Why Whitewater?
17-09-2019
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This week the students in Mrs. Colleen Mendez's English 10 class took time to reflect on being kind. They learned about the Kindness Rocks project and spent time brainstorming what positive message they would put on a rock. Students painted rocks and then hid them around the outside of Whitewater High School.
The Whippet Swim Team started their competition portion of the season Thursday night, September 5, with some impressive swims. Despite disqualifying two of the thirteen relays, the Whippets were still able to finish in 5th place overall. This season all swimmers were able to swim at least one relay for the team. The following girls did great in their first meet as Whippets: Brooke Bazeley, Vanessa Falcon, Grace Foucault, Hailey Murphy, Emily Radaj, Josie Treder, Karime Velazquez, and Ashly Xochipa. We had four 1st place medal winning performances earned by different combinations of five of our swimmers: 4x100 IM *NEW Southern Lakes Conference Record previously held by a 2012 Whitewater High School relay team, now held by Grace Foucault, Sophia Fanshaw, Brianna Zimdars, and Ella Houwers with a time of 4:16.88. This is over 5 seconds faster than the previous record and 8 seconds faster than any other relay that swam. 1000 Freestyle (100, 200, 300, 400) – Amber Krebs, Grace Foucault, Brianna Zimdars, and Ella Houwers with a time of 10:25.70 which was 12 seconds fast than any other team that swam, and it was 22 seconds faster than our group that finished the same relay in first last year at this meet. 500 Freestyle (50, 100, 150, 200) – Sophia Fanshaw, Grace Foucault, Brianna Zimdars, and Ella Houwers with a time of 4:53.28 which was 18 seconds faster than any other relay that swam. 400 Backstroke – Brianna Zimdars, Sophia Fanshaw, Grace Foucault, and Ella Houwers sprinted to a *NEW Southern Lakes Conference record with a time of 4:10.05, over 5 seconds faster than the previous record and over 7 seconds faster than all relays that swam. Other highlights include the eight swimmers that swam on our 200 Butterfly relays all went best times. The relay of Raquel Ortiz, Brooke Bazeley, Ellie Treder, and Lexi Hackney went 22 seconds faster than their seedtime. In addition, the relay team of Natalie Amos, Giselle Ramirez, Josie Treder, and Mina Truesdale all dropped time to go 6 seconds under their seedtime. A few standout splits include Hailey Murphy in the 50 Breaststroke 36.89, Brooke Bazeley in the 50 Freestyle 29.99, and Mina Truesdale in the 50 Butterfly 38.92. Coach Foucault stated, "I am very proud of our team and cannot wait to see more racing in the next couple of weeks."
Students in ACT Test Prep Class had an indoor snowball fight on Thursday to get to know each other. Students wrote about themselves on paper, crumpled the paper into a ball, and then engaged in a "snowball" fight. Once the fight ended, students had to read the snowball and try to find the person it matched. Once they were matched up they engaged in discussion.
The Whitewater Boys’ Soccer team wrapped up their second week of soccer games with a win at home against Fort Atkinson on Thursday night. Last week we kicked the season off playing up two divisions against two Division 1 teams from the Janesville high schools. Our first game was against Janesville Craig. We knew going in that we were not quite at the fitness level that we needed and we were learning a new formation for the season. We saw some good play from our team and identified some fundamentals to work on improving. While it was close, Craig was the better team and beat us 2-0. Next up was Janesville Parker. We've had good success against Parker in the past few years and this year was no different. The final score was 7-0 with goals coming from Cody Gamble (2), Juan Cuellar (2), Cody Rupke, Ignacio Cuevas, and Rafa Cortez. This week we played Division 2 Waterford on Tuesday. While we felt like we were definitely playing better soccer than in week 1, and we made it to half time tied up at 1 each, Waterford managed a couple more goals in the end to beat us 3-1. Thursday, we put in our best overall team performance of the two weeks in a home game against Division 2 Fort Atkinson. Colin Chenoweth notched his first goal of the season to give us the lead at half-time. Fort Atkinson tied it up in the second half, but Juan Cuellar gave us the game winner. Sergio Zuniga in goal made a couple of exceptional saves to close the game out for us. Next week is a busy week for us as we head on the road against Cambridge-Deerfield and then back up that direction for a game against Lake Mills. We close out our early non-conference schedule with a tournament in Milton over the weekend. We are starting to see some solid play from the whole group on our varsity roster and are looking forward to the rest of the season. Photos courtesy of Bob and Peter Mischka.
The Whippet Volleyball Team opened the 2019 season playing in the UW-Whitewater Tournament. To begin play on Friday, Whitewater took on Catholic Central who won a state title last year. The two teams battled and exchanged point leads numerous times which led to extending play to 27 points twice. The team was led by Kacie Carollo's 8 digs, Hannah O'Brien's 2.0 passing, Cora Linos's 9 assists and 2 blocks and Emme Bullis adding 12 kills, 3 aces, and 2 blocks. Despite the evenly matched play between the two teams, the Whippets fell 2-0 by the score of 25-27, 25-27. Up next for the Whippets was Lakeside Lutheran who lost in the WIAA semi-finals in 5 sets to East Troy, who went on to win another state title last year. Once again the Whippets played tough and kept Lakeside on their heels throughout the match. Although having 25 digs against a powerful Lakeside and running a more balanced offense, Whitewater fell in two sets by the score of 20-25 and 18-25. On the rise, the Whippet's next opponent was Tomahawk. Kiyla Kopecky used her powerful serve to ace the Hatchets 5 times and Kacie Carollo led the team with a hitting percentage of .500. She had 4 kills in 6 attempts with only one error and added 9 digs. Cora Linos led in the assist category with 17. Emme Bullis led with 12 kills and passing a 2.23. Additionally, Catherine Skindingsrude, Hannah O'Brien, and Amanda Tovar added pivotal digs to keep rallies alive. The combined efforts contributed to Whitewater's first win of the day by the scores of 25-15, 19-25, and 15-10. The last match Friday was against Milton. Milton dominated the first set and won 25-14. With the lopsided loss, the coaches decided to make a few adjustments in the lineup to match up better against Milton. Whitewater players have been coached over the course of their volleyball career to be versatile and not limit themselves or the team by being locked in to playing one position. Players need to be able to play multiple positions. All of the Whippets have embraced this mentality of doing what is best for the team. This selflessness became evident in the second set when the players were informed of the lineup changes and rational for it. Cora Linos was asked to take on a hitting role in the front row to add more offensive weapons and to block the Milton setter when in the front row. Emme Bullis was asked to set in a few rotations and hit and block out of the middle. These adjustments rattled Milton. Whitewater went on to win the second set 29-27. In the third set Whitewater kept the pressure on but ended up losing, 15-17. On the second day the Whippets opened up playing with confidence and passing well which led to two more wins against Beloit Memorial (2-1) and Evansville (2-0). Whitewater tallied 34 kills, 91 digs, 6 blocks, and 16 aces in the two wins. Maddie Arnett did a great job with adjustments she was asked to make. The team needed her to move to the outside to hit in a few rotations and she never batted an eye. The selflessness of this team is like no other I have coached in all my 20+ years. I am very proud of each player in the Whippet program. In the second round of pool play the Whippets finished second and entered bronze bracket play, facing off against Lodi. Amanda Tovar recorded a personal best of 6 digs in the match. Amanda is a tremendous athlete who is a volleyball sponge right now. She is asking questions, making adjustments, and getting better each time she steps on the court. Hannah O'Brien and Catherine Skindingsrude are our key defensive and serve receive players who are asked to carry a load in the backcourt. They are raising the level of their play by being able to read opponents' hitters, recognize holes in our block, and play scrappy defense. Coach Bullis stated, "I'm very excited about the growth the team had this weekend and can't wait to get back in the gym on Tuesday for another three days of opportunities to raise our level of play, before heading up to the Oshkosh Lourdes Tournament next weekend."