September 2023

Audrey Alexander knew what had to be done.

So did Piper Garcia-Hall, Brynn Sundell and Tait Haag.

Middleton’s 400-yard freestyle relay team understood that if they won their event against Verona last Friday, the Cardinals would capture this highly-competitive dual meet.

Mission accomplished.

The Cardinals’ quartet nipped the Wildcats’ foursome, allowing Middleton to leave Verona High School with a thrilling 94-92 win.

“We are very happy with the performance our girls put up,” Middleton coach R.J. Leiferman said. “Both teams swam extremely well, and it was a great finish to the meet.”

Dual meets don’t get more exciting than this.

And Middleton’s foursome ended the event in style, finishing the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:34.48, just 0.73 seconds ahead of Verona (3:35.21).

The finish capped a night in which Middleton had several high-level swims — and needed every one of them to hold off Verona’s terrific team.

The Verona cross country invite is traditionally one of the top meets of the season.

The fact Middleton’s boys finished second out of 31 teams must have the Cardinals feeling like terrific things are in store the next two months.

Madison West won the star-studded meet with 104 points. Middleton was second with 157 points, while Verona (166), West Salem (178) and Lakeside Lutheran (185) rounded out the top five.

“I was impressed by the team's second place showing,” Middleton coach Brian Finnel said. “That's a great feat for our young squad. While the times don't reflect it on a warm day and hilly course, the team placement was a better indicator of where we are right now.

It wasn’t the result they hoped for.

But Middleton’s girls volleyball team continues to show improvement and progress.

Madison Memorial defeated the Cardinals, 25-21, 18-25, 25-21, 25-16 on Aug. 31 in MHS’ Big Eight Conference opener. Despite the loss, Middleton first year coach Ben White was encouraged by much of what he saw.

“We continue to learn and improve — that goes for myself as well,” White said. “We have to make some adjustments based on our style of play.”

Haley Stoffregan led the Cardinals with 23 assists and three aces, while Sadie Newcomb had nine kills and 21 digs. Keaten Davis added four blocks for MHS and Laina Gustafson had seven kills, zero errors and three blocks.

The first set was tight throughout, then the Cardinals dominated the second set. Middleton raced to a 10-3 lead in the third set, only to see the Spartans rally back and outscore the Cardinals, 22-11, from there.

MIDDLETON–The Middleton Fire District held an open house on the afternoon of Aug. 26 at Fire Station 1 in City of Middleton.

Long lines formed for both the kids fire truck rides and all ages aerial fire truck rides, and the popular event also offered a firefighting obstacle course, a bounce house and food trucks. In addition, there was a vehicle extraction demonstration as well as a fire demonstration using the department’s fire training trailer. 

Fire Chief Aaron Harris spoke before the fire demonstration and answered question afterward. Harris explained that a fire ignition team would go in first and light the fire, followed by a group of firefighters, who would take the call, ride in on a truck and put it out. 

He said that although the firefighting gear was hot when worn outside a fire, it keeps firefighters cool for a few minutes while they are inside a fire.