Sports

The United Soccer Coaches announced the Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award recipients for high school programs competing in the fall season.

Middleton’s boys — who won a second straight WIAA Division 1 state championship — received a bronze award.

Eleven fall high school boys and girls teams received the United Soccer Coaches Platinum Team Ethics Award for completing the entire 2024 fall season without receiving either a yellow or red card.

WALES — Kevin Bavery stood inside an empty locker room in what was now a completely vacant Kettle Moraine High School.

Bavery’s 19^th season as the boys basketball coach at Middleton High School had just ended.

His Cardinals had fallen to No. 1 Kettle Moraine, 66-48, in a WIAA Division 1 regional final last Saturday.

Many years, when the finality of a season arrives, Bavery wonders what could have been. He questions whether his Cardinals should have advanced further in the postseason.

This was not one of those times.

“They were better than us,” Bavery said of the Lasers. “They were just better.”

Indeed they were.

Kettle Moraine showed why it’s the top-ranked team in the state, while improving to a perfect 26-0. Middleton finished its inconsistent season 15-11.

The first seven games of the season were a painful endeavor for Middleton’s boys basketball team.

Center Will Garlock was out with an ankle injury. The Cardinals were inexperienced at most positions. And Middleton began the year 2-5.

If there was a silver lining, it’s that Middleton learned to play without the 7-foot Garlock.

The dividends of that were evident in the Cardinals 81-68 win over visiting Beloit Memorial in a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal last Friday played in front of a raucous, full house at MHS.

Garlock was limited to just 17 minutes due to foul trouble. But the Cardinals didn’t miss a beat, outscoring the Purple Knights by 12 points in the 19 minutes Garlock was on the bench.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — Twelve months ago, a back injury had Aspen Goth on the sidelines more than on a gymnastics mat.

Today, Goth has proven to be one of the top gymnasts in Wisconsin.

Goth, a sophomore at Middleton High School, went to the WIAA Division 1 state individual meet last Saturday at Wisconsin Rapids High School and shined.

Goth finished 14^th in the all-around competition and also posted a ninth place finish on the uneven bars, a 10^th place finish on the vault and an 11^th place finish on the floor.

In all, it was a terrific debut at the state meet for Goth.

“Being that Aspen is only a sophomore, I think this was an exciting opportunity for her to experience the state competition,” Middleton coach Alexis Cairo said. “She was nervous — and rightfully so — but ultimately she put up a good fight.”

The Middleton High School Alpine Ski Team wrapped up its season with strong performances at both the conference and state championships.

The girls secured a first-place finish at the conference meet on Feb. 10, while the boys team claimed second place.

Seven athletes from each team qualified for the Wisconsin Interscholastic Alpine Racing Association (WIARA) State Championships, held at Mt. La Crosse on Feb. 16-17.

Representing Middleton at state for the boys were, seniors Owen Winkelmann and Will Seaborg, juniors Eli Knutowski, Wesley Ward, Drew Lindsey and Griffin Schumacher, and freshman Colin Burke.

The girls were represented by senior Rita Vavilov, juniors Sydney Weiss and Maggie Kirker, sophomores Ava Lindsey, Stella Schroeder and Opal Kunkel, and freshman Emily Fredricks.

MADISON — As the 1977 hit song by Meatloaf goes, ‘Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad’.

Such was the fate of the trio of Middleton High School wrestlers who competed at the 82^nd annual WIAA individual state wrestling championships at the UW-Kohl Center last weekend.

Junior Sam Zanton earned a repeat berth on the podium with a fourth-place finish at 157 pounds, while sophomore Reed Falk also earned a second straight place on the podium, finishing sixth at 190 pounds.

Meanwhile, junior Finn Grauwels fell one match short of qualifying for the fifth-place match at 165 pounds.

“Next year we can get all three of us on the podium,” Zanton said. “I think we can definitely do it.”

While Middleton is still after its first individual state wrestling champion since coach Kevin Meicher won the Division 1 title at 126 pounds as a freshman in 2016, it was an extremely successful season for the Cardinals overall.

MADISON — All good things must come to an end.

For Middleton’s girls basketball team, the end came last Friday night at the hands of Madison Memorial.

The Cardinals entered the game on a roll, having won six of their previous seven games. But the Spartans’ front court and full-court pressure defense was too much for the Cardinals to overcome.

Fifth-seeded Memorial finished the first half on a 16-5 run and 12th-seeded Middleton never recovered, suffering a 78-52 loss in a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal. The Spartans went 3-0 against Middleton this year — winning the season opener, the season finale and another game in between.

“We had a gameplan and we didn’t execute that gameplan after the first 12 minutes,” Middleton coach Rashard Griffith said. “We weren’t recovering (on defense) and helping one another on the penetration and the drives — the stuff that we talked about and we worked on.

VERONA — All in all, the first period was a success for Middleton.

The second and third periods were the complete opposite.

The fourth-seeded Cardinals trailed top-seeded Madison Edgewood, 2-1, after the first 17 minutes in their WIAA Division 1 boys hockey sectional semifinals at Verona Ice Arena on Feb. 25. Middleton couldn’t carry that momentum over, though, ultimately suffering a 7-1 loss to the Wildcats.

“We wanted to control what we can control, which is our attitude and effort,” Middleton coach Jochen Hylbert said of the upset bid. “We went out there and played a pretty tough first period. It was a pretty tight game — a few bounces could have gone either way that period.”

The first bounce went Edgewood’s (20-6) way, a goal by Owen Porter that came just 2 minutes, 45 seconds into the contest.

Coaches everywhere talk about peaking.

Performing at your best when it matters most.

Shining brightest when the postseason arrives.

For most, that rarely happens.

Middleton’s girls gymnastics team, on the other hand, had its finest meet in several years at the WIAA Division 1 Sun Prairie Sectional on Feb. 27.

The Cardinals finished third at sectionals with a team score of 137.525 — breaking their season-best score by a remarkable 3.525 points. Verona/Madison Edgewood won the sectional with a 144.275 score, while Mount Horeb was second (138.775).

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, only the top two teams advanced to the state team meet, which will be held Friday at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School.

Middleton’s boys basketball team finished the regular season in style.

Now, the Cardinals hope to carry that momentum into the postseason.

Middleton routed visiting Janesville Parker, 91-37, in its regular season finale on Feb. 27. The Cardinals finished the regular season 14-10 overall and took fifth place in the Big Eight Conference at 11-7.

Now, Middleton hopes to make some noise in the playoffs.

The Cardinals are the No. 8 seed in their sectional and will host ninth-seeded Beloit Memorial in a regional semifinal Friday at 7 p.m.

If the Cardinals win their playoff opener — and seeds hold — they’d head to top-seeded Kettle Moraine (23-0) for a regional final Saturday at 7 p.m.

The sectional semifinals would be March 13 and the sectional finals are March 15.

Beloit Memorial (15-9) finished in fourth place in the Southern Lakes Conference.