May 2021

MIDDLETON–The public may be less involved in some public meetings as Middleton City Administrator Mike Davis has advised committee chairs not to put public comments on committee agendas.

In an exchange of emails Monday, Davis stated that this had been a long-standing position of not taking public comments at certain public meetings.

“The reason is that it is all too easy for a committee to start on a discussion that has not been publicly posted and could be a violation of the open meetings law. All such discussion items should be on the publicly posted agenda,” he wrote.

Davis also wrote that he and the city attorney have advised committee members for several years that public comments should not be on committee agendas.

Asked if not taking public comments at the committee level sacrifices timely public input, Davis disagreed.

JANESVILLE – There was plenty to celebrate for Middleton’s girls cross country team last Saturday at the Blackhawk Golf Course.

But no one had more to celebrate than junior Lauren Pansegrau.

Not only did Pansegrau become just the second Middleton runner in school history to win an individual state cross country championship, she also led the Cardinals to their fifth state team championship and first since 2006 at the WIAA alternate fall state cross country meet.

“I knew that was our goal going in to this,” Pansegrau said of the team title. “I thought everyone ran really well. They were putting a lot of effort into this race. So we did really well.”

Pansegrau cruised to the individual title, covering the 5,000-meter course in 17 minutes, 7.3 seconds. She is the Cardinals’ first individual state cross country champion since Liz Reusser won back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998.

It wasn’t their best round of the year.

And really, it didn't have to be.

Middleton’s girls golfers did what they needed to and won their own sectional held at Pleasant View Monday. The Cardinals shot a 320 to easily outdistance runner-up Janesville Craig (344) and win the eight-team sectional.

Middleton and Craig both advanced to the state tournament that will be held May 17-18 at Blackwolf Run in Kohler. The Cardinals — who won the 2019 state title, then chose to push their 2020 fall season to the spring — will technically be gunning for a repeat.

“State was a team goal at the beginning of the season and I'm proud of the girls for accomplishing this goal,” Middleton coach Becky Halverson said. “As a team, our number one goal was to advance to state.”

Middleton’s boys tennis team is off to a sensational start.

The Cardinals competed at the Coaches Classic at Brookfield Central High School last weekend and went a perfect 4-0. Here’s a recap of Middleton’s big weekend:

• Middleton 7, Nicolet 0 — The Cardinals rolled past the Knights last Friday.

Ian Connell, Koji Heineman, Aarush Gupta and Jacob Mandelbrot all notched singles wins.

In doubles play, Middleton got wins from the teams of Gene Kim and Jonathan Kim, Anders Clark and Kieran Gopal, and Neel Mukherjee and Ilya Rice.

• Middleton 7, Verona 0 — Jonathan Kim, Koji Heineman, Aarush Gupta and Kieran Gopa all notched straight set wins for Middleton last Friday.

And in doubles play, Gene Kim and Ian Connell won at No. 1, Anders Clark and Jacob Mandelbrot rolled at No. 2, and Franklin Hu and Saketh Peddireddy cruised at No. 3.