By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Whitewater High School boys and girls track teams competed in the Rock Valley Conference Championship on May 14 at Edgerton High School. The boys finished in third-place while the girls took seventh.
For the boys, senior Xhonatan Shahollari was named co-field athlete of the meet for winning the long jump and triple jump. Those two winning performances were both personal-bests. Shahollari also took second in the high jump.
The 4×100-meter relay team of Shahollari, Matt Mattingly, Connor Rupke and Tyler Sheffield also took first – the third win for Shahollari in the meet. Whippets head coach John Houwers talked about another senior, Sarah Ziolkowski, who also did well in the meet.
“Sarah Ziolkowski, who smiled her way around the track eight times to win the 3200-meter run in a lifetime-best time,” Houwers said. “Sarah was smiling because she was finally running on the track instead of in a pool after battling an injury all year. Sarah has cross-trained incredibly hard to be able to have that opportunity and she made the most of it.”
Houwers talked about some of the other athletes who made a difference for the team’s total scores in the meet. It takes a top-four finish to earn a medal at the meet and Rupke in the 100-meter dash, Logan Rasmussen in the triple jump, Jon Zheng in the long jump and the 4×800-meter relay team of Timmy VanderPluym, Connor Laue, Matt Mattingly and Mike Mattingly were able to obtain medals.
For the girls, Nicole Frison in the 100-meter hurdles, Miranda Reynolds in the high jump, Maritza Xochipa in the pole vault and the 4×100-meter relay team of Morgan Wiedenhoeft, Kelly O’Hara, Xochipa and Morgan Radaj were all able to medal. Houwers said the teams competed hard and represented Whitewater High School well.
There will be a freshmen and sophomore invitational held at 4 p.m. today at Evansville High School. Following that, regionals are set to begin on May 23 at a time to be determined.
