy) and Thursday, February 15 (vs. Jefferson) at home.
Article Submitted by Mike Dowden
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
dowmi01@wwusd.org
Photo courtesy of Bob Mischka
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