By Chris Lindeke
Assistant Athletic Director, Strategic Communications and Branding
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Stats: https://uwwsports.com/documents/2021/10/2/26034.pdf

The No. 3 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team combined an opportunistic offense with a defense that stood its ground in the red zone Saturday afternoon for a 37-6 victory against UW-Stout in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener for both teams in front of 8,963 fans at Perkins Stadium.

The Warhawks (4-0 overall, 1-0 WIAC) posted a balanced offensive attack with 165 rushing yards and 193 passing yards, while the defense limited the Blue Devils’ potent offense to one fourth-quarter touchdown.

UW-Whitewater held UW-Stout (3-1, 0-1) to 6-of-18 on third-down conversions and 2-of-6 on fourth down, including three times in UW-W territory.

Max Meylor completed 14-of-17 passes for 193 yards and three touchdowns, including two to Ryan Wisniewski. Alex Peete rushed for 69 yards on 18 carries and scored two touchdowns.

Shane McGrail paced the defense with nine tackles, including 0.5 for a loss. Egon Hein totaled eight tackles, and Mackenzie Balanganayi posted three tackles, including 1.5 for a loss, and four quarterback hurries.

After the Warhawks forced a three-and-out on the opening drive, punctuated by a sack by Balanganayi, the Blue Devils fumbled the punt snap, setting UW-W up at the UW-Stout 3-yard line.

Peete took the handoff on the first play of the drive and crossed the goal line to give UW-Whitewater a 7-0 advantage with 12:46 to play in the first quarter.

The Warhawks increased the lead at the 13:42 mark of the second quarter. A 28-yard pass over the middle from Meylor to Wisniewski capped an eight-play, 78-yard drive, and gave UW-W a 13-0 advantage.

Midway through the period, Balagnanayi and Kyle Gallagher combined for a stop on fourth-and-1 in UW-Whitewater territory. The Warhawks took over on downs, and Meylor connected with Sam DeLany on a 23-yard scoring play between two defenders to make it 20-0 with 4:51 left in the half.

The Warhawks started the second half with a 10-play, 75-yard drive. After a first-down run by Meylor on third-and-3, Peete plunged in from one yard out to make it 27-0 with 9:52 remaning in the third quarter.

The Blue Devils drove to the UW-Whitewater 5-yard line on the ensuing drive, but Thomas Wojnowski batted down a fourth-down pass in the corner of the end zone to give UW-W the ball back.

In the fourth quarter, after another UW-Stout turnover on downs, Meylor capped a five-play, 70-yard drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Wisniewski, who eluded one defender and dove just inside the pile-on to make it 34-0 at the 13:00 mark.

Following a three-and-out by UW-Stout, Dain Hudson returned the punt 49 yards into UW-S territory, and Matt Maldonado kicked a 39-yard field goal with 8:33 to play.

The Blue Devils scored with 6:46 remaining to account for the final margin.

The Warhawks return to action next Saturday, Oct. 9, as they host UW-Platteville during Family Fest at UW-Whitewater. Kickoff at Perkins Stadium is slated for 1 p.m.

The Whippet Cross Country Team headed over to Jefferson on Tuesday to race on Wisconsin’s finest 13-hole golf course. Although coming off a recent race and having some tired legs, this was a great opportunity to see many of the conference schools all on the same course on the same day. Because of the closeness of racing, both teams were not racing at full strength as we have continued to focus on growth and improvement over the course of the regular season, while keeping an eye on running our best at championship time in about two weeks.

Caelyn Caputo had another solid day as the varsity #1 runner and was just one place out from earning her first ever medal at an invitational, placing 16th. She led the girls to a strong 3rd place showing with 94 points behind Jefferson and Evansville with six complete teams scoring.

Jack Hefty mixed it up with some of the lead pack and finished in 8th overall to earn another medal this season. Cooper Hammond also medaled by placing in the top 15 with a 13th place finish. With some runners not racing, the boys finished 9th place out of 11 teams scoring.

The Nightfall Classic has been canceled for Friday; however, the team has been added to the Stoughton Invite on Saturday, and it will be their final race of the regular season. This will take place at Stoughton High School with the first race set to go off at 9:30 a.m. 

Boys Results: http://www.accuracetiming.com/results/2021/jeff1cc_21b.pdf
Girls Results: http://www.accuracetiming.com/results/2021/jeff1cc_21g.pdf

Article Submitted by Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org

The Whitewater Whippets kicked off Homecoming Week with an exciting 3-2 victory over visiting Evansville on Tuesday, September 28. The Whippets started the first set off by hitting an impressive .389 as a team. Two players, junior Kindyl Kilar and senior Savannah Hill, hit .500. Six different Whippets had one service ace each, to help propel Whitewater to an impressive 25-13 win. In set two, the Whippets continued their success behind the service line by having four aces and hitting .200 as a team, winning 25-17.

In the third and fourth sets, the offensive firepower for the Whippets dropped to .143 and .030, while only having one service ace in each set. The Whippets lost the third and fourth sets by the scores of 23-25 and 19-25.

Whitewater lost the coin toss in the deciding game, thus finding themselves receiving serve to start play. The Whippets immediately sided out with a kill and Cali Kopecky took charge at the service line, ringing off the next two points to put the home team up 3-0 and forcing Evansville to take a timeout. After the timeout, Evansville got on the board by a serving error. After a Blue Devil hitting error, Jenna Pope went back to serve for three more points to put Whitewater up now 6-1. Evansville and Whitewater exchanged the next two points before the Whippets went on another 3-point run. Evansville went on a 4-point run at the end of the fifth set to get within four points but were unable to dig a Kindyl Kilar hit. Whitewater won 15-10.

Whitewater travels to McFarland on Thursday night. McFarland is the 4th ranked D2 team in the state, and the Whippets are looking forward to the highly competitive match. Whitewater is currently 9-8 overall and 3-2 in the Rock Valley.

Whitewater Stat Leaders:
Aces: Kilar-4, Kopecky-3, Grosinske-3
Kills: Kilar-22, Kopecky-8, Grosinske-6
Blocks: Pope-2
Digs: Grosinske-23, Hintz-19, Yang-18, Kilar-17
Assists: Grosinske-19, Hintz-18

Evansville Stat Leaders:
Kills: Messling-11
Blocks: Brandenburg-2
Aces: Etringer-3
Assists: Etringer – 17

Article submitted by Kathy Bullis
Whitewater High School Head Volleyball Coach
kbullis@wwusd.org

The Whippets jumped out to an early lead on a cold, rainy, and windy night against Jefferson on Friday, September 24.

On the Eagles’ first possession, the Whippets made three great stops and then forced a fumble and recovered it on the fourth play of the game. The Whitewater offense marched right down the field and on 3rd and goal, Brock Grosinske found wide receiver Jacob Raglin in the back of the endzone to take the early 6-0 lead.

Unfortunately, Jefferson took over from there, and the Eagles were able to score multiple times in the first half.

The Whippets played much better in the second half not letting Jefferson score again and by also punching in another touchdown on an 11-yard run by senior Connor Sharlow.

The final score ended up being a 42-14 loss for the Whippets.

Join us for our Homecoming game this Friday at 7 p.m. as we take on Edgerton in what should be an exciting matchup!

Article Submitted by Jason Bleck
Whitewater High School Head Football Coach
jbleck@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka