Sports WrapUps: June 8

Whitnall track

Showing dramatic improvement from last year, Whitnall senior discus thrower Scott Erickson turned in a personal best of 173 feet-11 inches in the preliminaries, before the rain set in, and that was good enough for the senior to earn third in the WIAA State Track Meet last Saturday in La Crosse.

"I did a lot better than I thought I would," he said. "Last year at state I was 17th in both events (shot put and discus), so this was a big step up. The weather (dry in the preliminaries and rainy in the finals) was fine. Everybody else had to deal with it, so it was really no problem."

Oregon's Jake Ninneman won the discus with a 19-foot personal best of 180-0. Erickson was also 16th in the shot put (51-5 1/4).

Other finishes for the Falcon boys at state included the following: 800 relay-Bob Grim, Ben Schaefer, Jake Streim and Nikolai Miskov, 13th (1:30.98). 400 relay-Grim, Streim, Schaefer and Miskov, 15th (43.6). 800-Jake Lehmann, 19th (1:59.88). 1,600 relay-Sawyer Nelson, Schaefer, Miskov and Lehmann, 21st (3:27.35).

Grim, Miskov, Nelson, and Lehmann are all seniors.

For the Falcon girls, freshman Rachel Stave made the finals in the 400, finishing ninth with a best time of 58.8. She was also 19th in the triple jump (33-4¾). The all-underclassmen 3,200 relay team of Mary Erickson, Danika Johnson, Leah Windt and Katherine Crivello was 21st (9:54.55).

Oak Creek soccer

The No. 4 Knights advanced to a Division 1 sectional semifinal matchup with defending state champion Divine Savior Holy Angels after victories over Milwaukee King and Bay View in the tournament's first two rounds.

Oak Creek plays at No. 1-seeded DSHA at 7 tonight with a berth in the sectional final on the line. The winner advances to take on either No. 3 Nicolet or No. 2 Whitefish Bay.

Oak Creek cruised to 5-1 victory over King at DSHA on June 5 and posted a 13-0 triumph over Bay View at Oak Creek Middle School on June 3.

Franklin soccer

The seventh-seeded Sabers' season came to an end with a 9-0 loss to host and No. 2-seeded Whitefish Bay on Saturday.

The team advanced to the matchup with Bay by defeating No. 10 Greenfield, 5-2, in the tournament's first round June 3.

Greendale soccer

Madison East prevailed in a shootout, 4-2, over the host Panthers in the first round of the Division 1 tournament June 3 to end Greendale's season.

Whitnall soccer

The Falcons, seeded 13th, saw their season come to an end with a 7-2 loss at No. 4 Muskego in the opening round of the Division 1 tournament June 3.

Muskego advanced to the second round and defeated Waukesha South, 4-1, to set up a sectional semifinal contest today against Madison La Follette.

Oak Creek baseball

The non-conference portion of Oak Creek's schedule went well.

But the conference portion has not.

The Knights need to buck that trend before digging themselves too big of a hole.

Oak Creek, which sat in last place in the Greater Metro Conference when the week began, begins a lengthy stretch of GMC games at 5:30 p.m. today at West Allis Central. The Knights then return home Friday at Abendschein Park to face Central.

The Knights have the weekend off before having a two-game series with Brookfield East next Monday and Tuesday.

Oak Creek (6-3, 1-3 GMC) is on a two-game winning streak, defeating non-conference foes, Arrowhead, 11-1, and Milwaukee Pius, 5-3, during the weekend.

This was after the Knights lost two of their first three conference games of the season, including a tough 11-10 loss to Wauwatosa East last week.

"Coming off a tough loss to Tosa East Thursday night where we felt we gave one away, we needed to rebound well against Arrowhead and Pius, and we did," coach Scott Holler said.

Junior Chris Bournelis, in his first varsity start, pitched six clean innings against Arrowhead while striking out three. In that game, the Knights were paced by senior Tyler Zemla's four hits, a career high, which also included two doubles and three RBI. Fellow captain senior Andy Page added a career high three hits and scored three runs.

Against Pius, the Knights trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning when junior Josh Jesko golfed a curve ball down in the zone over the left-center field wall for a grand slam giving Oak Creek a two-run lead. It was Jesko's fourth home run of the young season.

"(Jesko) has really elevated his game and is emerging as one of the top hitters around," Holler said. "We're looking forward to getting back in the race in the GMC."

Franklin baseball

After having the weekend off, the Sabers return to the diamond this week for five non-conference games.

Four are against Woodland Conference opponents, while the Sabers opened the week with a game against Classic 8 foe, Mukwonago.

The Sabers have an away game at New Berlin Eisenhower today, a home game against Greendale one day later and another road contest at South Milwaukee at 2 p.m. on Saturday, before getting back into the GMC next Monday and Tuesday against Wauwatosa East.

Franklin is 6-3 overall and 2-2 in the GMC after splitting with Menomonee Falls last week.

After losing, 5-1, last Wednesday, the Sabers came back and upended the Indians, 3-0, in an 11-inning shutout. Senior Brandon Wiedenfeld pitched 10 scoreless innings as did Menomonee Falls senior Ben Burns.

The Sabers scored the game's only runs in the top of the 11th on a two-run single by Jay Dirienzo and a sacrifice fly by Evan Walton.

Greendale baseball

Are the Panthers still awake? When Friday's non-conference game at Franklin gets under way, it will have been 12 days since their last game.

But the real question should be have they made any adjustments?

After Greendale was shutout, 20-0, during a doubleheader May 29, their record dropped to 2-7 overall. Those two defeats were its third and fourth in five games.

Following the contest against Franklin, Greendale has a home doubleheader next Tuesday against South Milwaukee.

- Compiled by Christoper Kuhagen, Steven L. Tietz and Matt Newman