Billie Jo Parker, a native of Whitewater, WI, and graduate of Whitewater High School, will compete for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater golf team during the 2019-20 season, which begins this weekend.

Parker, a sophomore at UW-Whitewater, is majoring in art (graphic design).

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater golf team will compete for an unprecedented third consecutive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship this fall as it begins play for the 2019-20 season this weekend.

The Warhawks claimed their second straight conference title last season and survived the 54-hole cut at the NCAA Championship for the second consecutive year, placing 13th in the nation.

UW-Whitewater begins the fall season this Friday and Saturday at Carthage’s annual Shootout on the Border at Bristol Oaks. After a trip to Prairie Links in Waverly, Iowa, for the Wartburg Fall Invite on Sept. 7-8, the team heads to Ironwood Golf Course in Normal, Ill., for the annual Illinois Wesleyan Fall Classic on Sept. 14-15.

The Warhawks host the UW-Whitewater Fall Classic on Sept. 20-21 at Riverside Golf Course in Janesville for the team’s final tune-up prior to the 54-hole WIAC Championship, which is slated for Oct. 4-6 at Reedsburg Country Club.

The fall season ends with the Golfweek Division III Fall Invite Oct. 13-15 at Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort in Miramar Beach, Fla.

The WIAC champion will qualify automatically for the NCAA Championship, which is scheduled for May 12-15, 2020, at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Fourth-year head coach Andrea Wieland returns three of the team’s five participants from last year’s national tournament as well as other veteran players. UW-Whitewater also welcomes five freshmen to the program.

The team’s senior class includes Bella Barbiere (Mequon, Wis./Homestead), Kristin Bowe (Franklin, Wis./Franklin), Ashley Hofmeister (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower), CheyAnn Knudsen (Milton, Wis./Milton) and Kelly Storti (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield).

Knudsen, the reigning WIAC Player of the Year and a member of the Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-Central Region team, led the team in scoring last season, averaging 78.3 strokes per 18-hole round. She led the team at the NCAA Championship with a 315, good for 34th place in the 81-player field.

Hofmeister, the 2017 WIAC Player of the Year, was named first team all-conference last season after leading the team with a runner-up finish at the WIAC Championship. She averaged a 78.9 for the season and seeks her fourth consecutive All-WIAC this fall. Hofmeister also finished among the top half of the field at the 2019 NCAA Championship, tying for 37th overall.

Storti and Bowe each enter the season with experience competing at both conference and national tournaments. Storti competed at the 2019 NCAA Championship, finishing third on the team and tied for 62nd overall, while Bowe was part of the 2018 NCAA Championship lineup, placing third on the team and 70th overall.

Barbiere played in six rounds last season and owns a career-best score of 86.

Billie Jo Parker (Whitewater, Wis./Whitewater), Ashton Sinak (St. Louis, Mo./Visitation Academy) and Lauren Winter(Johnsburg, Ill./Johnsburg) comprise the team’s sophomore class.

Sinak played in 17 rounds in 2018-19, averaging a score of 83.1 and recording a top-five finish at the UW-Whitewater Fall Classic. Parker competed in 10 rounds a season ago, and Winter played in four rounds after joining the team at the start of the spring semester.

Newcomers to the program include freshmen Jennifer Berardi (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park), Jessica LaBerge (Bonduel, Wis./Bonduel), Madi LaPaz (Oconomowoc, Wis./Oconomowoc), Lily Sheppard (Sherwood, Wis./Kaukauna) and Grace Westerman (Oconomowoc, Wis./Oconomowoc).

For more than 150 years, UW-Whitewater has provided students with the education and training to begin their careers with a solid foundation behind them. The UW-Whitewater is committed to the development of the individual, the growth of personal and professional integrity and respect for diversity and global perspectives. These are met by providing academic and co-curricular programs that emphasize the pursuit of knowledge and understanding and a commitment to service within a safe and secure environment.

The Whippet Football Team opened up the 2019 season with a hard fought contest against the Beloit Turner Trojans on Friday, August 23. 

After a scoreless 1st quarter, the Trojans took advantage of a few Whippet mistakes and took a 21-0 lead into the half. 

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Photos Courtesy of Bob Mischka

The Whippets came back and held Beloit Turner scoreless throughout the entire 2nd half of the game, and Whitewater running back Will Leibbrand found the end zone twice in the 4th quarter on runs of 14 and 57 yards.  Unfortunately, the first half deficit was too much to overcome, and the Whippets fell 13-21.

The Whippets will look to rebound on the road at East Troy on Friday, August 30th. 

The Whippet Girls’ Tennis Team just returned from the Altoona Invite which was played in Altoona and Chippewa Falls. Whitewater went 4-1 over the two-day tournament.

On Thursday, the Whippets opened with a 2-5 loss to Ashland. Picking up wins were Josie Hintz at 4 singles, and Katelyn Lashley and Emily Scherer at 3 doubles. There were close matches at 2 singles, and 1 and 2 doubles, but the Whippets just couldn’t quite pull them out.

Coach Tim Nelson stated, “We continued to improve throughout the rest of the day and were able to carry it over into the next day as well. One of the things that we need to work on is starting out. We are notoriously slow starters, and if we are to continue to improve, this will become a key area. Most of our remaining matches are dual meets; we only play one match, and thus can’t think that we can use the first match of the day to get into it.”

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Photos Courtesy of Greg Stewart

The Whippets took 11 players to the tournament, so there was quite a bit of moving positions from singles to doubles and changing of doubles teams. Several kids had a very successful tournament; Josie Hintz was 5-0, Tessa Papcke, Sophie Olson, and Katelyn Lashley were all 4-1, and Anisa Dauti was 2-0 in her varsity matches.

 Whitewater is right back at it on Monday morning, August 26, with a dual meet in Columbus.

Team Scores
Whitewater 2, Ashland 5
Whitewater 5, Chippewa Falls 2
Whitewater 7, Mondovi 0
Whitewater 4, Altoona 3
Whitewater 5, West Salem 2

The Whitewater Invite on Tuesday, August 20 was a rather long day with many logistical problems. In order to help out a couple of teams that had some schools back out of their quad, the Whitewater Quad ended up with six teams. In order for this to work, it was going to require some schools moving back and forth between Whitewater and Fort Atkinson. The weather decided to make things even more difficult with a few rain delays in Whitewater, which forced even more teams to move to Fort. Of course a half an hour after teams moved to Fort it rained at the Aquatic Center courts, but not over at the Fort Atkinson High School courts. With all of the delays and moving around there were a few teams that were only able to get two matches in, and others were able to get all three in.

Whitewater was one of the schools that only finished two of their matches with 6-1 wins over both West Salem and Fort Atkinson.

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Photos of Kaitlyn Partoll Courtesy of Bob Mischka

Coach Tim Nelson stated, “I was quite pleased with how we played today. We showed improvement from yesterday’s quad and continued to make the strides that we need to. The match of the day was between Kaitlyn Partoll and Olivia Granec of Fort. The two girls played a number of incredible points in a match that went back and forth before Kaitlyn was able to pull it out with the closest of super tie-break scores.” Wednesday the Whippets headed up to Altoona to participate in the Altoona Invite on Thursday and Friday.

The Whippet victories secured the 300th career win for Coach Tim Nelson.