Sports

VERONA — Last season’s Edgewood College baseball team featured five players from Middleton High School, no small number considering the recruiting footprint most colleges have.

Then Cooper Holewinski graduated.

That number was sure to decrease, right?

Wrong.

And not only didn’t it decrease, it actually increased — to six.

The path from Middleton to Edgewood hasn’t necessarily been a straight one -- a few of the six transferred in over the years — but it’s noteworthy enough that it’s now a de facto pipeline.

Proximity has a lot to do with why that’s turned out to be the case. But it’s far from the only reason.

MADISON – With the playoffs just around the corner, Middleton’s girls softball team has picked an opportune time to get hot.

The Cardinals extended their winning streak to six games with a 15-0 rout of East Madison United last Friday in a Big Eight Conference game ended after four innings due to the mercy rule at Olbrich Park.

That capped a 4-0 week for Middleton (11-6 overall, 9-2 in the Big Eight), which got stellar pitching performances from its one-two punch of junior Megan Button and senior Savannah Roessler and an opportunistic offense that outscored its opponents, 41-8.

“It was a nice week,” Middleton manager Brittany Carl said. “We had some early season struggles and some adversity where we lost three in a row a couple of weeks back, so bouncing back was important.

“I’m very happy with how they showed up in most of these games this week. We brought Middleton ‘A’ ball. That’s what we want to bring into next week.”

The girls soccer season still has two weeks remaining, so anything and everything remains possible.

Middleton stayed in the hunt for a Big Eight Conference championship, though, last week.

The Cardinals battled to a 2-2, hard fought draw with league leading and visiting Madison West on May 2. Middleton also rolled past host Janesville Craig, 7-0, on April 30.

West leads the conference with a 4-0-1 mark (13 points), while Middleton is 2-0-2 in conference (eight points). The Cardinals — who are 6-2-3 overall — could catch the Regents by winning the rest of their league games and having West tie or lose one of its remaining contests.

“While the tie was difficult … we need to take stock in our achievements for the night and how well we did play,” Middleton coach Mary Duffy said. “West has always been a force and we have battled for dominance every year with West beating us the past few years.”

Middleton’s boys lacrosse team pushed its winning streak to six games last week.

The Cardinals improved to 8-3 overall and jumped to No. 4 in the latest state poll.

Here’s a recap of the Cardinals’ recent games:

• Middleton 18, Sun Prairie 5 — Visiting Middleton got goals from nine different players and rolled past the Cardinals on April 23.

Middleton led, 8-0, after the first quarter and was never challenged.

• Middleton 15, Sauk Prairie 3 — Junior co-captain Troy Teff had three goals and helped power the Cardinals past the Eagles on April 25.

Jake Blindt, Gabe Passini and Arjay Johnson added two goals each, while Parker Leslie and Ryan Molander both had one goal. Perhaps most excitingly for the youth players in the stands, five underclassmen also put points on the board, including two from freshman standout Jake Blindt.

Middleton’s girls track and field team finished in third place at the 14-team Stoughton Invite last Friday.

The Cardinals’ boys finished in fourth place.

DeForest won the girls’ title with 110 points, while McFarland was second at 106. Middleton (84.5), Oregon (76.5) and Elkhorn (72) rounded out the top five.

McFarland also won the boys’ title with 12 points. DeForest (78.5), Reedsburg (72), Middleton (71.5) and Janesville Craig (57) rounded out the top five.

Here’s the Middleton athletes that had top-five finishes:

GIRLS

• Middleton’s 1,600-meter relay team finished first.

• Middleton’s 800-meter relay team was second.

• Junior Kara Meeteer was third in the 100-meter dash and third in the 200-meter dash. MHS sophomore Noel Neuser was also fifth in the 200.

• Sophomore Katya Maeder was fourth in the 100-meter hurdles and fifth in the 300-meter hurdles.

Middleton’s boys tennis team finished in second place at the star-studded, Nicolet Sweet 16 Invite last weekend.

Brookfield East won the team title with 103 points, while the Cardinals were second with 95. Homestead (88), Green Bay Notre Dame (77) and Kimberly (75) rounded out the top five.

Here’s how the Cardinals fared at each flight:

SINGLES

No. 1 — Ethan Bo won the title, defeating Brookfield Central’s Surya Arvind, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 10-7 in the championship match. Bo also defeated Kimberly’s Aiden Meixl in the semifinals, 7-5, 6-2.

Bo began the tournament with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Westosha Central’s Christos Dovas, then defeated Whitefish Bay’s Tyler Schneider, 6-3, 6-3, in Round 2.

No. 2 — Alexander Bo finished first overall, defeating Brookfield Central’s Andrey Semin in the championship match, 6-3, 0-6, 10-6.

It was windy, rainy and cold last Friday night.

But you didn't hear anyone on Middleton’s girls softball team complaining.

That’s because the Cardinals notched one of their biggest wins in recent memory with a 12-5 thumping of traditional Big Eight Conference power Verona.

“This rivalry never gets old,” Middleton coach Brittany Carl said. “It's that backyard brawl type energy.”

Middleton’s win over the visiting Wildcats was the highlight of a week that saw the Cardinals defeat Madison Memorial, 7-2, on April 25 and fall to Oregon, 1-0, on April 22.

Middleton is now 7-6 overall, but 5-2 in the Big Eight Conference, which has the Cardinals in fourth place.

Here’s a recap of Middleton’s week:

• Middleton 12, Verona 5 — The Cardinals used an eight-run fourth inning to break open a tight game and roll past the Wildcats.

SUN PRAIRIE — Cold. Rainy. Windy.

It was not a pleasant evening on Friday during the 8th Annual Paul Frank Invite put on by Sun Prairie East High School.

And yet, that didn’t seem to bother Kara Meeteer.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

The junior on Middleton’s girls track and field team won the long jump with a meet record leap of 18 feet, 2 inches — shattering the old mark of 17-11 held by Mikaela Grant of Jefferson (in 2016) and Alexis Jackson of Oregon (2017).

Her winning effort in that event was the highlight of the night for the Cardinals’ girls squad, which edged out Sun Prairie West (57 points) for fourth place with 61.5 points. Sun Prairie East (114) won the meet, beating out runner-up Waunakee (109.5). Verona took third (89.5).

“I was not expecting that considering the weather,” Meeteer said of her record-setting jump. “I’m very proud of that.”

SUN PRAIRIE — On your mark. Get set. Go!

Only it didn’t go smoothly for Dante Pasello when the gun sounded to start the boys 400-meter dash at last Friday’s 8th Annual Paul Frank Invite hosted by Sun Prairie East.

“Out of the blocks, my blocks went backwards. I kind of tripped, so I had to catch back up,” said Pasello, a senior on the Middleton boys track and field team said.

Pasello ultimately could not catch up to the leaders, taking third.

But the fire was lit. He wasn’t going to be shut out on the night.

He now had all the motivation he needed for his next event, the 800.

“Yes, exactly,” he said. “I wanted to win at least one event here.”

Mission accomplished. Pasello made amends for his effort in the 400 by taking first in the 800, finishing in 2 minutes, 0.67 seconds.

Sophomore Kyle Pape accomplished a rare feat for Middleton’s baseball team last week.

With the Cardinals trailing by a run in the bottom of the sixth inning, Pape drew a walk and eventually scored what proved to be the winning run as Middleton rallied for a 7-6 victory over visiting Janesville Craig in a Big Eight Conference game.

But Pape, who opened the game as Middleton’ starting first baseman, also had the opportunity to close the door on a potential Cougars’ rally in the seventh inning, when he returned to the mound for his second inning of relief work.

Pape said retiring the final two batters proved to be more memorable than anything he did on offense, which included a run-scoring single in the first inning.

“Closing out the game, that was more intense, more final,” Pape said of his first varsity victory. “It felt good, but I knew I had to close it out. That’s the situation I wanted to be in.”

Middleton manager Brent Jorgensen agreed.