Sports

Middleton’s girls soccer team had another extremely strong season, going 12-4-2 overall.

And the Cardinals were rewarded with eight players named to the all-Big Eight Conference team.

Senior midfielder Dalina Jonuzi and junior defender Sophie Kasel were named first-team all-conference, while senior forward Marley Mladucky and sophomore keeper Lydia Paulsen were both named second-team all-league.

Freshman forward Izzy Frantz, freshman midfielder Zoe Sharaf, sophomore center midfielder Addy Frantz and sophomore defender Ursula Anstaett were named honorable-mention all-conference.

Jonuzi, a two-year captain, finished the year with seven goals and 10 assists. Jonuzi had an assist in each of Middleton’s first five games, a hat trick against Janesville Parker, and a memorable goal against Verona to highlight her terrific campaign.

MADISON — Gold was the trophy they coveted. They got silver instead.

But members of the Middleton boys tennis team, most of whom will return next spring, also got a little more than they bargained for at the conclusion of the WIAA Division 1 team state tournament.

They got all the motivation they’ll need for the offseason.

Those medals they were handed following a 4-3 loss to Milwaukee Marquette in the championship duel last Saturday at Nielsen Tennis Stadium will double as chips they can place squarely on their shoulders.

“It just adds more fuel to the fire,” said junior Koji Heinemann, who notched one of the Cardinals’ three wins with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Charlie Keller at No. 2 singles. “Every single one of us is upset, we’re angry, we’re sad, but those are all emotions that can get put into this next year (to come). Everyone’s going to work extremely hard, and if the stars align I would say, yeah, watch out for Middleton.”

The great New York Yankee catcher/philosopher Yogi Berra coined the phrase, ‘It ain’t over ‘til it’s over’.

That was an apt description when Middleton hosted Sauk Prairie in a Home Talent League Northern Section crossover game last Saturday afternoon.

Sauk Prairie rallied from an early six-run deficit before Middleton first baseman Connor Manthey lined a bases-loaded, walk-off single to right field to secure a hard-fought 12-11 victory for the host 29ers at Sorensen-Bakken Field.

Middleton (5-0) closer Drew Farrell entered the game with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning with the score tied at 11 and one out.

Farrell needed just two pitches to induce the Twins’ (4-1) dangerous Sam Koenig, one of the elite power hitters in the HTL, to bounce into a 5-3 double play to set the stage for the 29ers’ dramatic game-ending hit.

GRAND CHUTE — Brent Jorgensen pulled out all the stops.

Jorgensen, Middleton’s fifth-year manager, knew his Cardinals were facing arguably the state’s top pitcher in Hortonville’s Thomas Burns during Monday’s WIAA Division 1 state quarterfinal.

So to ready his team, Jorgensen cranked the pitching machine to 95 miles per hour. He had a handful of alums return to MHS and pitch to the Cardinals from 50-feet away — roughly 10 feet closer than the pitching mound sits.

While the strategy and preparation was sound, it wasn’t quite enough.

Burns, an Arizona State recruit, showed why he could have a lengthy career in this sport. Burns allowed just three hits, struck out eight and threw a complete game shutout to power the Polar Bears to a 3-0 win over Middleton at Fox Cities Stadium.

Zaira Malloy-Salgado was on a mission,

Neither rain delays, nor lightning or a power outage was going to keep the Middleton senior distance runner and University of Wisconsin recruit from her goal of finishing her high school career on the top of the podium at Veterans’ Memorial Sports Complex in La Crosse last weekend.

Mission accomplished.

Malloy-Salgado won the 3,200-meter run at the WIAA Division 1 state track and field meet last Saturday for the second straight year. Malloy-Salgado also finished fourth in the 1,600-meter run last Friday.

“My overall strategy for the weekend was to run strategic races, but also take risks, and finish each race with zero regrets,” Malloy-Salgado said. 

No problem.

The Friday evening session, which included preliminaries and five finals events, was extended due to multiple weather-related delays. There was also another half-hour delay when the stadium lights went dark at 11 p.m.

Finn Patenaude was in his element at the WIAA Division 1 state track and field meet last weekend.

The Friday evening session, which included preliminaries and five finals events, was extended due to multiple weather-related delays, which included rain, thunder and lightning. And then there was another half-hour delay when the stadium lights went dark at 11 p.m.

That didn’t bother the Middleton senior one bit.

“Chaos, I loved it,” Patenaude said with a chuckle. “You had to embrace it. I live for that. It was a lot of fun.”

Patenaude, a University of Vermont recruit, finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles in 38.80 seconds and placed fifth in the 110 hurdles in 14:58.

“I broke my school records in both events that I set earlier this season," he said of his hurdles finals’ races. “What’s better than that?”

MADISON — This time, the stakes were much higher.

This time when Koji Heineman and Ethan Bo squared off, it wasn’t just to determine who would play at No. 1 singles — a spot the two fought for all season long — for Middleton’s boys tennis team.

This time, it was to determine who would advance to the semifinals of the WIAA Divi-sion 1 state tournament.

Oddly enough, that made things easier for the teammates — Heineman a junior and Bo a sophomore — when they took the court at Nielsen Tennis Stadium for last Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals match. 

“It felt more like the easiest challenge match. It felt like all that pressure for who’s going to play No. 1 had finally flown away and I was really just able to focus on the tennis,” said Heineman, the No. 6 seed in the draw who entered the tournament with a 20-3 record. “There were no other variables that I was worried about. It was just about tennis today.”

MADISON — A spot on the podium — and medals for both of them — was at stake.

Lose this match, and that accomplishment was not guaranteed.

Middleton's Jonathan Kim and Neel Mukherjee answered the bell.

In more ways than one, in fact.

The seniors, seeded second in the 64-team doubles draw of the WIAA Division 1 boys state tennis tournament held at Nielsen Tennis Stadium last weekend, got knocked around at times in their quarterfinal match against a Brookfield Central duo. But Kim and Mukherjee always punched back and defeated the seventh-seeded team of Aaditya Tiwari and Gabe Weitzer, 6-4, 6-2.

Kim and Mukherjee went on to suffer a 6-3, 6-4 loss to the third-seeded team of Chatton Haws and Keenan Haws from Cedarburg in Saturday's semifinals. Glendale Nicolet's top-seeded tandem of Alex Aranda and Henry Vizgaitis then toppled Middleton’s No. 1 duo, 4-6, 6-2, 10-3, in the third place match.

LACROSSE — Of all the terrific Middleton baseball teams in recent years — and there have been plenty — this wasn’t the one expected to break the drought.

There was just one starter back from the 2022 team that reached the sectional semifinals. There were no proven commodities on the mound. And as skipper Brent Jorgensen examined his roster back in March, he was left with a bevy of questions and very few answers.

Yet there were the 2023 Cardinals dancing, laughing, smiling and embracing one another at beautiful Copeland Park on Tuesday evening. This team that few thought would excel three short months ago continued a season that’s been surprising, rewarding and exhilarating.

Middleton toppled Verona, 3-1, in a WIAA Division 1 sectional final and earned the school’s first trip to the state tournament since 2016. The Cardinals, who were seeded fourth in their sectional, improved to 22-8 and continued their stunning postseason run.

LA CROSSE — From the time Brent Jorgensen passed out uniforms this spring, Middleton’s manager knew there was a formula that would allow his Cardinals have a big year.

Middleton wasn’t blessed with big boppers or dominant arms. So the Cardinals’ path to success involved small ball, great defense and never flinching in tight games.

Now, that recipe has Middleton one game from state.

The Cardinals defeated Sun Prairie West, 4-3, in a WIAA Division 1 sectional semifinal Tuesday at Copeland Park in La Crosse. Middleton improved to 21-8 overall and moved within one game of its first state tournament since 2016.

“The guys work so hard. They put in a lot,” Jorgensen said. “They do all those small things that make a difference in the game, things that people watching the game don't always see or understand. They do all those small things and it makes a difference.”

Sacrifice flies. Bunting. Moving runners over. And high-level fielding.