The Whitewater Wrestling Team concluded their season this weekend with five competing on the Kohl Center floor in Madison. The format of the tournament was different this season with each competitor being guaranteed two matches over the weekend.

The team wrestled well throughout the weekend, but unfortunately three of them were unable to come off victorious even though they had given it their all on the mat. All of the losses the students took ended up being to opponents that placed in the top six and made podium on Saturday night.

Jasen Porras, Traysen Thomason, and Marianna Kubicz each competed on Thursday night and Friday morning but had some tough challenges in front of them, coming up short.

Connor Friend started off the tournament with a very strong opponent who was a great rider on top. This was a tough loss, as all are in the state tournament, and he had to regroup and come back on Friday morning to stay in the medal hunt. Connor saw an opponent from Belmont/Platteville, whom he had lost to 4 weeks ago. Connor wrestled a great match coming out on top 4–1. This placed him in the consolation semifinals on Saturday morning. Connor had an opponent that was very good at defense, which made it difficult to get to his offense, which he is very good at. In the end, Connor fell just short of reaching his goal of being on the podium.

Jarvis Porcaro had a very good tournament. He started the tournament on Thursday evening with a nice technical fall victory in the opening round setting him up for a quarter final match against a state runner up from Richland Center. Jarvis wrestled an outstanding match, coming out with 10-8 victory, putting him into the state semifinals on Friday night. In this match, Jarvis wrestled against the number 1 seed in the tournament and came out very strong with an early takedown. Entering the 3rd period, Jarvis was down 7-5, but that was as close as it got. Jarvis ended up dropping the match, which was very disappointing to him as he self-analyzed his match right away and knew his errors in the 3rd period. He stayed positive with himself, which has been a huge battle for him to overcome since last season. This season, Jarvis was able to stay in the mental mindset, even during tough times. On Saturday morning, Jarvis came back to compete in the 3rd place match but lost the match, thus finishing in 4th place in the state. Jarvis had set his goals after last season to be in the state finals, and although he came up short of that goal, he was upbeat with his weekend and knows this is just one chapter of his life of wrestling. He will move forward working toward collegiate goals.

The weekend saw the close of some stellar high school careers from Jarvis, Jasen, Connor, and Traysen. They will be missed by the program, and we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

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

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater will host the first and second rounds of the 2025 NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Tournament Friday and Saturday, March 7-8. The tournament will be held in Kachel Gym in the Williams Center. 

The first game of the Whitewater Regional will feature Colorado College (23-3) and UW-La Crosse (16-11). Tipoff is slated for 4:30 PM CT.

The Warhawks (22-6) will take on Principia (17-11) in game two that is set for a 7 PM tip. 

The winners will advance to face each other at 7 PM on Saturday. 

A livestream for all games in the Whitewater Regional will be available on ncaa.com. 

Ticket information will be announced Tuesday. A full preview will be available later this week.

Editor’s note: The above press release was provided by UW-Whitewater. Principia is in Elsah, IL.

Wisconsin is well represented among the 64 teams in the bracket, with six teams, five of which are part of Universities of WI: La Crosse, Oshkosh, Stout, Superior, and Whitewater. The sixth team is Wisconsin Lutheran.

Oshkosh, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s basketball team took down #10 UW-Oshkosh 64-61 on their home court to hoist the WIAC Tournament trophy and claim the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament. 

The tournament title is the fourth in program history for UW-Whitewater. The Warhawks will find out what lies ahead in their 23rd – and ninth consecutive – NCAA Tournament appearance during the Selection Show set for 1:30 PM Monday. Fans can watch the selection show live on ncaa.com. The first round is scheduled for Friday, March 7.

After the two regular season meetings between these two squads featured a combined three overtimes – UWO winning both – basketball fans knew Saturday’s matchup was going to be a great game, and it certainly was. 

UW-Whitewater got off to a quick start, scoring the first five points of the contest bolstered by a Katie Hildebrandt three-pointer. The Warhawk advantage would hit five three more times in the period including on the final bucket of the quarter – a jumper by Kacie Carollo (Whitewater, Wis./Whitewater) that made it 18-13. 

The gap swelled to double digits in the second quarter with the Warhawks enjoying a 13-point, 38-25, lead at the intermission. 

Although the margin dipped into single digits twice in the third, UWW pushed it back to double figures by the end of the quarter to hold a 51-41 lead going into the final quarter. 

The Titans whittled away at the gap until pulling withing one, 58-57 with less than two to go. Hildebrandt knocked down a layup with 54 seconds to go to push the lead back to three, 60-57. 

Mia Gillis (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel Catholic) pulled down the defensive board on a missed layin for UWO and the Warhawks immediately called timeout. The inbounds went to Carollo and the senior hit one of two to make it a two possession game, 61-57, with 21 seconds left.

UWO scored quickly and fouled quickly to send Carollo back to the line with just seven seconds taken off from the previous set of free throws. Carollo missed the first but hit the second to make it 62-59 with 14 seconds on the clock. 

The Titans put up a three-pointer that caromed off the rim and was nearly hauled in by Carollo but an Oshkosh player was able to gain possession and kick it back out for another deep shot. The shot was good, but to the dismay of the home crowd, the officials signaled for two, not three. The referees went to the replay computer to take a second look and came back with the same result – the shooter’s foot was on the line and the Warhawks maintained the lead, 62-61, with five seconds remaining. 

The final play for UWW was an inbounds to Carollo, a foul and a pair of free throws for the senior guard to make it 64-61 with just two ticks of the clock left. 

Oshkosh had an opportunity at the buzzer, but the floater inside the arc was no good as UWW gathered at center court in celebration. 

Carollo picked up her 10th double-double of the season to tie the career record for career double-doubles with 28. She posted 20 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block in 37 minutes played. 

Hildebrandt added 18 points and 6 boards while Gillis dropped in 12 points and hauled in 5 rebounds. 

Prior to the start of the game, Carollo was named the WIAC Judy Kruckman Scholar Athlete for Women’s Basketball. A complete release on this accomplishment will be announced next week. 

The UW-Whitewater women’s basketball team claimed their spot in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Championship with a 69-63 win at UW-Stout Thursday night.  The box score and other details may be found here.

With the win, the Warhawks advance to face UW-Oshkosh for the WIAC Tournament title and the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Championship. The game is slated for a 3 PM tipoff in Oshkosh on Saturday. Here’s the link for the livestream.

Johnson Fieldhouse has been a notoriously tough place for the Warhawks to play, so UWW knew the WIAC Semifinal would be a battle, but they were up for the challenge. Showcasing strength through adversity, UW-Whitewater battled through foul trouble throughout much of the game. In the end, it was the free throw line that sealed the Warhawk win. 

In the first half, UW-Stout held the advantage in the foul and free throw columns. After the first 20 minutes of action, four Warhawks had been whistled for multiple fouls. The Blue Devils were a perfect 9-9 from the line while UWW was just 4-6 off of the five UWS fouls. 

Still, the Warhawks held the lead, although a narrow one, 31-30. Kacie Carollo (Whitewater, Wis./Whitewater) bolstered the first half of play with 20 points in 20 minutes with nine rebounds. 

On the other side of the intermission, the margin remained at three or less until late in the third. With Carollo on the bench in foul trouble, UW-Whitewater pressed forward putting together a 7-0 run to take a 48-41 lead, the largest of the game. The Blue Devils tallied the final bucket of the third on a jumper to narrow the gap to four heading into the fourth. However, UW-Whitewater now had four players with at least three fouls with just 10 minutes left to play.

The home squad whittled away at the margin eventually knotting the game 57-57 with 2:47 left. Coming out of a UWW timeout, Carollo hit a layup off a Katie Hildebrandt (McFarland, Wis./McFarland) assist. On the other end, Raegan Sorenson drew a shooting foul and hit one of two. 

After a few missed shots on both ends, Carollo hauled in a defensive board and went coast-to-coast with a wide open left-handed layin that gave UWW a 61-58 lead with 1:22 remaining. 

On UW-Stout’s next possession a jumper hit the back of the rim and bounced straight up. Carollo went up for the rebound and appeared to have possession as a Blue Devil reached in and tried to wrestle it away. Two officials blew their whistles at the same time – one signaling for a foul, the other for a jump. The pair came together to discuss and determined it was a jump ball as UWS retained possession on their offensive end. 

Carollo contested the shot on the ensuing possession, but was whistled for the foul – her fifth – with 51 seconds left. UW-Stout made both from the free throw line to narrow the gap to one, 61-60. 

The Warhawks called timeout and advanced the ball to their offensive end. The inbound found its way into Maggie Trautsch’s (Sun Prairie, Wis./DeForest) hands near the top of the key. She pump faked and drove to her left using a pair of strong dribbles to create space before pulling up and draining a jumper from the elbow to give UWW a 63-60 lead with 27.3 seconds on the clock. 

The Blue Devils advanced the ball on a timeout and went to Sorenson – their main offensive threat. Hildebrandt was tough on the glass forcing a jump ball on the rebound with the possession arrow favoring UW-Whitewater. 

This time the Warhawks chose not to advance the ball. Instead Renee Rittmeyer (Winnebago, Ill./Winnebago) took the ball under the Blue Devil basket. Her inbound pass was intended for Bri McCurdy (St. Croix Falls, Wis./St. Croix Falls) but the sophomore guard was fouled and went to the line with 18.7 left. McCurdy hit both to extend the lead to five, 65-60. 

Once again, UW-Stout called timeout and advanced the ball. The inbound went directly to their shooter Lexi Wagner in front of the Blue Devil bench. She threw up an off balance shot, but Sorenson grabbed the rebound and hit the put back and the free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play. 

The Warhawks used their final timeout to advance the ball with 15 seconds on the clock. Mia Gillis (Mundelein, Ill./Carmel Catholic) found McCurdy in the backcourt on the inbounds. She was immediately fouled and the sophomore went back to the line for a pair of huge free throws in the two point game. McCurdy hit both to push the lead to four, 67-63 with 13.9 to go. 

After UW-Stout’s final timeout advanced the ball to near their bench, the Blue Devil inbound pass was launched to the far side of the court. The desperation three was no good, but there was a Warhawk foul whistled on the rebound. The Blue Devils missed the first, then the second, and then the putback chance before McCurdy hauled in the rebound. 

McCurdy was fouled and sealed it with two more to remain perfect from the free throw line – not just for the game, but for the season. After hitting all eight of her chances from the charity stripe to seal the win Thursday, McCurdy is 23-23 on the season from the line. 

Carollo led UWW with a double-double posting 26 points and 13 boards. Hildebrandt added 13 points and a team-high three assists. McCurdy ended up with 11 bolstered by the eight free throws while pacing the Warhawks in the steals column with four. Trautsch rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 on the night.