The WIAA postseason continues for girls basketball tonight, WIAA sectional semi-final contests,
in Division 5, DeSoto plays at Independence Gilminton, and Barnavelle at Argyle,
Pecatonica. Division 3 landcaster will be against Edgerton and Wisconsin Dells against Aquinas,
for the right to play on Saturday for the sectional final. Boys teams will continue their tournament
with regional semi-finals on Friday night. Richland Sports Medicine, which serves
Ithaca Riverdale and Richland Center athletes, has recently announced the athletes of the month
for the first part of 2026. Representing the Richland Center wrestling program is Madeline Muller,
she was nominated by her coaches for leadership on the mat, and throughout the school day,
Maddie recently completed her high school wrestling career at the WIAA individual state
wrestling tournament. The boy athlete of the month is Riverdale Jr. Bevin Dennis. He is a three
sport athlete for the Chieftains, and recently surpassed 1,000 career points during an SWAL
boys basketball game. He is a leader in the classroom as well. Congratulations to Madeline Muller
and Bevin Dennis for being named athletes of the month courtesy of Richland Sports Medicine
and the Richland Hospital. The W. Superior Yellowjack at Women's Basketball team
claimed its second straight upper Midwest athletic conference tournament championship
this past Saturday, defeating North Central and earning the league's automatic bid
into the 2526 NCAA Division III tournament. After tuning into the selection show Monday,
they learn they'd be playing against Concordia of Minnesota on Friday night. Yellowjackets are
led in rebounding by Charlotte Firstal of Plain, a River Valley graduate who leads the squad
and rebounds with 190. She'll be trying to help the team win the next couple of games in the
tournament and advance. Also a part of the Concordia Regional are Ripon and UW-River Falls
who will play on Friday afternoon. I talked to Charlotte Firstal this week about the experience,
getting a chance to play again in the tournament. That was a little more difficult this year
in terms of just like we had to play in the road for our first game. We went to Minnesota Mournus,
which is a four-hour drive and is not fun to do during the week or on the weekend. But
we went there on Wednesday and last Wednesday we got the win and then we were thinking that we
would have to go to Man Cato to play, but North Central ended up beating Bethany Luthern in
Man Cato so we ended up getting to host the home game which is really special to just be at home
with all of our fans and all the different athletes and just be on our home court with our home run.
It was really special to get that experience for the third year in a row.
So for you, are you a junior this year? I'm a junior. I'm a junior.
Uh-huh. And how do you feel that it's gone overall for you this year?
It's gone well. We've had a lot of turnover, like I previously mentioned. So we kind of had to figure
out how to play together, really we had to figure out how to play together. And that took us quite
a few games to like get that under our belts, but we're really starting to hit our stride now,
which is the time you want to hit your stride. So that's very helpful for us as a team.
Sure, it's great to still be going to practice this time of year, isn't it?
It is. A lot of it's a long season, but just knowing what these next couple games will entail
makes it that much more exciting to go to practice.
So you've made the NCAA tournament coming up on Friday. Could you talk about your opponent
in the first round? Yes. So we're going to more head Minnesota,
sort of playing Concordia, more head. We have been doing some scout on them. They're a bigger
team. They have bigs who like to do a lot. So our game plan is to kind of just try and take away
what they are used to getting in their games and hit them with something that they haven't seen
before in terms of scoring one to five, passing them all well, doing our game, playing our game,
and we get the glory of playing as the underdogs, so we get to play with nothing to lose,
and every other team we play has everything to lose. So we're going to try and use that toward
advantage. I think that's you've been on both sides of that, but sometimes it's kind of nice to
fly into the radar, isn't it? It is. It really is because coming into that UMAC tournament last week,
when we went to Morris, Morris had beat us twice, and I don't think by any means they thought it
was going to be an easy game, but they came with some confidence knowing that they had been
nest twice in the regular season, and that gave us the competitive edge. When you look at your team
and what you bring to it, how do you feel your game has improved, maybe individually,
since the last time we talked Charlotte? I'm playing a lot closer to the basket. Like the past
couple of years, I've had to come out to the three-point line for a lot of our offensive sets,
and I like to think I'm a good three-point shooter, but I would say the stat book says otherwise,
so just being close to the rim and getting to really play in the lane in the mid-range game,
that really has allowed me to have more success on the court. Do you have any other players from
this part of Wisconsin on the superior roster? Kind of. We have another 608 on the team,
which is very nice to see another 608 in all of our text chains and group chats or whatever,
but we have a girl from Stoughton, but that is about as close as we get to good old River Valley.
Do you get a chance to check up on the old Alma Mater or see any of their games on video?
I have actually watched a couple of their games. They did pretty well this year,
all things considered, and it was nice to see them having success. It's nice to see
Elemire's having a lot of rebounding success, which is kind of what I brought to the table,
so it's nice to see someone else getting those rebounds too.
So what about career? Have you thought about that? Is that changed any since the last time we talked?
It has not changed. I'm still planning on being a history teacher at least to start my career,
and then I think I'll end up at an school administration somewhere wherever I end up.
What type of history is your favorite to learn about?
I do like US history. It's good old classic. US history love that,
but I also really do like teaching about current events and like civics.
Charlotte, first of all, of UW Superior. Good luck to her and the team as they get ready for
the Division III NCAA portion of the postseason this weekend. Bowling scores to report on from
the merchant's bowling league, Gerner Farms had a 29-33 series. He'll side dairy to a 27-64
and bubbling springs photography, a 27-52. Gerner Farms at 10-16 and a 10-13 game,
bubbling springs photography, a 9-84. Top series, Chase Keller, 7-14. Jason Gerner, a 6-64,
Ken Nick Jr., a 6-46. Top game, Chase Keller, a 257. Jason Gerner, a 253. Chase Keller, a 251.
In merchants, bowling league action. The Badgers started slow, missing their first 9-3
pointers, but dominated the rest of the way Wednesday night in a 78-45 blowout of Maryland.
Senior Braden Carrington connected on 4-3 pointers while scoring a team high 18 points. Here's his
coach Greg Gard. He's comfortable in the flow. He's really aggressive. He got to the rim.
I thought he did a really good job defensively, and we had to really keep track of Saunders. He got
loose on us a few times, so all the switching gets involved to try to shut that off. That
component, but obviously, once he gets a couple to go in, then he's going to he check a couple,
maybe. You know, his teammates do a good job of finding him. And everyone celebrated senior night,
including Greg Gard's son, Isaac. Very grateful for that opportunity to be able to
watch your son grow up in this gym from day one, literally, and to have that type of opportunity
for me as a coach, and obviously, more importantly, as a dad. It's been an amazing journey, and
tonight, obviously, it was a terrific senior night. The regular season finale comes up Saturday when
the badgers play at Purdue to close out that regular season in the Big 10. Purdue is in action.
Yesterday, in fact, they defeated Northwestern 70 to 66. A pair of freshmen combined for 21 points,
as Marquetti's lead defeated Providence on the road Wednesday night, 78 56. Adrian Stevens scored
21 points and Nigel James Jr. 20. The Golden Eagles took the lead in the first two minutes of play
and never trailed again. Marquette wraps up the regular season Saturday with a game at home against
Yukon. A solid first half wasn't enough to keep the box from losing for the fourth straight time.
Atlanta dominated the game, starting in the second period, running away with a 131-113 victory.
Yannis out to the Cumpo was in the lineup for the second straight game, and he scored a team
high 24. Ryan Rollins had a double double with 13 points, and a dozen assists. Milwaukee tries to
turn things around Saturday when the Utah Jazz visit the Pfizer forum. A home run by veteran
outfielder Christian Yelich was the only scoring in the Brewers 401 loss to the Cubs yesterday.
The Cubs scored the first two runs before Yelich went deep. Then the Cubs tacked on some
insurance later. Left-handed relievers Shane Drowhand and was a bright spot for Milwaukee. He
pitched the last three innings, giving up just one hit and striking out four Chicago batters.
The Brewers take on the Rockies, coming up today in Exhibition Baseball. And I am Phil D with a
look at sports.
