EDITOR'S NOTE: The Swnews4u.com Athlete of the Week is a web-only feature that will publish each Thursday or Friday throughout the calendar year.
By Jason Nihles, The Platteville Journal, Fennimore Times, Boscobel Dial
Bret Connolly, Sr., Iowa–Grant cross country
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN — The Iowa–Grant boys team ran its best most complete race of the season Saturday to win the WIAA Division 3 Prairie du Chien Sectional and qualify for this week’s State Championships.
Senior Bret Connolly won the boys’ individual sectional championship with a winning time of 16:53.6 to top the field of 134 runners and help his Panthers (88) chase down SWAL champion Boscobel (109) by 21 team points for the sectional crown.
Fennimore finished a distant third at 162 and missed out on one of the two team berths to the state meet, which will be held Saturday at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids.
“It was an incredible team effort to overtake Boscobel, who has such a strong pack of young runners,” said IG head coach Jake Winkler. “Bret had a historic race, finishing first overall, and Noah (Lange) continued his remarkably consistent season placing 12th.
This will be the second trip to state as a team for Connolly, Lange, Fulton and Straka, who were part of the 2022 team that finished third at the state meet. Connolly, who only returned to the Panthers' lineup a few weeks ago, finished 35th at the Division 3 boys state meet each of the last two years. The IG senior closed the regular season with an 11th place finish the Albany Invitational Oct. 12 and before winning the individual SWAL title Thursday, Oct. 17 with a time of 16:38.5. He
“Bret showed incredible poise (Saturday) to fight off multiple challenges from the field to finish as sectional champion,” said Winkler. “We knew coming off the conference meet that he had a chance to win this race, but he had a tough pack with him pushing him. He’s one of the most determined runners I’ve gotten to coach. He has put in the work to establish himself as one of the best to ever do it at Iowa–Grant.
“I’m so proud of the great runners we have at Iowa–Grant that are committed to continuing to building our program. I’m excited to see what these guys can do at the state meet. We’ve got runners with state meet experience along with some scrappy young guys that I know have even more to give. I can’t wait for Saturday!”
The Division 3 boys state championship race is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
Michael Murphy, Sr., F, Platteville/Lancaster boys soccer
Platteville/Lancaster senior forward Michael Murphy was the hero of Platteville/Lancaster’s 4–0 regional semifinal victory over No. 11 seed West Salem, scoring all four goals in the match, which took two days to complete. Murphy scored an unassisted goal in the minute Thursday night, before lightning delayed the match until Friday just three minutes. Murphy scored three more goals when the match concluded Friday evening to send the Hillmen through to the regional final.
The Platteville/Lancaster boys soccer co-op left it all on the field in Saturday’s WIAA Division 3 regional final. A full 80 minutes of action wasn’t enough to decide a victor. The third-seeded and D7 #7-ranked Spartans finally prevailed 2–1 in overtime after a Brayden Fisher goal in the 85th minute on a beautiful cross from Jaden Zana less than five minutes into the extra session. The overtime was 20 minutes long with the teams switching sides at the 10-minute mark.
McFarland made the one-goal advantage hold up throughout the second extra session surviving a desperation blast from the left wing, that sailed over the crossbar from 25 yards out, by Hillmen senior Michael Murphy with roughly 30 seconds left to play. Murphy assisted on sophomore Adam Whisenant’s game-tying goal in the 15th minute. Murphy beat a McFarland defender on the right side of the box and got the ball to Whisenant in the middle of the field and beat the keeper to the lower right to knot the match at 1–1.
Murphy, who was recently announced as the Southwest Wisconsin Conference Player of the Year for a second-straight season, finished this year with a team-high 25 goals and 8 assists to lead the Hillmen to a 12–4–2 overall record after going 7–1 in conference to win the SWC title. Murphy's 25 goals ties for the sixth-best in program history. He finishes is standout four-year prep career with 53 goals, which is fourth all-time, and 17 assists.
HONORABLE MENTION (in alphabetical order):
Morgan Freeman, Sr., Belmont volleyball
Senior Morgan Freeman had six kills, two blocks, two aces and a co-team-high 14 digs to led the Belmont Braves (20–7) to a WIAA Division 5 regional final sweep of Pecatonica last Saturday. Freeman also posted a double–double of 10 kills and 16 digs in Belmont's 25–17, 25–13, 25–21 sweep of Six Rivers West rival Potosi in a D5 regional semifinal victory last Thursday. The Braves will face Six Rivers East champion Barneveld (20–8) Thursday night in a D5 sectional semifinal match at 7 p.m. It will be Belmont's first sectional match since 2004.
Isaiah Groom, Sr., LB/FB, Potosi/Cassville football
Groom made a game-high 18 tackles to lead the Chieftains' defensive effort in last Friday's WIAA Division 7 Level 1 playoff victory over Six Rivers rival Black Hawk/Warren. Groom also rushed for 74 yards on 18 carries, and picked up a key first down on 3rd-and-long late in the game on a 21-yard reception from Dawson Weber to help Potosi/Cassville run out the clock. Groom and the undefeated #1-ranked Chieftains (10–0) will travel to No. 2 Cochrane–Fountain City (9–1) Friday night for a second round playoff game.
Alaynah Hingten, Jr., Platteville dance team
FRANKLIN — Platteville High School junior and team captain Alaynah Hingtgen competed at Franklin High School at the Dance Team Wisconsin Competition Saturday. This competition invited 40 of the states best dancers from every division, in a “who’s who” of high school dance. Hingtgen competed her junior year self choreographed solo titled “resurrect”. Hingtgen received a first overall, snagging the highest artistry score of 9.8 as well as the highest choreographic musicality score of 9.9 of the entire competition. Both scores are tallied out of ten points total. Hingtgen was also one of 15 dancers named to the first ever Wisconsin Nationals Dance Team. The rest of the roster includes dancers from Appleton East, Prescott, Hamilton, Hudson, New Richmond, Middleton, Edgewood, Manitowoc Lincoln, Oak Creek, and Franklin.
The Wisconsin Nationals Dance Team will be competing in sunny California March 22–23 against teams from each state in the country. The Wisconsin Nationals Team is coached by Sarah Heinevetter, 22-time state champion and head coach of Franklin Dance Team. Dance Team Wisconsin is a part of the Miss Dance/Drill Team USA organization. The Miss Dance Team USA competition is the longest running and still most prestigious dance competition in world history. First established in 1967, this competition set the stage for the hundreds of dance competition companies that exist today. It is still considered the most rigorous dance solo competition in the United States.
Nora Jillson, Sr., Bosocbel girls cross country
Senior Nora Jillson blazed to an individual victory beating the field of 93 runners with a winning-time of 19:35.0 to earn her fourth trip to the WIAA Cross Country State Championships, but her first in Division 2. Jillson will race in the Division 2 girls state championship Saturday at 12:40 p.m. at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. The Boscobel standout placed sixth in Division 3 at state as a freshman (19:55.0) to help the BHS girls win the D3 state title in 2021. She then placed second individually two years ago as a sophomore (19:08.4), before finishing 12th at last year’s state meet (19:41.2).
“Nora ran one of the most complete races that I have seen her run in her four years,” said Boscobel head coach Matthew Fritz. “She was determined right from the start of the race and went out in the lead. At the two-mile mark, Nora got passed, but showed a ton of mental and physical toughness to regain the lead, and run a very impressive final 800 meters of the race. She is such a hard-working kid, and so it is very fitting for someone with her work ethic to be making her fourth straight state meet appearance.”
