Girls basketball wins in overtime
By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Lake Geneva Badger wrestling team fell short of its goal of making a third consecutive trip to the team State tournament in Madison finishing third at the WIAA regional at Janesville Craig on Saturday.
Milton won the regional and advanced to the team sectional with 240 points. Elkhorn finished second with 225. Badger scored 192.
Coach Shane Koehl said before the regional that Milton was the favorite with Elkhorn and his Badgers also in the hunt. In order for his Badgers to come out on top, Koehl said they would have to score points at all 14 weight classes. They did that, but it was still not enough.
Koehl said health has been one big reason the team has had an up-and-down season. Koehl said the team had not wrestled with its full varsity line-up together at the same time all year, though he said that has provided some great varsity experience for the team’s less experienced wrestlers.
As a team Badger entered the regional 17-4, 5-2 in Southern Lakes Conference dual matches. Badger finished second to Burlington at last week’s SLC meet.
Badger advanced 11 individuals to the sectional on Saturday in Oconomowoc. Leading the way was Andrew Cychner (34-1), Badger’s only individual champion at 182 pounds. Cychner scored 25.50 team points with a technical fall victory (8-4) over Milton’s Kyle Zucaro and a win by fall (13-7) over Beloit Memorial’s Marquel Johnson in the first-place match.
Alex Martinez (113 pounds, 35-6), Michael Peter (120, 30-12), and Bryan Nugent (145, 23-13) qualified for the individual sectional by finishing second in their weight classes. George Somerville (106, 33-8), Zac Leonard (138, 22-10), Nick Halpin (195, 12-13), and Ruben Garcia (220, 19-14) finished third. Tony Howard (152, 28-13), Andrew Allen (160, 7-3), and Andrew Nugent (285, 20-22) all finished fourth.
Swimmers to state
The Badger coop swim team finished fourth at the Racine Case sectional at Carthage College on Saturday with 242.5 points. Franklin won the sectional title with 326.5 points. Kenosha Tremper took second with 283 and Racine Case finished third with 254. The Burlington coop team finished ninth with 145.
Badger qualified two individuals and two relay teams for the state tournament at UW-Madison on Saturday. Andrew Shane qualified by finishing first in the 100-yard freestyle (48.17) and second in the 50-yard freestyle (22.16). Remy Glogovsky qualified by finishing second in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:00.16) and third in the 200-yard individual medley (2:03.16).
The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Glogovsky, Shane, Jimmy Corpus and Richard Szweda qualified by finishing second (1:30.23). The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Glogovsky, Shane, Szweda and Tom Ritzman qualified by finishing third (3:22.36).
Other top individual finishers for Badger who did not qualify for state included Ritzman in the 200-yard individual medley (sixth, 2:10.52) and 100-yard butterfly (seventh, 57.40), Szweda in the 100-yard freestyle (sixth, 51.32) and the 100-yard breaststroke (ninth, 1:05.66), and Alex Kulik in the 500-yard freestyle (eighth, 5:29.05)
Badger girls win two
The Badger girls basketball team needed overtime to subdue Union Grove 45-44 as part of a home doubleheader Friday night.
Both teams struggled to score all night as neither side could score more than 14 in any individual quarter. Union Grove led 8-5 after one quarter but Badger battled back to tie it at 15 at the half.
Badger won the third quarter 9-7 and Union Grove (8-10, 6-5 SLC) sent the game into overtime tied at 36 by winning the fourth quarter 14-12. Badger was down by five with about a minute and a half to play. Sam Tisa made two free throws to help close the gap, and Marie Mieres-Rey scored with 14 seconds left to tie it. Lily Quinn got a steal and made a basket that would have won the game in regulation but it fell just after the buzzer sounded.
Badger won the overtime period 9-8 and had to do it without Rey and Kortlyn Freeman at the end after both fouled out with about two minutes left to play.
“It was cool to see the girls step up and play well down the stretch,” Coach David Jooss said. “They did well against the press.”
Jooss said it wasn’t about any coaching adjustments, it was simply the kids making plays to provide an exciting finish. Union Grove missed the front end of a bonus situation at the free-throw line and Badger got the rebound. Brianna Flower made a great pass to Jennifer Freeman, who nailed a long NBA-range three-pointer with just four seconds left to give Badge the lead. With no timeouts left, the Broncos had no time to respond and Badger escaped with the victory.
With the win Badger (15-3, 9-1) remains a half game behind Wilmot (10-1) for the lead in the SLC. Badger was led by Kortlyn Freeman’s 14 points. Freeman had been in a walking boot the week before after suffering a foot injury against Muskego on Feb. 4. Quinn added nine. Sara Hartl led the Broncos with 16.
Badger defeated Burlington (6-11, 3-7) 42-28 on Feb. 11. Badger jumped out to a 12-5 lead after one but led only 18-16 at the half. Badger outscored the demons 24-12 in the second half.
Mieres-Rey led Badger with 12 points. Ellen Stang led Burlington with 14.
Badger was scheduled to play a make-up game at Union Grove on Monday night but the game was moved to tonight because of inclement weather. Badger plays at Elkhorn tomorrow night and will host Wilmot in another make-up game that could decide the SLC champion next Tuesday.
Badger boys drop three
The Badger boys lost three games last week but put two scares into SLC-leading Union Grove in the process.
Badger (9-11, 4-8) played at Union Grove (17-3, 11-1) in a make-up game on Feb. 11 and lost 79-70. Badger led 22-20 after one and 35-34 at the half. Union Grove took command in the third quarter outscoring Badger 23-13. Both teams scored 22 in the fourth quarter.
Lincoln Wieseman led all scorers with 25. Derrick Buntrock added 14, Logan Tenney had 13, and Toney Ashley had 10. Andrew Kazikowski led the Broncos with 22. Alex Hale added 20, Jacob Fink had 12, and Grant Beck chipped in 10.
Union Grove won the rematch Friday at Badger 60-54. Badger kept things tight the whole way, trailing by just one at the end of one and 26-21 at the half, but they could not make up the difference in the second half.
Jake Berhorst led Badger with 14. Wieseman added 11 and Tenney had 10. Hale and Fink led Union Grove with 13 each. Kazikowski and Beck each had 12.
Badger also lost a non-conference make-up game at Sussex Hamilton 89-50 on Feb. 10.
The Badgers hosted Elkhorn on Tuesday night and travel to Wilmot tomorrow. Badger will begin WIAA regional play as the No. 6 seed at No. 3 seed Janesville Craig on Feb. 28 at Craig at 7 pm. Craig is 11-9 and tied for fourth place in the Big Eight Conference (9-8).
