Sports Wrapups: Feb. 20

Ice Bears hockey

The team's season came to a tough conclusion, when it dropped an 8-2 WIAA regional final decision to North Shore Conference champion Homestead on Feb. 16.

The Ice Bears, who had advanced with a thrilling, 2-1, decision over host Sheboygan South in a regional semifinal on Feb. 14, finished with a 7-15-2 record while Homestead (18-5-1) advanced to a WIAA sectional semifinal that was played Tuesday against Brookfield.

The seven-school co-op team was led this season by Tyler Acheson of Slinger, who finished with 30 total points while Ben Lena of Sussex had 21. The team finished fourth in the North Shore this winter.

There were six seniors on the squad this season including Jenny Teeters of Germantown, Daniel Baker of Sussex and Forrest Fahler of Germantown.

Menomonee Falls/ Germantown/Hamilton swim

Ryan Thomann built upon his 14th-place finish at state of a year ago, to earn a fifth-place finish in the diving competition and lead the Indians to a tie for 20th in the WIAA State Division 1 Swim meet in Madison on Saturday.

"I thought the guys really enjoyed the experience," Indians coach Jim Weitzer said, "and we have some sophomores who are looking forward to coming back and building on what they did this season."

Thomann, a senior from Jackson, had an extra incentive for the meet, as he was on the cover of the state program.

He turned in a mark of 369.5 points as favorite Andrew Suchla of Racine Park won with a 455.4 score. The Indians' Nathan Cox won the title last season.

Thomann's efforts led to a 20-point total for the local co-op as Madison Memorial won easily with 326.

He started off well, finishing in fifth after the initial rounds and sliding to sixth in the middle round of dives.

The 200 free relay team of sophomore John Seiler, seniors Ryan Litzau and Michael Spankowski and sophomore Matt Ciolkosz was 14th (1:31.11).

Seiler himself was 22nd in the 50 free (22.61 seconds) while also earning 17th in the 100 butterfly (54.18).

The 400 free relay team of Seiler, Litzau, senior Sam Green and Ciolkosz was disqualified for an early jump. Regardless, it would not have finished in the top 16 scoring places. Seiler had a 100 split of 49.8.

The Indians finished with about 24 athletes this winter. Seniors include Thomann, Litzau, Green, Spankowski and Nick Siebenaller, among others.

"The season went by pretty fast," Weitzer said. "We were getting better at the end, which is what you want. It was a tougher season for some, though. We'll see how the kids improve next year."

Menomonee Falls/Germantown gymnastics

Showing courage in the face of near-disaster, the Indians overcame a season-ending knee injury to key junior Marissa Arnold and still recorded a season best in claiming fifth in the Greater Metro/North Shore Conference meet at Whitefish Bay on Friday.

"It happened in our parents' night dual meet (against Port on Feb. 15)," coach Tracy Howard said. "It's just so sad, because there is no harder worker than Marissa. It'll take awhile (to recover) but if anyone who can be ready by next winter, it'll be her."

Despite the loss, the Indians will try to improve even more when they take part in the WIAA sectional meet at Homestead on Saturday. The top two teams and first five individuals on each event and in the all-around, advance to the state meet in Wisconsin Rapids, March 2 and 3.

Arrowhead and Homestead are the early meet favorites.

"I feel we can still be a player, if we hit and another team is just a little bit off," Howard said. "We have high hopes for individuals, too."

Falls/GT turned in a team score of 137.075 in earning its spot in the league meet as Bay earned its fourth-straight title by edging Homestead, 143.975 to 142.775.

Leading the way was Paige Lemley, who was fourth in floor exercise with a 9.2, while Liz Gilbert was 11th in the event with an 8.95. Lemley was also 10th in vault (8.85) while Aerial Holt was the same on uneven bars (8.575).

Lemley was seventh in the all-around with a 35.025.

Howard also praised Emma Brose for her work filling in for Arnold on the bars with an 8.5 score.

"We should still be ready to go on Saturday," Howard said. "I told the kids that facing all this adversity should make us stronger."

Menomonee Falls girls basketball

The Indians bounced back from injury and defeat to record an important 55-43 victory over West Allis Central on Friday's senior night.

With the win, the Indians improved to 9-3 in Greater Metro play and 16-4 overall. They are a game behind DSHA (10-2, 15-4) and Sussex Hamilton (10-2, 15-3). Falls will be at West Allis Hale (3-16) on Friday and closes out the regular season on March 1 at Brookfield East (3-17).

Falls can still pull into a tie for the title as Hamilton has to visit dangerous Brookfield Central on Friday and DSHA visits the Chargers on March 1

"Short-term and near-term goals are still in place," Indians coach Craig Amundson said, "but we have to help ourselves first."

Amundson is hoping to get point guard Amber Bullock back soon. She got poked in the eye in the recent loss to Hamilton and has not been cleared for return yet.

The Central win was senior night for the Indians as Rachel Defnet and Alex Poole were honored for their efforts. There were 2-foot by 3-foot posters of them and the seniors wore turquoise T-shirts and the underclassmen black T-shirts

"It was a very cool night," Amundson said. Falls took a 17-9 lead at the quarter against West Allis Central and never looked back as Mikayla Robertson, who handled the bulk of the point duties in Bullock's absence, had 14 points while Erin Crownover had 12, Defnet nine and Poole eight.

The UW-Green Bay-bound Mehryn Kraker was held to 12 points under her average with just eight points.

- Steven L. Tietz