I am Phil May with WRC Osports, the WIA girls wrestling tournament trail kicked off Friday night
around the state. Richland Center had a regional. The River Valley girls finished in fourth place
of the Wannakey regional and three Black Hawks qualified for the section of minimal point.
Champions Mackenzie Sholti and Raylin Ragsdale and runner up Ellie Osborne. Also at Wannakey,
the Sock Prairie Wisconsin Heights girls co-op at a pair of champions in Naomi Bermuda and Lily
Hatfield. There were nine teams at Richland Center's girls regional on Friday night and
Kickaboo LeFarge Youth Initiative nipped the host Richland Center squad for the team title 189
to 185. Richland Center had the most sectional qualifiers with six while Kickaboo LeFarge Youth
Initiative and Prairie Dushin each had four. Sectional qualifiers from the RC girls regional
Friday night for the Hornets for champions in seniors Kaylee Spilde, Madeline Muller and Abigail
Williams and junior Annabelle Sloan along with two runners up in senior Valerie Fauver and
junior Mariah Obday. Madeline Muller was a state qualifier a year ago for the Hornets. Kickaboo
LeFarge Youth Initiative's four sectional qualifiers led by junior Chloe Walter who won a championship
at the regional and three teammates all runners up senior Riley Graffey, junior Maddie Townsend
and sophomore Millie Vaz. Basketball was Eco-Stubanwile of champion Payton Sander and runner-up
Allie Gillennick, both sophomores. For boys wrestling over the weekend, the Aerie at Division 3
sectional tournament was held at Brookwood's new high school fieldhouse with 18 area small schools
taking part in the day long event. The top six teams advanced to the team sectional at Brookwood
on Saturday. They were led by champion LaCrosse Aquinas with 271 runner-up Isle of Grant Highland
with 209. The other four teams to qualify for the team sectional are Landcaster, fourth place
Riverdale, Prairie Dushin fifth and sixth place Boscabel was Eco-Stuban. Riverdale has five
individual state qualifiers, senior Brodie Mies, junior Lakota Brewer and sophomore James Schram,
one sectional title Saturday while senior Grant Matthews and sophomore Wyatt Schram finished
second. It will be the third trip to state for both Brodie Mies and Grant Matthews and the
second four Lakota Brewer. Matthews is a defending state champion while both Mies and Brewer
are returning state runners up. Iowa Grant Highland also qualified five wrestlers for the state
need led by sectional champions Jackson Bussey, Brock Hinderman and Griffin Winesky. Bussey,
a senior, a reigning state champion while junior Brock Hinderman is a two-time state place winner
and Griffin Winesky is a sophomore joining them at state for Iowa Grant Highland, our freshman
Wyatt Hoffman and sophomore Ty Cuts. Rounding out the area state qualifiers from the Brookwood D-3
sectional Saturday, junior Ashton Utilhoven of Boscabel was Eco-Stuban, senior Drew Powell of
Brookwood and sophomore Kenoa Rogers of DeSoto. Prior to the tournament at Brookwood on Saturday,
a ceremony was held honoring the late Ken Manning and the naming the Brookwood High School
Media Center in his honor. Manning was a standout wrestler at Ithaca High School and the UW-Ritchland
went on to a Hall of Fame career as a wrestling coach at Lancaster and at Westby before entertaining
a second career as a wrestling broadcaster. At the time of his death, December 27th of 2024,
Ken Manning was serving as elementary principal of the Norwalk Ontario Wilton School District.
The six teams advancing from the Richland Center, division two sectional on Saturday were
Evansville, first place, Mahorah Barnaville was second, Belmont Platteville third,
Lodai was fourth, Stoten fifth and Reedsberg makes the next level with the team finishing in
sixth place. No individuals from Richland Center or River Valley advance to the next level,
the state tournament coming up in a couple of weeks. For Dodgeville, Shane Roshan took second for
the Dodgers at 120, Nathan Johnson was second place at 144, and Unbeaten Hawkins Peterson first
place at 165 pounds. Those three will represent the conference and Dodgeville at the next level.
Platteville, Belmont had an impressive day led by first place finish from Briggs Wigel,
and for Phenomore, Jaren Glassbrenner was first at 157, and Writers Ann Savich took second at 190
to advance to state. High School Boys basketball tonight, Richland Center makes up a game at
home against Platteville. Weston will be at Kikapoo, Luther at Hillsboro, Royal at LaFarge
Youth Initiative, and is Soto at Bangor. Girls basketball, River Ridge at Wazika Stuben,
North Crawford at Westby, Mahorah at Mineral Point, Southwestern at Belmont,
Darlington at Barnaville, home in at Reedsberg, Wisconsin Dells at Sock Prairie.
And the pairings are out for the WIA high school girls basketball tournament,
first round games start next Tuesday night. Several of our teams will have some long trips on the
opening night. Weston, Ithaca will travel to Alma Peppin. Hillsboro will host Brookwood.
North Crawford is at Royal, DeSoto hosts Waniwak Center. Also, it will be action coming up
in the bottom part of the bracket in D5 for Black Hawk at Barnaville, Southwestern at Wazika
Stuben, and Boskebel at Highland. Also, Riverdale will travel to Parkview. Division four next
Tuesday night, Iowa Grant will be at Prairie Dushin and Wisconsin Heights at Point at among the
games. Phenomore and Bangor have first round buys. And in Division three, Westby will be at Amherst,
Richland Center at Westfield. Adam's friendship hosts Lodi. Bigfoot will be at River Valley
at a nine versus eight matchup with a winner to play number one seed, Edgerton in the second round.
Cuba City also has a first round buy as does Plattville and Landcaster representing the Southwest
Conference. Dodgeville travels to New Glarris for a first round game. Well, back to back wins over
Illinois and Michigan State have the badgers thinking about winning or sharing the big 10 regular
season title. Wisconsin has won nine of its last 11 games and has actually beaten three top 10
opponents. Sports Illustrated reports that Coach Greg Gards giant killers have a 10-4 conference
record good for fifth place right now is team plays four of its last six games away from Madison
and need some help to tie the Michigan Wolverines who have only one big 10 loss.
Two consecutive disappointing seasons have led badger football fans to demand a coaching change
that hasn't happened. And one of the reasons is the cost $25 million. The administration is
backing head coach Luke fickle so far, but spending millions to get rid of a coach is not unique
in modern college football. WSAW TV reports that schools shelled out $200 million last year
to pay former coaches not to coach only four programs were on the hook for more than 25 million.
Superstar Yana Santa de Cumpos says says it again for what must feel like a millionth time. He
tells ESPN he is quote committed to the Milwaukee Bucks. Yana's was interviewed during the NBA all-star
weekend. Numerous reports over the last few months had him traded to the Golden State Warriors,
the Minnesota Tim Rolves or the Miami Heat talks were held, but no trades were completed. Yana's
promises he will never be heard saying he doesn't want to be a Milwaukee Bucks. The all-star games
went on yesterday and it was a win for the stars over the world. The stripes beat the stars,
the stripes beat the world. And in the final, the stars defeated the stripes. Anthony Edwards won
the MVP award while leading his stars team pass their fellow Americans on the stripes team.
Jordan Stoltz is very calm and apparently impervious to nerves that the two-time Olympic
gold medalist coach Bob Corby does occasionally wonder whether his star speed skating pupil
might be a little too relaxed. One example before Stoltz was due to compete in the 500 meters
at the games in Milan. Corby found him laying down in the athletes lounge, not a care in the
world as race time was getting closer. But Stoltz did end up winning that race to get a second
gold in the Olympics after also winning the 1,000 meters. He has two more races to go starting with
the 1500 on Thursday. That is a look at sports. I am Phil Ne.
