The winter sports season ended this past weekend where we saw many teams and student athletes exceed at the Class A level. Time to look into the ending of the seasons for the basketball, swimming and diving, wrestling and the hockey.

Boy’s Basketball

The boy’s basketball team ended a rough season with a 10-12 record. They lost in the NSAA District Semifinal to Papillion-LaVista South who pulled away at the end of the game to win 53-45. This Wildcat team was plagued on the road, it’s where the team struggled the most.

At home though, this team was completely different. At a long stretch we saw the boys win six out of seven games. It felt like a turn in the season as we saw them at their best. After gaining this momentum they lost to a below average Bellevue East, team and dropped four out of the last five ultimately ending their season. Junior Tristan Gomes led the way this season for the Wildcats averaging 8.7 points per game (ppg) and 5.5 rebounds per game (rpg). The Wildcats will only be losing two seniors in Jacob Harmdierks and Cam Watson who combined for 9.5 ppg.

Girl’s Basketball

The girl’s basketball team ended a up and down season with a 13-11 record. The highlight of this season was beating the eventual State Champion, Millard North, twice (Dec, 21, 45-43 and Jan, 2, 67-64 in overtime). This team also beat five of the teams in the State tournament. This team had the talent to get in. The Lady Cats were so close to a state tournament berth, but lost in the district final to Omaha Westside 51-45. Senior Chaise Pfanstiel had a good senior season averaging 14 ppg, 3.5 rpg,and almost 4 assist per game (apg). This team loses three seniors in Pfanstiel, Taylor Farrell and Katelyn Osborne, who combined for more than 50% of the Lady Cats scoring.

Swimming and Diving

The boy’s and girl’s teams showed many improvements from the previous season. With coach Jamie Bowcott in his second season, much was look forward too. The boys ended up their season with a 3rd place finish in State. This team was highlighted by school records broken especially the 200 yard medley relay by seniors Ayden Larson, Gabe Paredes, Colin Backhaus, and sophomore Mateo Miceli by the time of 1:37.18 in the 200 medley relay. Miceli also broke records in the 100 yard backstroke and 100 yard butterfly. Plagued by injuries, the boys diving team didn’t have a standout season finishing eleventh  Freshman Audrey Frohloff finish second in the girls diving competition. The girls swimming team showed improvement from last year finishing eighth in State.

Wrestling

Wrestling competed in the state championships down at the CHI Health Center where we saw three wrestlers rise to the occasion. Junior Ethan Valencia was able to obtain a sixth place finish in the 152 pound weight class. Senior Levi May was able to fight his way to get a state runner-up at the 145 class. Senior Camden Russell really put the icing on the cake for the Wildcats, after just missing out on winning state last year, put a state title under his name at the 126 weight class, ending his career on a high note. The team finished off the season in state 12th overall.

Hockey

The Millard West hockey team really had a great season with a record of 19-10-1. They finished second in the regular season standings with 37 points, just under the eventual State Champion Millard South. This team started out pretty much .500. At 8-8-1 on the season you could say they were struggling. They were able to work themselves a two seed by going on an 11 game win streak and beating some of the top teams in the state. They ended the season on a sour note with a heartbreaking loss to Creighton Prep in the state tournament 3-2. This team was led by senior Kade Grennan who had an great season with 41 goals, 27 assist, 68 total points, with 4 ppg. The hockey team will be losing a lot of production due to most of the team being seniors so it will be exciting how they adjust in the future.