Today is Friday, October 9, 2026
No. 3 Warhawk Football Edges UW-River Falls
Chris Lindeke, Assistant Athletic Director, Strategic Communications and Branding – University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
October 23, 2021
Box Score: https://uwwsports.com/sports/football/stats/2021/uw-river-falls/boxscore/15414
The No. 3 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team took the lead with just under three minutes to play Saturday and held on late for a 34-28 victory at UW-River Falls in a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest.
After the Falcons (5-2 overall, 2-2 WIAC) tied the game with 5:41 left in the fourth quarter, Jaylon Edmonson returned the ensuing short kickoff 46 yards to the UW-RF 19-yard line.
From there, Matt Maldonado put his 28-yard kick through the uprights to give the Warhawks (7-0, 4-0) a 31-28 advantage.
On the ensuing kickoff return, Daniel Baggett forced a fumble that was recovered by Kyle Koelblinger at the Falcons’ 14-yard line.
Three plays later, Maldonado hit a 31-yard field goal to double the UW-W lead to six with 1:51 on the clock.
On the first play from scrimmage on the next drive, Koelblinger picked off Kole Hinrichsen at midfield, and UW-Whitewater ran out the clock for the win.
Quarterback Max Meylor threw for 166 yards and three touchdowns. Tamir Thomas and Alex Peete led the Warhawks’ rushing attack with 83 and 74 yards, respectively. Derek Kumerow posted five receptions for 64 yards to lead all receivers.
Koelblinger led the defense with four tackles, two interceptions and one fumble recovery. Linebackers Shane McGrail and Aaron Sturdevant tied for the team high with six tackles apiece.
UW-Whitewater scored touchdowns on its first two offensive possessions and forced three-and-outs defensively on UW-River Falls’ first two possessions.
After a 41-yard punt return by Dain Hudson that was moved back to the Falcons’ 40-yard line on a penalty, the Warhawks took six plays to find the end zone. After a third-and-12 completion from Meylor to Ryan Wisniewski, Tyler Holte caught a 6-yard touchdown from Meylor at the 10:34 mark of the first quarter.
Thomas set up UW-Whitewater’s next touchdown with runs of 22 and nine yards, respectively. Meylor hit Wisniewski for a 23-yard score to make it 14-0 with 6:33 to play in the period.
UW-River Falls tallied 21 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 21-14 advantage into halftime.
After a UW-W punt, the Falcons drove near midfield. On third down, Niko Lemke recovered a UW-RF fumble to give the Warhawks the ball at the Falcons’ 44-yard line.
From there, UW-Whitewater tied the game at 21-21 on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Meylor to Sam DeLany with 10:16 remaining in the third quarter.
Following a UW-River Falls punt, the Warhawks took the lead on a 10-play, 70-yard drive that included a 16-yard pass from Meylor to Kumerow on fourth-and-4 from the Falcons’ 33-yard line. Edmonson ran for 11 yards, and Peete completed the drive with a six-yard scoring run with 2:51 to go in the frame.
A turnover deep in UW-W territory set up UW-River Falls’ game-tying touchdown and set the stage for the final six minutes of action.
UW-Whitewater hosts UW-Eau Claire during Homecoming next Saturday, Oct. 30, at 1 p.m. at Perkins Stadium.
The Whippet Volleyball Season came to an end Thursday night when they lost (7-25, 12-25, 10-25) to McFarland that is the #1 seed in the region and the #3 seed in the state for Division 2.
Whitewater finished the 2021 season 14-16 overall and 5-4 in the Rock Valley Conference for a 4th place finish.
Stats Leaders for the night:
Kills: Kindyl Kilar-7
Assists: Avery Hintz-7
Digs: Caleigh Yang-8
Article Submitted by Kathy Bullis
Whitewater High School Head Volleyball Coach
kbullis@wwusd.org
File Photo Courtesy of Bob and Peter Mischka
Editor’s note: The following information was submitted by Rita Hookstead.
Heather (Hookstead) Melloch, WHS ‘13 graduate, and Jon Zimdars, WHS ’15
graduate, completed Ironman Wisconsin on Sunday, September 12.
Ironman Wisconsin offers a challenging course beginning with the swim (2.4 miles) in
Lake Monona. As athletes exit the water, they run up the helix at the Monona
Terrace to get their bikes (112 miles). The bike consists of two challenging loops
loaded with many hills. Once off the bikes, athletes headed out on to a 2 loop run
(26.2 miles – full marathon).
Heather and Jon were close to each other throughout the day. Jon, a former
Whitewater High School and Kenyon College swimmer, started with the first group
of athletes in the water and Heather, a former Whitewater High School basketball
player, started approximately five minutes later. By the end of the bike, they were
separated by a mere eight minutes. Once on the run course, they closed the gap and finished within one minute of each other.
Congratulations to both athletes. Both finished in the top 22% of all athletes.
Splits for the day were:
Heather – 416th out of 1954 Athletes
Jon: 444th out of 1954 Athletes
Swim: 1:12.00 Swim: 1:03.:05
Bike: 6:55:46 Bike: 7:07:07
Run: 4:04.35 Run: 4:12:50
Total Time: 12:32:50 Overall: 12:38:22
Banner note: Our thanks to Rita Hookstead for submitting this interesting article.
The Whippets travel to McFarland Thursday, October 21st, to take on the Spartans in the second round of WIAA Volleyball Regionals. The game is slated for 7:00 p.m., and masks are required to be worn by all.
The Whippets swept Big Foot Tuesday, October 19th, in front of a large and loud Whitewater cheering section to claim a 3-0 first round victory (25-21, 26-24, 25-20).
Stat Leaders for the night were as follows:
Aces: Avery Hintz, Cali Kopecky, and Kindyl Kilar each had 2
Kills: Kindyl Kilar with 18, and Cali Kopecky and Savanna Hill both with 4
Blocks: Jenna Pope with 2
Digs: Cali Kopecky with 15, Kindyl Kilar with 10, and Avery Hintz with 9
Article Submitted by Kathy Bullis
Whitewater High School Head Volleyball Coach
kbullis@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Peter Mischka
Upcoming Events
