Sports Wrapups: Feb. 16

Franklin swimming

Franklin sophomore Josh Lefeber will be the first swimmer for the Sabers in at least a decade to compete in two individual events in the WIAA Division 1 State Meet held at 3 p.m. Saturday in Madison.

At Saturday's Greenfield Sectional, Lefeber won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1 minute, 2.17 seconds and also swam second in the 200 individual medley in 2:01.91.

Franklin gymnastics

The Franklin co-op continues to raise the bar.

The undefeated unit posted a whopping 146.625, the highest tally in the state this season, en route to the title at the 10-team Nordenhoft Invite at Mukwonago on Saturday.

"Last year, the winning score at state was a 142.45, to put it into perspective," Franklin coach Katie Moore said. "It was a really high score, but well earned. Sometimes it seems that the scores are really high on one or two events and that leads to a high team score. (Saturday) all the scores were in line, but the girls just had an awesome day.

"Hopefully we can carry this momentum into conference, sectionals and finally state. At this point in the season, our performance is almost entirely mental. If we can stay in the place we were at (Saturday), we should have an amazing finish."

Muskego's Shannon Hein earned the co-op's only victory, winning the floor with a 9.475, but balance paved the way to the huge total.

Franklin's Jenna Renner was fifth in the all-around, thanks to a second on the vault (9.225) and a sixth on the bars (9.0). Franklin's Melanie Pearson was third on the beam (9.35) and fifth on bars (9.075), Muskego's Sammi Olson was the runner-up on bars (9.45), Muskego's Lauren Hein was fifth on beam (9.2) and Whitnall's Lauren Zurowski was second on the floor (9.4) and sixth on the vault (9.125).

Oak Creek wrestling

The Knights are sending 10 wrestlers to Saturday's Racine Park Sectional following their impressive performance at the Marquette Regional on Saturday.

Oak Creek's 125-pounder Matt Blower improved to 31-5 and used two pins to win the regional, including one against Milwaukee Bradley Tech's Darrick Dorsey in the first-place match.

Jeremiah Butler (135 pounds), Josh Regazzi (160), Mitch Dolan (171) and Kyle Wey (189) took home first place for the Knights. In the championship matches, Butler (21-13) beat Marquette's James Tjarksen, 8-4; Regazzi (21-13) edged Tech's Vernon Rash, 9-6; Dolan (19-9) posted a 13-3 major decision over Milwaukee North's Arthur Anderson; and Wey (31-3) defeated South Milwaukee's Brett Hochstaetter, 10-6.

Also advancing with top-four finishes were Joey Swick (103 pounds), Jake Schmidt (119), Matt Hampson (130), Randy Maas (140) and Mike Heard (285).

The Knights finished second in the team standings to Bradley Tech, 215-204.

Whitnall wrestling

Despite not filling all the weight classes, the Falcons managed to take third at their own regional Saturday and send nine individuals to the Racine Park Sectional at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Among the sectional qualifiers were regional champions Kameron Bourgeois at 103 and Zach Noel at 130. Bourgeois (39-6) pinned Greenfield's Andrew Patrick in 48 seconds in the final for his title and Noel (41-6) registered a pin in 2:49 over Greenfield's Taylor Wirtz in his championship match, Noel's second pin of the tournament.

Demetrius Wall was the runner-up at 112. He was pinned in the finals by Franklin's Sam Kortes in 2:22.

Five Falcons were third: Ruben Garcia (31-15) at 119, Mason Howard (34-15) at 125, Matt Price (29-17) at 135, Zach Menden (13-9) at 140 and Nathan Barnhart (34-11) at 160. Stefan Gudry (17-18) was fourth at 145.

The Falcons did not have an entrant heavier than 171 pounds.

Oak Creek swimming

Junior Sam Vissers broke a 35-year-old school record in the 100 free but still fell short of qualifying for Saturday's state meet.

Vissers finished third at the Greenfield Sectional on Saturday in the 100 in 51.63, behind only Greenfield/Greendale's Mike Lucchesi's 48.11 and Kenosha Tremper's Ron Schaefer's 50.66. Vissers' time established a new school record, erasing the mark set by Rick Brill in 1972 and tied by Scott Stridde in 1975.

But the Oak Creek junior missed the state-qualifying mark of 49.91.

Vissers also swam fifth in the 200 individual medley and Evan Koch was sixth in the 100 backstroke for the Knights, who did not have a state qualifier for the seventh straight season.

Franklin boys basketball

Nick Romanowski took over the NOW-area scoring lead with his seventh 30-point game of the season while leading the Sabers to a 70-50 road win against Kenosha Tremper on Friday.

Romanowski has scored 30 or more points in four of his last six games and began this week averaging 23.2 points per game, slightly better than Whitnall's William Pelkofer's 22.6 average.

Franklin's Matt Krueger chipped in 13 points and Macon Plewa hit three 3-pointers for his nine points as the Sabers improved to 9-9 overall, 6-5 conference.

Franklin's 28-14 fourth quarter closed the door on the host Trojans.

Franklin's nonconference matchup against Brookfield East on Feb. 9 was postponed due to snow. No makeup date has been set.

Franklin girls basketball

The Sabers won their third game in a row with a 51-36 home win over Kenosha Tremper on Friday.

Franklin (11-8, 7-4) steadily built its lead by outscoring Tremper in each quarter.

The Sabers' Taylor Atkinson continued her strong play with 14 points. Diana Mantey added 11.

Oak Creek girls basketball

The Knights picked up two home wins to snap their three-game skid.

Oak Creek's Ashley Luke scored 18 points in her team's 48-33 win against Horlick on Friday.

Three days earlier Oak Creek converted 18-of-29 free throws against Milwaukee Riverside in a 55-44 win.

The Knights' Cydney Weisflog led her team with a season-high 17 points. Luke chipped in 14 and Maggie Wilke added nine for Oak Creek (12-6, 6-5).

Oak Creek boys basketball

The Knights snapped their 14-game losing streak when they defeated visiting Greenfield, 68-48, Feb. 10.

Oak Creek (3-16, 0-11) hit nine 3-pointers and used its 21-8 third quarter to down the Hustlin' Hawks.

The Knights' Danny Rajchel and Nick Stout scored 12 points each and Eli Aponte chipped in with 11.

Oak Creek took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter but could not hold off host Racine Horlick in a 61-60 overtime loss Feb. 12.

Stout (22) and Tyler Magyar (14) combined for 36 points. Horlick's Byron Belle led all players with 28.

Whitnall boys basketball

Host South Milwaukee limited Whitnall to single digits in each of the first three quarters and handed the Falcons their worst defeat of the season, 61-41, Friday.

William Pelkofer had 14 points, his second-lowest total this season, and Stephen Pelkofer had 12, but no other Falcon had more than six. Conversely, four Rockets scored eight or more as South Milwaukee avenged a 59-54 loss to Whitnall in December.

The Falcons (11-6, 8-6) lost consecutive games for the third time this season. Whitnall's previous five losses were all by 10 points or less.

Greendale hockey

Before entering the WIAA postseason, which began Tuesday, the Ice Force evened its record at 10-10-1 with a 4-3 victory at Sauk Prairie on Friday.

Michael Yablong and Brett Pokrzewinski scored two goals each for the co-op. Yablong's second goal came with 13:23 left in the third period and gave his team a 4-2 lead.

Greendale played Kenosha Bradford/Tremper on Tuesday in a WIAA regional semifinal.

Whitnall girls basketball

Missed opportunities down the stretch cost Whitnall a win against visiting South Milwaukee on Friday.

The Falcons missed the front end of bonus free throws with seven-tenths of a second on the clock and lost, 44-42, to drop to 5-11 overall, 5-9 conference.

With the score tied at 42-42 with 8 seconds remaining, Whitnall turned the ball over, resulting in a South Milwaukee layup with 2 seconds left. The Falcons, who led 39-36 with 3:51 left in the game, were fouled with less than a second left but could not convert.

Whitnall's Jocelyn Gillum had a season-high 16 points with nine rebounds and point guard Alyssa Moffatt, who is filling in for Lisa Donaldson, added 11 points.

"We played hard and had several opportunities but came up empty," Whitnall coach Keith Larson said. "It was a tough loss."

Greendale boys basketball

The Panthers could not end New Berlin Eisenhower's winning streak and lost, 72-50, at home Friday.

Eisenhower (19-0, 14-0) hit nine 3-pointers in the win and got 10 or more points from four players, including Mitch Sperka's game-high 22.

Cordney Wren (15 points), Mason Johnson (13) and Andrew Schwerin (10) all scored in double figures for the Panthers (5-14, 3-11), who lost their fourth consecutive game.

Greendale/St. Thomas More wrestling

Greendale/St. Thomas More's 152-pounder Chandler Gayan got pinned with 3 seconds remaining in the final period of the first round against Racine Case's Demetrius Davis, ultimately costing Gayan a shot at advancing past the Whitnall Regional on Saturday.

Gayan followed with consecutive pins but finished fifth; the top-four wrestlers at each weight class advanced.

Greendale's Sam Walton (125 pounds) and Forrest Bedard (285) also finished fifth as the co-op's season came to an end.

- David Cotey and Dan Deutschendorf