February 2014

Their climb back to the top of the Big Eight Conference probably doesn’t seem like a lengthy period to most. To Middleton’s girls basketball team, though, it felt like a lifetime.

After a brief 12-month hiatus, the Cardinals reclaimed the Big Eight Conference title Thursday night, following a 74-64 win over Madison La Follette. It was a position Middleton held from 2007-12, before slipping to fourth place a year ago.

Afterwards, the Cardinals basked in the glow of becoming league champions once again, and how their short-lived trip to the middle of the conference drove everyone a little batty.

“It’s been a long time coming.” Middleton sophomore forward Grace Douglas said afterwards. “I think we’ve really built it up this year, to the point where we know what we need to do. We have the guts to do it, therefore, we just need to do it. We were expecting it, we’re ready for it.”

Bring on Madison West.

Again.

Middleton’s hockey team rolled past DeForest, 11-0, in a WIAA regional semifinal Tuesday night. The Cardinals will now meet Madison West in a regional final Thursday at Madison Ice Arena at 8 p.m.

The Regents won both games against the Cardinals this season, including a 5-0 contest last Thursday. West also edged Middleton, 3-2, on Jan. 4.

If Middleton upends West this time, it would advance to the sectional semifinals on Feb. 25 against either Madison Edgewood or Waunakee.

“Overall if are going to heat up for playoffs we have to stay out of the box, come together as a team, and really come out and not be afraid to succeed and just play hockey,” Middleton interim coach Steffon Walby said.

The Cardinals certainly did those things against DeForest.

Senior forward Jordan Carey and sophomore forward Griffin Gussel both had two goals for the Cardinals. Middleton finished with a remarkable 78 shots on goal.

After a disappointing blowout loss to Verona, there were some big questions surrounding the Middleton boys’ basketball team.

Queries about things such as heart and toughness.

Well, any such questions should be put to rest after Middleton, playing with a chip on its shoulder, put together perhaps its finest all-around effort of the season en route to a 54-33 Big Eight Conference victory over second-place Sun Prairie last Saturday night.

“Coach (Kevin) Bavery through the week was talking about how people outside the team were questioning our heart and I think we took offense to that,” said senior forward Max Oelerich. “We played with great intensity the whole game.

“That’s basically the only thing (Bavery) wrote on the board at the beginning of the game was heart and circled it and that’s the key to the whole game. We really played with a lot of heart.”

Call them the Dynamic Dozen.

Or perhaps the Terrific Twelve.

Oh yeah, and also call them sectional participants.

Middleton’s wrestlers enjoyed a terrific day at their own regional Saturday. The Cardinals finished second as a team and sent 12 of their 14 entries onto Saturday’s Waunakee Sectional, which begins at 10 a.m.

“I’m happy with that,” Middleton coach Kent Weiler said of qualifying 12 individuals for sectionals. “Every year we seem to get a few more through.

“Last year we had 10 and now we’re at 12. That makes us happy.”

Sauk Prairie won the meet with 248.5 points, while Middleton was second at 197.0. DeForest was third (180.0), followed by Waunakee (176.5), Madison West (115.0), Madison East (64.0) and Madison Memorial (3.0).

The top four finishers at regionals advanced to sectionals. Only the top two finishers at sectionals move on to the state tournament, while runs from Feb. 27-March 1.