September 2024

JANESVILLE — Late last Thursday, Janesville Parker’s football team headed to its locker room and the faithful fans at Monterey Stadium gave the host Vikings a standing ovation.

Out on the field, Middleton co-coaches Joe Poehls and Tim Simon were scolding their team about what went wrong.

Anyone who glanced at the scoreboard and saw the 26-14 result would have assumed the Vikings were the victors.

Instead, it was the other way around — which is telling for both teams.

Middleton left Parker with a 12-point win, but was extremely disappointed with how it played. Parker, which is still looking for its first win of the season, took solace in the fact they hung with the heavily-favored Cardinals all night.

So as Middleton headed to its bus, it knew it had to be better — much better — starting this Friday when it travels to No. 3 Verona.

Continued improvement.

That’s the goal Ben White has for Middleton’s girls volleyball team.

Right now, White — the Cardinals’ second-year head coach — has to be extremely pleased with the path his team is on.

Middleton went to the La Crosse Aquinas Invite last Saturday, won all five of its matches and captured the championship.

That marked the second time in three weekends that the Cardinals won a tournament title.

“Continued improvement,” White said. “That's our goal and that is what we are seeing.”

Middleton certainly saw that at Aquinas, where it rolled past four of its five opponents in straight sets and won 10 of 11 sets overall.

Middleton opened pool play with a 25-23, 25-21 win over Chippewa Falls. The Cardinals then downed Fennimore, 25-20, 25-16 and bested Blair-Taylor 25-18, 23-25, 15-7 to finish pool play a perfect 3-0.

The WIAA Division 1 girls state swimming and diving meet will be held at Waukesha South High School in mid-November.

Last Saturday, Middleton gave a sneak peek what that event could look like.

The Cardinals had what coach R.J. Leiferman called “our best meet of the year” and won the Waukesha South Invite. Middleton — the defending WIAA Division 1 state champs — finished with 392 points, while Verona was second at 324. Muskego (244), Arrowhead (232) and Menomonee Falls (217) rounded out the top five.

“Our entire team performed at a really high level against some of the best swimmers in the state,” Leiferman said.

Middleton’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Sulia Miller, Audrey Alexander, Abigail Frommelt and Jane Garlock finished first and broke the meet record with a time of 1:37.08.

Middleton’s boys volleyball team hasn't lost a Big Eight Conference match since Sept. 29, 2011.

The Cardinals entered last week with a remarkable league winning streak of 84 matches.

And Middleton wasn’t challenged while extending that streak to 85 matches and nearly 13 years.

The Cardinals rolled past Madison La Follette, 25-13, 25-14, 25-12 on Sept. 18. Middleton, ranked No. 2 in the latest Wisconsin Boys Volleyball Coaches poll, improved to 14-2 on the year.

"We played some very clean volleyball against La Follette,” Middleton coach Dylan Griffith said. “We didn't give La Follette very many chances and we kept the ball on their side of the court for most of the game.”

Caden Van Buren led the Cardinals with 11 kills and added two aces and a block. Bryce Stuttgen had 19 assists, four aces and three digs, while Jonah Johnson had eight kills.