Sports

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Shawano 63

Xavier 38

Shawano won the battle of the Hawks on Friday night, dominating each half of the Bay Conference matchup.

Tori DePerry recorded a double-double in the win, scoring 19 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Rachel Reed added 11 points for the Hawks.

The win bumped Shawano’s conference record to 7-2, which is tied for second with New London. West De Pere leads the conference with a 9-0 mark.

WVL 53

Gresham 51

The Wildcats suffered a heartbreaking Central Wisconsin Conference-North Division loss to Wisconsin Valley Lutheran on Friday.

The loss was the fourth straight for Gresham.

Iola-Scandinavia 40

Menominee Indian 37

The Eagles also came up just short in a tight CWC-East clash with the Thunderbirds on Friday.

Menominee Indian trailed by six at halftime outscoring Iola-Scandinavia 19-16 in the second half.

Bowler 45

Tigerton 44

The goal for the Bowler boys basketball team was to get the ball into the paint and attack the Tigerton defense. Instead, riding the hot hand of junior Zach Fehrman from 3-point land, the Panthers built a comfortable lead behind their perimeter shooting before making it a priority to get into the lane and attack the basket.

Tigerton got into some early foul trouble and Bowler was able to hold off the Tigers late for a 79-58 Central Wisconsin Conference-North Division win at Tigerton High School on Thursday.

“We just had a little more moxie tonight, maybe because coming up to Tigerton is always kind of a border battle,” said Bowler coach Adam Spencer on what helped the team come away with a victory. “We played good tonight, we played solid. The boys played more like a team tonight than I’ve seen them play all season. I’m really proud of these guys.”

Carter Weisnicht knew going into his team’s matchup with Green Bay East that he would have an enormous height advantage.

The junior on the Shawano boys basketball team wanted to exploit the mismatch with his 6-foot-7 frame taking on Green Bay East players, who max out at 6-foot-1.

Weisnicht did his part, scoring a game-high 27 points, but Shawano’s supporting cast couldn’t get much going all night, accounting for just 23 points. With little balance, 3-point happy Green Bay East came away with a 62-50 victory in Bay Conference play on Thursday.

“I thought the kids came out early in the game and I thought we really established ourselves, had really good tempo, really good energy level,” Shawano coach Dave Ambrosius said. “Then we got a little bit lackadaisical, and credit Green Bay East, they came out and hit some shots and that really kind of got them rolling.”

WRESTLING

Bonduel 42

Pittsville 33

The Bears knocked off the Panthers in a Central Wisconsin Conference dual on Thursday.

Moises Lagunes (152) started the night off strong for Bonduel, pinning his opponent in 1 minute, 58 seconds. Isaac Banker (182) and Michael Smith (132) also earned pins for the Bears, claiming the wins in 1:18 and 1:14, respectively.

Alex Garside (195), Jacob Giese (220), Luis Lagunes (113) and Max Sokolski (126) all won by forfeit for Bonduel, which hosts a multidual today (Saturday).

Witt-Birn 64

Alm-Banc/Pacelli 12

The Chargers only dropped two weight classes — one by forfeit — during a CWC dual against the Almond-Bancroft/Pacelli co-op on Thursday.

Pierson Potrykus (106), Max Kersten (120), Bryce Zoromski (126) and Will Urquhart (145) all won by pin to lead Wittenberg-Birnamwood. Allen Uttecht (285) won by major decision.

Athlete: Darius Wayka

Sport: Wrestling

Weight class: 195

School: Menominee Indian High School

Year: Senior

Darius Wayka has enjoyed a strong start to the wrestling season, compiling a 18-3 record heading into a multidual at Bonduel on Saturday. Wayka has been amongst the top wrestlers at the 195-pound weight class in Division 3 all season and is currently an honorable mention.

In his most recent dual, Wayka defeated Shiocton’s Tyler Hess, also an honorable mention at 195 pounds, by a 2-1 decision. Back on Jan. 5, he placed second at the Brawl in the Falls Invite at Oconto Falls High School. He pinned three opponents on the day before being defeated by technical fall in the first place match against Bonduel’s Isaac Banker.

Wayka hopes to end his season competing at the state tournament. Last year, Wayka finished second in the 195 weight class at the Coleman Regional before dropping his first match at the Bonduel Sectional.

Some of us ice fishermen just want to hook a few panfish for the frying pan, but Ryan Wilson sometimes brings home thousands of dollars with his ice jigs.

He’s traveled to many Midwestern states and even Kazakhstan (Asia) in pursuit of fish below the ice.

Wilson, 36, of Waupaca, part of Team Aqua-Vu professional ice fishing team with buddy Brandon Newby, of Wisconsin Rapids, shared many of his fishing secrets Monday during his seminar at New London Public Library.

Wilson and Newby have captured two North American Ice Fishing circuit national championships, one in 2012 and the second last month in Minnesota, the latter earning them $13,000 in prize money. He’s also fished on ice as part of a team representing the United States in Kazakhstan.

Jetlyn Michonski has witnessed the reactions and heard the whispers plenty of times.

When the Clintonville/Marion wrestler hits the mat, it’s not uncommon for her to get a perplexed look — and sometimes a smile — from her male opponent. It’s always a different range of emotions from the guys who take the mat against the female.

“Most of the time the guys think that, because I’m a girl, I’ll be an easy opponent,” Michonski said. “Sometimes that is the case, and sometimes it’s not.”

Michonski isn’t the only girl competing in a mostly boys sport in the area. She’s not even the only one on her team, sharing the spotlight with Tabitha Breitrick.

In Shawano, foreign exchange student Sara Podavini is competing on the wrestling team, and Faith Lammers is skating on the boys’ hockey squad.

Here is a look at some of the top performances in the area over the past week:

Collin Buerman — Shawano boys swimming

The senior swimmer turned in several strong individual finishes and helped relay teams to some top finishes over the past week. Buerman was a part of the Hawks’ 200-yard medley relay, 100 freestyle relay and 200 freestyle relay teams that all placed in the top 10. Buerman helped the 400 freestyle and 200 medley relay teams to first place in a dual loss to Tomahawk on Jan. 10 while finishing second in the 100 and 50 freestyles.

Parker Bohm — Bonduel boys basketball

The senior broke the 1,000-point milestone in the first half of a 77-66 victory over Menominee Indian last Friday. He scored 33 points in the game, setting a new career-high. Despite the team dropping a nonconference game to Oconto on Tuesday, Bohm poured in 21 points. He is averaging just under 20 points per game this season.

The search for the new coach of the Green Bay Packers ultimately ended with the guy oozing positive energy and a certain je ne sais quoi.

Matt LaFleur’s hiring evoked a wide range of reaction from fans and talking heads — from those who hailed it as a great catch to those undecided, and still others who called it the worst move the team ever made.

The disparity is owed to the fact that you can’t find a proper working crystal ball these days.

In any case, LaFleur, the 39-year-old former offensive coordinator for Tennessee, has been walking on clouds since taking the phone call that changed his life.

The team had interviewed numerous candidates for the job, including interim Packers coach and former offensive coordinator Joe Philbin. But the big call ultimately came to the dynamic newcomer with the French-sounding name, heralding a new direction and ushering in the Matt LaFleur era. Then LaFleur thanked Aaron Rodgers and hung up the phone.

The Shawano boys basketball team knew the challenge that awaited as D.C. Everest, a Division 1 school coming out of the battle-tested Wisconsin Valley Conference, came to town for a nonconference clash on Tuesday.

Despite missing a pair of upperclassmen, the Hawks hung with the Evergreens for much of the game. After overcoming several tough stretches on the floor, a late 8-0 run by D.C. Everest proved to be the final nail in an eventual 69-57 loss for Shawano.

With senior Nick Grignon out with an injury and junior Cody Nahwahquaw out with an illness, the Hawks (4-9) were without two valuable pieces to their regular rotation. With those two out, coach Dave Ambrosius leaned more on freshmen Elliott Lowney and Ethan Schwitzer.

Each freshmen scored a basket early on, and combined with a 3-pointer from junior Karsten Anderson, Shawano had an early 7-3 lead.