Sports Wrapups: Feb. 13

Germantown wrestling

Highlighted by individual titles from Tyler Baran and Hunter Higginbotham, the Warhawks advanced eight grapplers to this Saturday's WIAA sectional tournament at Arrowhead.

"It went pretty much as we expected," Warhawks coach Casey Gabrielson said of the efforts at the Sussex Hamilton regional on Saturday. "Tyler's a pretty good story. He lost almost all of last season to shoulder surgery and then he had another health problem right before regionals of his freshman year, too.

"He's just sneaking in under the radar."

Aside from Baran at 160 pounds (24-12) and Higginbotham at 220 (27-7), the Warhawks also advanced Tyler Colegrove at 113 (15-23), Brandon Goesch at 126 (25-12), Tyler Palzkill at 138 (22-18), 2011 state qualifier Danny Krause at 152 (27-9), Mike Knippen at 195 (36-7) and Joe Zizzo at 285 (12-9).

The sectional tournament begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. The top two finishers in each weight class advance to the WIAA State Individual Tournament in Madison, Feb. 23-25.

"Sectionals are my least and most favorite time of the year," Gabrielson said. "So much opportunity and so many kids finishing things up. Very bittersweet."

Baran took advantage of his opportunity. He got a first-round bye and then beat a Falls' opponent, 10-4, before downing an Arrowhead foe, 13-5.

Higginbotham, fresh off his North Shore Conference title was even more impressive, pinning Cedarburg (0:45), Arrowhead (0:23) and Homestead (3:20) opponents for his crown.

Other finishes for Germantown included seconds from Krause at 152 and Knippen at 195, thirds from Goesch at 126 and Palzkill at 138 and fourths from Colegrove at 113 and Zizzo at 285.

Colegrove lost a quarterfinal match, but fought his way back to a sectional berth by pinning Arrowhead (1:52) and Homestead (1:44) opponents.

Menomonee Falls/Germantown gymnastics

The Indians made enough mistakes for a season and still took a close second in the White Division of the Bradley Invitational at Whitefish Bay on Saturday.

"Just some mental errors that we can clean up," coach Tracy Howard said. "We made about four or five mistakes that really cost us, but if we don't let them happen again, I believe we can really surprise some people. I think we have a lot of potential."

The Indians will head back to Bay on Friday for the Greater Metro/North Shore Conference meet at 4 p.m.

At the Bradley, Falls/GT turned in a 132.7 team score as Grafton/Cedarburg won the 10-team event with 132.8.

The locals earned seven individual top six medals in the event.

Lizzy Gilbert was third on vault with a 9.05 while Paige Lemley was fifth in the event with a 9.025. On the uneven bars, Aerial Holt, who is still fighting her way back to full strength from a high ankle sprain, was third (8.525) while Bria Maltby was fifth (8.175).

On balance beam, Gilbert was third (8.75) and Emma Brose was fourth (8.725) and in floor exercise, Lemley was third with a 9.05.

Germantown girls basketball

The Warhawks bounced back from a disappointing loss to Arrowhead on Feb. 7 and a very poor start on Friday against Milwaukee Lutheran to pull away to an impressive, 60-40 win.

"It's amazing how good you can look when the ball goes in the basket," Warhawks coach Matt Stuve said. "Like the old saying goes, 'you miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take.' Well, at the beginning of the game (against Lutheran) we were missing about 100 percent of our shots.

"We were zero for our first 17 and one for our first 19. But we stuck with it because we knew we couldn't shoot like that all game long."

With the split, the Warhawks are now 5-6 in North Shore play and 6-10 overall. They took on Greater Metro co-leader Sussex Hamilton on Tuesday and host Port Washington (2-9, 4-15) on Friday.

Because of the start, the Warhawks were down 10-0 to Lutheran. It was 10-2 at the quarter, but then they went on a 15-7 run in the second quarter to tie the score at 17. They then buried the Red Knights with a 25-7 third period effort.

A total of nine players scored including 15 points from Paige Groth, who also had eight rebounds, four assists and five steals.

Maggie Johnston had 11 points and Sarah Artz 10. Germantown knocked down eight 3-pointers in the game.

"We got into the passing lanes and found teammates," Stuve said. "It was a very good effort."

In the 59-35 loss to Arrowhead, the Warhawks couldn't stop center Jenny Smith, who had an amazing 43-point night.

"She's 6-2 and so athletic," Stuve said. "There are only a few girls her height who can do what she does."

- Steven L. Tietz