Whippets

WHS Track and Field celebrates their season with banquet

 

The Track and Field teams celebrated the 2018 season with their banquet on Monday. Award winners for the girls were:

Most Valuable Track Athlete: Hailey Murphy
Most Valuable Field Athlete: Ali Ketterhagen
Most Improved Athlete: Hailey Murphy
Outstanding Senior Award: Miranda Reynolds
Outstanding Freshmen Award: Lily Dunklau

Award winners for the boys were:
Most Valuable Track Athlete: Tyler Sheffield
Most Valuable Field Athlete: Sashi Popke
Most Improved Athlete: Juan Cuellar
Outstanding Senior Award: Jacob Korf
Outstanding Freshmen Award: Trenten Zahn, Ignacio Cuevas

Parker receives Academic All State honors

“The Golf Coaches Association of Wisconsin (GCAW)” is pleased to announce that Billie Jo Parker of Whitewater High School is a 2018 High Honors Academic-All State honoree. Students are submitted by GCAW coaches if they meet the following criteria: 1) A cumulative GPA of at least 3.25, 2) participation in at least 75% of their team’s varsity matches, and 3) are a sophomore, junior or senior. Billie Jo is a student-athlete who has served as a great example to others, proving that athletic and academic success are not mutually exclusive.

The GCAW is proud to announce that a record 375 students from 128 different high schools have been honored this year. In fact, the average GPA of these students is an exceptional 3.755.

The GCAW was formed by high school golf coaches in 1986 to help build and enhance Wisconsin’s reputation for developing quality junior players by promoting golf in our schools and communities. Besides honoring both boys and girls who succeed as student-athletes, the association also selects an annual All-State team for boys and girls based on their playing ability.

WHS Baseball falls to Jefferson in Regional Final

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Article by Nate Parrish

It is always hard to beat a good team three times in a season and that was the case on Thursday evening as Whitewater High School baseball team fell to Jefferson 7-0 in the Regional final. Jefferson was able to score three runs in the top of the first inning and Junior Pitcher Ryan Brost never let Whitewater get any momentum as the left-hander located his pitches all evening and the Whippets managed just 3 hits. Jefferson will move on to play in the sectional semifinal against Columbus on Tuesday, June 5th at 1 pm. Whitewater finished the season at 14-9 and 3rd place, 1 game behind Beloit Turner and Jefferson in the tough Rock Valley Conference. Coach Pease said ”this loss was a tough one, I feel for every one of our players and especially our Seniors that have meant a lot to me and the program. This group put a lot of hard work into the season and things just did not go our way tonight”. Although the Whippets did not meet some of their team goals, they still had a successful year and were within a few plays of getting at least a share of the Conference Title. With a successful year, they also had some players received some all-conference recognition.

1st Team All-Conference

  • Bryce Parrish- Utility
  • Jimmy DuVal- Outfield
  • Cooper Pease- Catcher

2nd Team- All-Conference

  • Dylan Pease- Infield
  • James Dedrick- Outfield

Honorable Mention – All-Conference

  • Jordan Curtis
  • Chris Dedrick

Bryce Parrish was also selected to the 2018 Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association All-Star Classic to be played in Oshkosh on June 29th-30th. Bryce had one of the best seasons that any player has had at Whitewater High School by hitting over .450 with 10 doubles, 1 triple, 8 home runs, 34 RBI’s, 31 runs scored while having a pitching record of 6-1, 2 saves, 55 strikeouts, 7 walks and a 0.881 ERA. Bryce will play for UW Whitewater next season.

Whippets take down Wisconsin Lutheran in WIAA Playoffs

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From Coach McCrea:

On Thursday, the Whitewater Whippet Soccer Team hosted and defeated Wisconsin Lutheran 6-1 in the first round of the 2018 WIAA soccer playoffs. The depth of the number seven seed Whippets, 5-4-3 overall, proved too much for the tenth seed visiting Vikings, 2-9-0.

However, the Whippets started slow and gave up a goal in the second minute of play scored by Zoe Buske. The Whippets Jaden Henneman quickly responded with a goal to tie the match. Ten minutes later Meikayla Korf found the back of the net to place the Whippets up 2-1 where the score remained until the second the half.

The Whippets came out strong in the second half with exceptional midfield play allowing the Whippets to maintain a press in the Vikings half of the field. Late in the second half, the Whippets were able to outpace the tiring Vikings and put up four additional goals to finish 6-1.

Crystal Chan scored on an assist by Kacie Carollo at the 72-minute mark. Quickly thereafter Jaden Henneman scored her second goal of the night on a shot that rebounded of a Viking defender. In the 81st minute Sierra Brunner scored by following Kacie Carollo’s shot that rebounded off the goal post, and then in the 83rd Sierra Brunner scored again on an assist by Carollo.

In addition to the strong midfield play was a solid performance by defenders Abby Center, Hannah O’Brien, Brianna Zimdars, Liz Rodriguez, and Melanie Reyes.

The Whippets will need a much faster start to the game when facing Grafton on Saturday when traveling to Concordia University for a 5:00 pm match.

Parker Closes Out HS Career at Sectionals

Senior Billie Jo Parker closed out her high school golf career Wednesday afternoon, competing in the WIAA Division II Sectional hosted by Kewaskum High School at Kettle Hills Golf Course. Parker entered the sectional as a fourth place individual qualifier and finished with a final round score of 82. Wednesday’s culminating competition for Parker marked the end of a successful four-year run on the Whippet golf team, a fact not lost on her. “I feel grateful that I have been able to be apart of a great golf team. I have met great friends through the team and I have been given many great opportunities,” Parker stated.

On the front nine, Parker got off to a slow start with a triple bogey on the third hole, leaving her to reflect, “I wish I could have taken back my tee shot that went into a bush area.”

Regardless, Parker persisted and fired a two-over par 38 to put herself in early contention, entering the back nine with high aspirations. “I wanted to be able to take that energy from the front nine to the back,” she stated.

Unfortunately, on the back nine, she found some of the early control from the front nine slip away. “Billie Jo is as steady as they come and although she didn’t have the pinpoint accuracy that she had on the front, she did enough to limit the damage and come in with a very solid back nine score”, Coach Wiegman said.

Parker finished the back nine with a 44. When asked what she was feeling as she potentially watched her last putt fall into the hole on the par five 18th, Parker stated, “It kind of hit me that it might be the last putt I make in competition for high school golf. But I also thought about all I have accomplished this year, and it felt great being able to end my season with a good score.”

After watching his senior leader finish her career, Coach Wiegman had some high praise for the four-year varsity player, saying that “Billie Jo continued to battle and persevere through some tough second shot positions. She never lets emotion get in the way of her next shot. I couldn’t be more proud her. Even though she didn’t qualify to play at U-Ridge, she ended the season on a high note, with a really great round.”

Whippet Baseball advances in WIAA

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Whitewater 12    Delavan-Darien 2   (Box Score)

By Nate Parrish

The Whitewater High School baseball team (14-8) had come into the start of the playoffs on a little bit of slide as they had lost four of the last five since sweeping Jefferson and earning the #1 seed in the region. On Tuesday evening the Whippets were able to turn things around and blow open a tight game late with a 12-2 6 inning win over Delavan. Delavan got off to a good start as they were able to get to Whitewater pitcher James Dedrick right away in the 1st inning and with the score 1-0 and bases loaded, one out, Coach Pease turned to Bryce Parrish to see if he could get them out of the jam. The Senior pitcher was able to induce a ground ball to 3rd baseman Dylan Pease who stepped on 3rd and fired across the infield, 1st baseman Danny Harnack had a beautiful 1 hop pick off the dirt to complete the double play and get out of the inning. Coach Pease would say “that was a huge play early in the game to hold them to 1 run if they score one or two more in that inning it really changes the entire game”. Whitewater would finally get something going in the 3rd inning against the Delavan ace as James Dedrick reached on an error and was followed by a Dylan Pease walk. Bryce Parrish would triple to center field scoring both runners for a 2-1 lead. In the 5th inning, the Whippets would tack on two more after a single by James Dedrick, Dylan Pease would move him to 2nd on a ground ball. Bryce Parrish was intentionally walked and Jimmy Duval answered the bell with a line drive single scoring Dedrick to make it 3-1. Parrish would later score on a wild pitch for a 4-1 lead. Delavan would answer in the 6th inning with back to back doubles to make it 4-2 heading into the bottom of the 6th. Chris Dedrick would lead off the inning with a walk, Jaden Salmieri followed with a pinch-hit walk and Alex Fero laid down a perfect bunt single to load the bases. James Dedrick would hit a laser one-hopper at the Delavan 3rd baseman playing in but had an errant throw home scoring 2 runs for a 6-2 lead. With 1 out, Bryce Parrish was intentionally walked to load the bases and Jimmy Duval would make Delavan pay again with a line drive single to left and a 7-2 lead. James Dedrick would score on a wild pitch and Cooper Pease would follow with a single to center scoring Parrish and Duval for a 10-2 lead. Chris Dedrick, who led the inning off with a walk, would take a 3-1 pitch out to left field for a home run and a 12-2 victory as the 10 run rule came into effect.

Whitewater was led by James Dedrick 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s, Jimmy Duval 2 for 4 with 2 RBI’s, Bryce Parrish 1 for 2, triple and 2 RBI’s, Chris Dedrick 1 for 2 with a home run and 2 RBI’s, and Cooper Pease with 2 RBI’s. Bryce Parrish picked up the win on the mound tossing 5.2 innings allowing 3 hits, 1 run while striking out 7 and walking none. Coach Pease said, “hats off to Delavan ace Noal Brouwer (committed to Division 2 Purdue University Northwest) as he can really pitch. Our guys really battled and worked counts against him to give us a chance. Those good at-bats led to getting that pitch count up to 100 pitches after 5 innings and we were really able to get to their 2nd pitcher”.

Next up for Whitewater is Jefferson for the Regional Championship, the winner will move on to sectionals in Brodhead. The game is scheduled to be played Wednesday at 4:45. Come out and watch the Whippets play their last home game of the season.

Whippets Soccer finishes fourth in the Rock Valley

From Coach McCrea:

On Thursday, the Whippets traveled to Evansville to face the Blue Devils with hopes of securing a third-place finish in the Rock Valley Conference. Whitewater, 5-3-1 in conference play started strong against the 6-3-0 Blue Devils maintaining possession throughout most of the first half. The heat was a factor for both teams forcing both sides to perform multiple substitutions.

Late in the first half, Evansville was awarded a penalty kick on an alleged trip in the penalty box. Senior Captain and goalkeeper Alexa DuClos performed a spectacular save to keep the game 0-0 going into halftime.

The coaching staff emphasized stronger interior midfield play and the team responded well in the second half with Meikayla Korf, Kacie Carrollo leading the attack along with Sierra Brunner. Rylee Stachow really stepped up as an outside midfielder and had her best game of the season. The ever strong and energetic play of Crystal Chan and Brianna Zimdars was impressive and supported by a never breaking back four led by Aby Center.

Not until the 87th minute was there a score by either team with the Blue Devils placing the ball on the far upper corner. Earlier in the season, the Whippets won the 89th minute of play. The Whippets concluded their regular, weather-shortened season play with an overall record of 5-4-3.

Up next, with the number seven seed in the WIAA regional, the Whippets host the number ten seed Wisconsin Lutheran on Thursday, May 31 kicking off at 7:00 pm.

8 Whippets heading to State Track and Field Competition

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From Coach Houwer:

The Whippet track and field teams will be sending 8 people to compete in LaCrosse next Friday and Saturday.

Miranda Reynolds will be the lone female representative, returning to the bluffs of LaCrosse to take another go at the high jump. She clutched up to clear 5′ on her third attempt when a miss would have ended her season. She then went on to clear 5′ 1″ and take second at sectionals last night.

The boys will be led by junior Sashi Popke. Sashi qualified in all 4 of his events. That feat has only been done 1 other time in school history, by Chad Simes in 2001. He won the pole vault and the long jump last night and ran on the 4×100 and 4×200 relays that qualified.

The 4×100 meter relay team of Will Leibbrand, Tyler Sheffield, Sashi Popke and Jack Mayer will go into the state meet seeded third after running a school record time last night of 43.54. Jared Clapper and Tyler Pavlik will join those 4 on the trip, ready to step in should their services be needed. It will be an exciting race in LaCrosse, with a number of other teams within a few tenths of a second.

The same four individuals sit one spot better entering the state competition in the 4×200 meter relay, seeded second, just 15 hundredths of a second out of the top seed. They ran the second fastest relay in school history with a 1:30.89 and look to improve upon that with hopefully two more races in LaCrosse. Juan Cuellar and Tyler Pavlik will serve as the alternates for this relay and gain valuable experience for the next two years.

There were a few close calls last night as well, where Whippets, unfortunately, found themselves on the outside looking in. Abby Grosinkse finished 5th in the shot put, just 2 inches out of a qualifying spot.

Even closer was the boys 4×400 relay of Tyler Sheffield, Juan Cuellar, Ignacio Cuevas, and Jacob Korf. They finished their race in the fast heat in 4th place, just 2 hundredths of a second out of third. Thinking they had secured a spot in the state meet, they began to celebrate only to find out they were beaten by one team in the first heat. That meant their 4th place finish was actually 5th, and they were just 2 hundredths of a second out of the final spot. Fighting all the way through the line, Jacob Korf was passed with about 15 meters left. The runner, believing he was ahead, let up a little and Jacob just missed passing him back. He kept fighting to the finish and needed only another step or two to take the spot back. It was an exciting, emotional race. And one where all 4 guys ran their best races of the season. I’m sure it’s a race they will remember for a long time.

The state competition festivities will kick off with Miranda jumping at 3:00 pm on Friday, June 1, followed shortly thereafter by Sashi in the vault at 3:15 pm. Both relays will have prelims on Friday and with a top ten finish, compete in finals on Saturday, June 2. Sashi will also compete in the long jump on Saturday. It will be an exciting time in LaCrosse.

Parker qualifies for WIAA golf sectionals

Photos from Coach Wiegman

From Coach Wiegman:

Wednesday at Ives Grove Golf Links in Racine, WI, the Whippet Golf Team competed in the WIAA Division 2 Regional hosted by Racine St. Catherine’s High School. The Whippets finished with a team score of 427. The team was led by senior Billie Jo Parker, who fired an 18 hole round score of 88. Her score qualifies her as an individual for the sectional meet next Wednesday at Kettle Hills Golf Course in Richfield, WI, and hosted by Kewaskum High School. Parker was 18th overall and finds herself competing for a chance at the WIAA State Invite held at University Ridge Golf Course. Senior Tommy Cushman fired his best round of the season coming in with a 103. Seniors Jacob Zuehlke and Jon Brunner shot rounds of 120 and 116 respectively. Junior Bowen Babcock rounded out the scoring with a final round of 123.

Parker will be teeing off at approximately 9:30 a.m. at Kettle Hills Golf Course next Wednesday, May 30th.

Whippets play two games, split with Big Foot and Elkhorn

Game 1: WHS 15   Big Foot 5   (Box Score)

Game 2: WHS 4   Elkhorn 9   (Box Score)

By Nate Parrish

Whitewater High School baseball team (13-7) was looking to bounce back against Big Foot after a couple of tough losses to McFarland that cost them a chance to win the Rock Valley Conference outright or even tie for the Championship. The Whippets struck early and jumped out to a quick lead in a 15-5 win that would end after 6 innings due to the 10 run rule. Whitewater scored 1 in the first inning and 7 more in the second for an 8-1 lead after two innings. Big Foot answered with 2 runs in the 3rd and 2 more in the 4th to make it 8-5 but Whitewater responded with 2 in the bottom of the 5th and 5 more in the 6th. The Whippets took advantage of 5 errors and 8 walks by Big Foot, which led to several runs. Alex Fero led the hitting attack by going 3 for 3 with a walk, 1 RBI and scoring 3 runs, Dylan Pease was 2 for 3 with 3 RBI’s. Bryce Parrish picked up the win on the mound going all 6 innings giving up 8 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned runs while striking out 4 and walking 3.

Immediately following the Big Foot game, Whitewater took on Elkhorn for the second game of a doubleheader on the evening. Whitewater would end on the short end of this game with a final score of 9-4. Whitewater was outhit 8-7 and had a couple of costly errors that led to the loss. Bryce Parrish was 2 for 4 with a double and Alex Fero was 1 for 2 with a double. The Whippets used 3 pitchers in the game as James Dedrick tossed 4 innings, Alex Fero 2 innings and Dylan Pease 1 inning. Coach Pease said “the last week has had a lot of highs and lows with the big wins over Jefferson then losing to McFarland and knocking us out of the conference race. We need to get back to throwing strikes, playing defense and having a good approach at the plate, if we can get back to that we can play competitive baseball but if we play the way we have the last few games we can be beaten by anyone. Now we need to focus on the next opponent and get ready for the playoffs”.