March 2023

Kevin Bavery heard the chatter.

Maybe his Middleton boys basketball team had piqued too early, some had claimed. Others said the Cardinals might be poised for a playoff letdown.

“Sometimes you get a little Chicken Little going on, like the sky is falling,” Bavery said.

Well, the sky fell on Saturday night. It just wasn't on Middleton.

The Cardinals gave a memorable defensive performance, put three players in double figures and toppled Madison Memorial, 53-38, in a WIAA Division 1 regional final.

Middleton, the No. 2 seed in the sectional, improved to 25-1 and will face sixth-seeded Milwaukee Hamilton (20-6) in a sectional semifinal at Sun Prairie East Thursday at 7 p.m. Tenth-seeded Memorial, which had won nine of 10 entering the game, finished the year 16-9.

Middleton boys basketball star Gavyn Hurley is one of six finalists for the prestigious Mr. Basketball Award.

Hurley, a 6-foot-6 point guard, becomes the first finalist for the award in school history.

Hurley was named the Player of the Year in the Big Eight Conference for the second straight season on Wednesday.

Hurley leads Middleton in scoring (19.6), rebounding (8.0) and is second in assists (3.0). Hurley’s terrific year helped the Cardinals go 23-1 in the regular season — the best record in school history — and win the Big Eight Conference with a 19-1 mark.

“He’s arguably the best player I’ve ever coached,” Middleton coach Kevin Bavery said of Hurley. “He’s right up there with three or four other people.

“He’s in some great company for this award. I know there’s some clear favorites, but it’s an incredible honor just to be nominated.”

It hurt.

But that’s not how members of Middleton’s girls basketball team will remember their 2022-23 season.

Especially the seniors.

They’ll remember this campaign for a whole lot more than Friday night’s heartbreaking 61-48 loss to Sussex Hamilton in the WIAA Division 1 regional semifinals.

“I think our chemistry and the way we all got along with each other. I’m really going to miss that,” said senior Audrey Deptula, a 6-foot-1 guard destined for NCAA Division I Loyola University Chicago in the fall. “We spent up to four hours a day with each other and we never got sick of each other.

“That bond is something I’m going to really miss.”

Fellow senior Addy Gmur, a 5-11 forward, agreed.

MADISON – When the WIAA unveiled its inaugural individual wrestling girls state tournament at the La Crosse Center a year ago, then Middleton junior Mattie Papenthien was a local trailblazer for girls wrestling.

The lone Middleton wrestler to compete in either the boys or girls state tournaments, Papenthien finished fourth at 132 pounds to become the first girls wrestling place-winner in school history.

But Papenthien had some company when she qualified for the second girls state tournament that moved to the Kohl Center to run in conjunction with the annual boys state tournament last weekend.

Her dreams of winning a state championship were dashed in the 138-pound state championship match on Saturday evening and she settled for a runner-up finish.

Joining Papenthien as a place-winner was senior Jessica Bristol, who was sixth at 132 pounds and finished with a 15-5 record, while senior Katrina Clark made her debut at 185 pounds.