Today is Thursday, October 8, 2026
Brian Wilterdink hauls in a touchdown catch at La Crosse. (Olivia Zinanni)
By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information
La Crosse, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team dropped a road contest at UW-La Crosse 24-21 Saturday afternoon.
The Warhawks found themselves trailing 10-0 at the break but battled back in the second half. The UWW defense forced a three-and-out in La Crosse’s first possession of the second half. The Warhawk offense took over at their own 27 following the punt.
The 12-play, 73-yard drive was bolstered by a 26-yard Jackson Chryst to Tyler Vasey connection. On the final play of the drive, Chryst was hurried by a defender but found Drake Martin in the end zone from four yards out for the score. Jackson Fox nailed the point after to narrow the gap to three, 10-7.
UWL pushed the lead back to ten, 17-7, early in the fourth after a touchdown capped an 11-play, 69-yard drive. UW-Whitewater responded in kind, taking little time off of the clock. On the first play of the drive, Chryst found Brian Wilterdink on a deep ball for a 43-yard gain down the Eagles 26. Nick Wind hauled in the next Chryst pass for 22 yards to put the Warhawks on the four. From there, Noah Battle punched it in. Fox split the uprights to make it 17-14 with just over two minutes elapsed in the drive.
The 79-yard pass play on the second snap of the Eagles’ next drive once again extended the margin, 24-14.
The Warhawks continued the offensive onslaught from both teams with another quick scoring drive. This time it took just over a minute for UWW to hit paydirt. Chryst found Wind open in the middle of the field for a 33-yard connection on the first play of the drive. Vasey pulled in the next ball for an 18-yard reception. After an incompletion, Chryst hit Wilterdink from 21-yards out for the touchdown. Fox hit his third extra point of the day to make it 24-21.
UW-Whitewater defense stiffened to give the offense the ball back with 4:18 left on clock, but an interception put the ball in UWL’s hands with 3:57 to go.
The defense held once again, this time turning the Eagles over on downs with a four-and-out. Coach Jace Rindahl expertly used his timeouts to give the Warhawk offense 2:58 to drive 75 yards. A personal foul on UWL on the second play had UWW on their own 30. A short pass to Wilterdink led to a gain of 10 and UWW went quickly with Chryst rushing the ball out bounds after a nine-yard gain to the 49. An Eagle personal foul and Warhawk unsportsmanlike offset on the play to give UWW a first-and-ten from the UWW 49.
Chryst took off on the next play, gaining six before heading out of bounds but a holding penalty pushed the line of scrimmage back to the Warhawks’ 39. Chryst registered back-to-back completions for 11-yards each – the first to Steven Hein and the second to Wind – for another first down.
A pair of incompletions forced a third-and-ten. This time the Eagles got to Chryst in the backfield forcing a fumble that was recovered by UWL. La Crosse was able to kneel out the clock for the final score, 24-21.
Chryst was 20-34 for 286 yards, a pair of interceptions and two touchdowns through the air. Ty Schultz paced UWW on the ground with 42 yards on 12 carries. Wilterdink was the top receiver in the contest with 111 yards on seven catches including a touchdown grab.
Defensively, Kyle Koelblinger and Karsten Libby shared team-high honors with nine tackles each. Libby added an interception while Koelblinger tallied a pass broken up.
The Warhawks will head to UW-Eau Claire next Saturday for the regular season finale. Kickoff is set for 2 PM.
The Whippet Girls’ Swim Team competed at the Southern Lakes Conference Swimming Championship on Saturday, November 2. There were many best times and top 16 finishes on the day!
Finishing in the Top 16 include:
- 200 Medley Relay (9th – 2:12.57) – Makayla Bazeley, Emerson Dunham, Maggie Maas, and Charlotte Hajewski
- 200 Freestyle – Lucy Davis (16th – 2:31.75)
- 200 IM – Emerson Dunham (5th – 2:40.62), Maggie Maas (12th – 2:48.81), Charlotte Hajewski (15th – 2:51.61)
- 100 Butterfly – Makayla Bazeley (2nd – 1:00.52), Georgia Esch (16th – 1:41.86)
- 100 Freestyle – Maggie Maas (14th – 1:06.16)
- 500 Freestyle – Emerson Dunham (8th – 6:03.19), Charlotte Hajewski (12th – 6:22.41)
- 200 Freestyle Relay (15th – 2:12.12) – Lucy Davis, Atreya Wilson, Georgia Esch, Grace Coleman
- 100 Backstroke – Makayla Bazeley (2nd – 59.56)
- 400 Freestyle Relay A (5th – 4:14.78) – Makayla Bazeley, Maggie Maas, Charlotte Hajewski, Emerson Dunham
- 400 Freestyle Relay B (13th – 4:58.61) – Kendra Serrano, Grace Coleman, Atreya Wilson, Lucy Davis
Best Times:
- Zoe Zei in the 200 Freestyle dropped more time and was able to get under that 3-minute mark!
- Charlotte Hajewski won her heat and dropped 3 seconds in her 500 freestyle
- Makayla Bazeley broke her own school record in the 100 Backstroke with a new time of 59.56
- Atreya Wilson dropped nearly 3 seconds in her 100 Breaststroke!
We are excited to see even more time drops at Sectionals on Saturday, November 9th. The meet starts at 1pm at McFarland High School. We hope to see you there!
Congratulations to Abdi Calvillo and Emiliano Olivares for their recognition as Second Team All-Conference for the Rock Valley Athletic Conference for soccer. Congratulations also go out to Avi Kalra and Casey Schlicher who received Honorable Mention nods.
The 2024 State Cross Country Meet in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday, November 2, was exactly what the team had envisioned months ago when this group of seniors laced up their shoes for their first summer runs. They were driven and would not waver from the vision of being the best version of themselves by wearing a Whitewater Cross Country uniform this fall. They followed through with that in spades, as the team finished ninth overall, capped off with an individual state title from Jack Hefty.
In near perfect race conditions for both the course and the weather, Jack Hefty asserted himself early on with the pack that he was a force to reckon with. Positioned nicely with the leaders at the first mile at 5:00.7, he was poised to have a great day. By the second mile, he was now in third with his sights set on when he would make a push for the title. In the third and final mile, the most difficult part of the course with several challenging hill sections, Jack took the lead with about 300m to go. Making his last turn onto the final straight to a roaring crowd that was several people deep, it was all gas and no brakes as Hefty looked as smooth as ever with a lead that grew with every stride. The Whippet jersey once again was on full display for the crowd to see as Jack became the third Whitewater athlete to win a state cross country title (Rick Bergholtz ’75, Ben Maas ’95). Jack ran 15:46.5, the ninth fastest time overall across all divisions, which earned Jack first team All-State honors. His time is also the ninth fastest in Division 2 state history, and the sixth fastest on this course at the Ridges which has hosted the state race for over 35 years. Jack simply ran a flawless race that was the most complete 5000 meter effort of his life. He won every race he entered this season except one invitational in Janesville.
Miles Nickelsburg also shined brightly on this day as he made it back-to-back state meets where he came up big and was the team’s second runner. He methodically sawed his way through the field moving from 69th up to 53rd and finished in 17:18. Miles ran 29 seconds faster than last year’s state meet performance. Xavier Zei was the team’s third runner and finished in 78th in 17:35. Xavier was able to put a more complete race together this season which afforded him an incredible 57 second improvement over 2023. One year ago, Luc Pomazak wasn’t even a scoring runner on our JV team. This year, he was the fourth man on a team that finished 9th at state with a time of 18:01 and placed 101st. A year ago, Andrew O’Toole was the team’s 7th runner and finished in 20:29. This year he was the team’s fifth man placing 128th with a time of 18:31! Nearly two full minutes were cut from his state race a year ago. Onyx Thompson placed 134th with a time of 18:55, a 35-second improvement from a year ago. Isaac Straight was the final Whippet to cross the line in 150th place with a time of 20:18.
As a team, they finished in 9th place overall, moving up five spots from one year ago. It was an incredible day with incredible results. This was not just any team, this was a team consisting of all seniors – boys that started as freshmen who simply found their way, pulling in friends, and sharing their love of the sport to create a beautiful masterpiece as seniors. They will cherish this for the rest of their lives and fondly remember what they were able to accomplish together as one team, one family.
Last time it happened:
- The last time the boys’ team finished this high at state was in 2007 when the team finished in 8th.
- The last time that a boys’ CC team had qualified for state in back-to-back seasons was in 1995 and 1996.
- The last time a Whippet boy won a state title was Ben Maas in 1995.
Full Results: https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=7561
Article and Individual Photos Courtesy of Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org
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