Bilderback gets emotional victory at Slinger, edges Farrell

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 9, 2014

Bilderback gets emotional victory at Slinger, edges Farrell

Driver was 2013 Rookie of the Year

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

SLINGER — Michael Bilderback and Ryan Farrell put on a show that left a crowd Sunday at Slinger Superspeedway hoping this offseason won’t be as long as the last one.

Bilderback edged Farrell by 0.059 seconds — tied for the ninth-closest super late model finish since 2007 — to win the TUNDRA Super Late Model Touring Series race at Slinger and finish the 2014 season in style.

In addition to the close finish, which was the 12th to be less than 0.1 seconds since 2007, there were 14 lead changes among six drivers in the 75-lap feature, including the last one coming with two laps to go.

“What a race,” Bilderback said. “Holy cow. That was fun.”

It was also an emotional victory for Bilderback, the 2013 super late model Rookie of the Year at Slinger. On Friday, his grandfather suffered a stroke and has been unresponsive since.

“It’s been hard,” Bilderback said. “He’s my rock. He’s my best friend. He’s my everything.

“He’s been to every race for 18 years and he hadn’t missed one. But he’s missed the last two races.”

Bilderback added his grandfather, Roger Bilderback, wasn’t feeling well last week, which forced him to miss the race. Bilderback finished third at Slinger.

“Definitely a piece of our hearts is missing without him here,” Bilderback said.

Moments after pulling his car into victory lane, Bilderback was on a cellphone. He called his grandmother, who was at Grandpa’s bedside at Waukesha Memorial Hospital where he is in intensive care, to reveal the great news.

And for the first time in days, Grandpa showed a response: A tear dripped out of his eye.

The Bilderback family is from the Rockford, Illinois, area. Roger Bilderback was on a work trip in Milwaukee and was driving back to Rockford when he pulled over on the freeway because he wasn’t feeling well. He was found on the side of the road by police and was transported to the hospital.

“He’s been sick on and off the last couple of weeks,” Michael Bilderback said.

“When they took him to the ER, we were all thinking the worst,” he added.

Bilderback quickly dedicated the victory to his ailing grandfather. He honored his grandpa by having the words “Get Well Soon Grandpa” etched in big yellow letters on the hood of his red race car.

“He’s the strongest guy I’ve ever met,” Bilderback said.

Holding back some emotion, he paused, and then added “He’ll be fine.”

The finish tied Dennis Prunty’s margin over Conrad Morgan on Aug. 1, 2010. The closest finish in that span is 0.004 seconds by Steve Apel over Scott Schoeni on Aug. 22, 2010. That is believed to be the closest finish in track history.

Bilderback has also been involved in one of the most lopsided races in the last seven years. Bilderback beat Jeremy Lepak, the 2011 track champion, by 4.838 seconds Sept. 4, 2011. That was Bilderback’s first career super late model victory at Slinger.

For Farrell, he was oh-so-close to his first career super late model victory in his first season.

“Second sucks,” he said. “I don’t know what else to say. I used every ounce of the track. I gave him all I had.”

The feature winners were Danny Church (limited late model), Kyle Chwala (area sportsman), Jack Stern (midwest sportsman), Jacob Schraufnagel (Slinger Bees), Ryan Lovald (Figure 8) and Derek Doerr (American Super Cups).

Track championships were issued to Church and Chwala, plus Brandon Tackes (Slinger Bees), Ryan Gutknecht (midwest sportsman) and Scott Goetzke (Figure 8). Dalton Zehr, who was fifth at this year’s Slinger Nationals, was crowned champion of the TUNDRA Series.

Church is Farrell’s car owner.

“We get to celebrate a championship, a career best super late finish; it’s a pretty good day,” Farrell said.

Farrell took over the lead with 14 laps to go after Brad Mueller spun in Turn 3 while battling for the lead with Dennis Prunty. During the caution, Prunty pulled off the track, relinquishing the lead to Farrell.

It was a single-file restart and Farrell got the jump he needed. But a yellow came out one lap later when James Swan spun because of a flat tire. Farrell got a good restart and so did Bilderback.

The two battled side-by-side for 10 laps, with Farrell holding tough on the bottom line, while Bilderback tried to move into the lead on the high line, the line that’s been the preferred line this season at Slinger.

“We weren’t giving up,” Bilderback said. “He ran us really clean,” he added about Farrell. “It was a great race. It was fun. ... There was no letting that one go.”

Sprint car driver killed in Wisconsin

Associated Press (Sept. 20 and Sept. 21, 2014)

BC-CAR--Sprint Car-Driver Killed,2nd Ld-Writethru/194

Eds: Updates with police statement.

Sprint car driver killed in Wisconsin

NICHOLAS DETTMANN, Associated Press

BEAVER DAM, Wis. (AP) — Sprint car driver Scott Semmelmann was killed in a wreck during practice for a race Saturday night at Beaver Dam Raceway.

Beaver Dam Raceway general manager Carolyn Mueller and Bumper to Bumper IRA Outlaw Sprint Car Series President Steve Sinclair confirmed the death.

Beaver Dam police later confirmed that a 47-year-old driver was killed, but did not provide a name.

Semmelmann's car made contact with another car during the second practice session, flipped three times and hit the outside concrete wall. The 47-year-old Semmelmann, from Brookfield, was racing for the first time this season.

"This incident appears to be (a) tragic accident at this time," the police statement said.

The race was canceled.

Beaver Dam Raceway is a 0.33-mile clay oval about 75 minutes northwest of Milwaukee. Mueller said it was the first on-track fatality at the track since the facility re-opened in 1993.

Last month, Kevin Ward Jr. was killed in a sprint car race at a dirt track in upstate New York when he left his car and was struck by a car driven by NASCAR star Tony Stewart.

Owls get run-game boost

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 6, 2014

Owls get run-game boost

Slinger rushes for 292 yards

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

Dee Corbitt had lost sight of what was important to the Slinger Owls football team: his teammates.

When called upon Friday night against West Bend West, he didn’t disappoint. He had already done enough of that.

Corbitt, a senior, rushed for 133 yards and a touchdown — all in the second half — as the Owls knocked off the Spartans, 38-13, in the Wisconsin Little 10 Conference opener for both teams.

Corbitt filled in admirably after starting running back Jacob Mason was injured on the first play from scrimmage in the second half and only returned for one more play.

“Dee showed some things tonight,” Slinger coach Bill Jacklin said of Corbitt. “He said, ‘Let me show what I can do,’ and he definitely showed us.

“We got a two-headed monster back there now, which I feel real good about.”

Corbitt was held out of the Aug. 29 game against Whitefish Bay for team rules violations. He said he missed some practices and showed up late to practice. He admitted he lost focus of being a good teammate.

So when he got the chance to play, he wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass him by.

And this was the best way to say he was sorry to his teammates.

“I wanted to play; I wanted my time to shine,” Corbitt said. “Tonight I got it and I’m happy.”

“You’ve got to put the team first,” he added.

Mason, who had a good game as well with 121 yards rushing and two touchdowns, has been hobbled with a left foot injury. He rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.

On the first play from scrimmage in the second half, Mason gained seven yards. He came off the field hobbling with 11:44 remaining in the third quarter.

Corbitt was strong right from his first carry. He averaged 7 yards per carry on his first six touches.

Mason, who rushed for 204 yards in the season’s first game, a victory over Whitnall, stayed on the sideline until there were three minutes left in the third quarter where he picked up 5 yards on another rush. But again, he came off the field hobbling. This time, he didn’t return to the game.

He didn’t need to.

“I had a lot of confidence in our team,” Mason said.

“It gives a lot of relief to me that there’s other backs,” he added. “And with our offensive line, you could put some middle schoolers back there and they could pick up a lot of yards.”

Slinger pounded its way through West’s defense for 292 yards rushing. Corbitt and Mason combined for 254 of those yards.

“Our guys up front, they were doing a great job,” Corbitt said. “You’ve just got to trust your linemen. We’ve got some of the best linemen in the conference. They showed it tonight.”

Mason entered the game with 281 yards rushing in the season’s first two games, an average of 140.5.

“Our depth is really good at tailback,” Jacklin said. “Jacob is obviously a power back; he was our fullback last year, very strong kid. Dee is also very strong, but he has that burst of speed. It’s a little bit different.

“It’s great to have a lot of running backs when you’re a running team.” In the first half, it was a heavy dosing of Mason by the Owls (2-1, 1-0). Of the Owls’ 30 first-half plays, Mason had 17 touches. The Owls attempted just four passes in the first half and had no yards through the air.

Where Slinger struggled was third-down conversions. The Owls were 2-for-12 on third down. However, they were 3-for-3 on fourth down attempts and two conversions eventually turned into a touchdown. “They beat the man-to-man matchups,” West coach Jeff Richardson said. “With their style of offense, we just have to be better than them and we weren’t better than them tonight.”

The Spartans (2-1, 0-1) hoped to use this game as an eye-opener for the WLT.

It was a chance to reveal to the conference it was for real after two nonconference victories against underdogs — Kettle Moraine Lutheran and Two Rivers.

Slinger was a different kind of opponent. It was a conference game. But the Owls went to the playoffs last season, losing to Oshkosh North in Level 1. Oshkosh North went on to reach the state final. Slinger led that Level 1-playoff game in the fourth quarter.

“To get to the point where we want to, we’ve got to be at the caliber of Slinger,” Richardson said. “They’re a good program.”

Through three games this season, the Spartans’ defense has shown struggles to get off the field and get the ball back to the offense.

West managed just 207 yards of total offense, including just 6 yards rushing in the second half, and five of those yards came from Kieran Conley in the last two minutes of the game.

Patrick Baumann, who had 348 yards rushing in the first two games, had just 46 yards on 14 carries against the Owls. He had just one carry for 3 yards in the second half.

Spartans show they’ve still got it

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 2, 2014

Spartans show they’ve still got it

West takes 2nd out of 19 teams

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

West Bend West is not ready to be counted out.

And after Saturday’s performance at the Jamie Block Cross-Country Invitational, the Spartans’ boys program believes it showed it shouldn’t be.

The Spartans finished second out of 19 teams, some of which are among the top teams in the state.

One of those teams was Green Bay Preble, which won the team boys competition.

East’s boys team was 15th.

A second-place showing by the Spartans was definitely something to be excited about, especially with it being the first meet of the season.

“They did everything we asked them to do,” West boys coach Scott Hammer said. “We didn’t expect them to run (personal- record) times today in the first race of the year, but it was nice that we got a few.”

It was an important meet for the West boys. For the Spartans, they went into the meet, the season, looking to see if it could continue its run of success.

Out of the picture are All-State competitors Alec and Aric Miller, who are now at Marquette University on scholarships.

Alec Miller won the WIAA Division 1 1,600-meter run state championship last spring. He was also twice the Daily News’ Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year (2013 and 2014), and was the 2012 Boys Cross-Country Runner of the Year.

And Aric wasn’t too shabby either for he was the 2013 Daily News Boys Cross-Country Runner of the Year.

Hammer said before the season he believed the Spartans wouldn’t take a step back. West needed Saturday’s meet to find out where it was compared to the end of last season. As it turned out, they are still in stride.

“It means that we still have what we had last year,” West junior Matt Stoll said. “Just because we lost a lot of people and what we had is gone, we’re still going to competitive.”

The event was broken into four races — a freshman and sophomore, and junior and senior race for the boys and girls. The top 15 in each grade level received medals.

In the freshman division, West’s boys team placed three in the top seven and four in the top nine in the junior division “It’s nice to have that young talent,” Stoll said.

Stoll was third in his division to lead the train of West runners that cracked the top nine. Behind him were Jordan Gehrke, Max Hardy and Thomas Eichner.

“Matt Stoll stepped up and had a lifetime PR,” Hammer said. “That’s fantastic, getting that in your first race out as a junior. I’m looking forward to see what he, Jordan, Max and Thomas can do moving forward.”

West freshman Luke Guttormson took first in the division, beating the secondplace freshman finisher by more than 25 seconds. His time of 17:19.13 was the thirdquickest among all of the West boys runners.

“That was a fantastic surprise,” Hammer said. “We’ve got a good core varsity team. We’re going to build off of this moving forward.”

Peyton Janto was fourth and Roman Skurek was seventh in the freshman division as well for West.

The hope for West was to be in the top five in the standings.

“We just wanted to make sure that we were starting off where we left off last year for the guys that returned,” Hammer said. “If we could do that, it means we had a successful offseason and it looks to be where we’re at right now.”

East was led by sophomore Simon Daniels, who finished 13th in his division.

“That was a nice surprise,” East coach Joe Bertsch said. “But I was pleased with how everybody performed.”

It’s a young group at East with its top-seven runners being underclassmen, and the Suns lost their top runner from last year, Brett Laufer.

“I’m looking for people to step up,” Bertsch said. “We had a real successful summer running program. We’re just excited to see what emerges.”

New era underway

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Aug. 23, 2014

New era underway

West holds off KML to win season’s first game

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

Daily News

West Bend West’s Patrick Baumann got about two hours of sleep Thursday night. He was that excited to get the 2014 high school football season underway.

So was the rest of his team as it began a new era under first-year coach Jeff Richardson.

Baumann rushed for 197 yards on 22 carries and scored West’s only two touchdowns to lead the Spartans to a hard-fought 15-8 victory Friday over upset-minded Kettle Moraine Lutheran.

“It’s a great start to the era,” Baumann said.

Afterward, Richardson joked he was going to retire with a 1-0 record. He quickly said he will coach Week 2 on Thursday against Two Rivers and the rest of the season for that matter.

“It feels good,” Richardson said of the 1-0 start. “I told the kids we’ll smile back on this at the end of the year. We’re getting ready for Week 2.”

A victory in Week 1 is something that has been hit or miss for West. With the victory, the Spartans are 3-3 in their last six Week-1 games.

With a new era underway, the Spartans, including Baumann wanted to shed its reputation of being slow starters and come out with a Week-1 victory.

West has been above .500 going into Wisconsin Little Ten Conference play only twice since 2006.

So far so good for the Spartans.

“I feel like this is a great start to try and get a new norm for this program,” Baumann said. For Baumann, it was an up-and-down evening.

Yes, he ran for nearly 200 yards and scored the two touchdowns, one from 24 yards and another from 12.

However, he also lost two fumbles. “I kind of played bad with all the fumbling and stuff,” Baumann said. “But my offensive line helped me.”

Baumann said the offensive line went through a shift in personnel this week and credited the unit for a job well done in a short amount of time.

“Our offensive line played great,” Baumann said. “I’m just running behind great guys.”

Thankfully, neither fumble hurt the Spartans. But that didn’t make the feeling in Baumann’s stomach a soothing one.

The coaching staff and Baumann’s teammates didn’t quit on him so he knew he couldn’t quit on them.

“It felt great at the great moments,” Baumann said when asked to sum up his evening. “But when the bad moments came, I knew I had to keep my head up because that’s been my problem the last two years.

“I end up getting super down and playing terrible when I get down and I just tried to keep my head up.”

Baumann continued to play aggressive, dropping the shoulder into would-be tacklers seeking the extra couple yards.

“We’ve got to stick with him. He’s a player,” Richardson said. “Mistakes happen; you’ve got to leave them behind. That’s kind of the idea we go with.

“I knew he was going to step up when he needed to.”

That confidence was big for the senior.

“It’s everything,” Baumann said.

“I’m just glad we won,” he added. On the other sideline, KML certainly had its chances to steal this one from West.

Twice in the first quarter, the Chargers were first-and-goal to go but had no points to show for it.

Also in the first quarter, KML got inside West’s 10-yard line, but came up with no points.

The Chargers were 0-for-4 in the red zone.

“I thought our defense stepped up and made plays,” Richardson said.

KML also had a 15-play drive that chewed up 9:29 off the game clock and came away with no points.

And at the end of the fourth quarter, with 1:16 left in the game, trailing by one touchdown and with no timeouts, the Chargers pushed the ball down the field, but to only see the game end with an interception by Anthony Schlass.

“We didn’t finish,” KML coach Mark Heckendorf said. “We left a lot of points out there on the field.”

West got on the board first with a 24-yard touchdown run by Baumann with 11:01 left in the second quarter. The extra-point kick attempt went off the right upright.

West stretched the lead to 13-0 with 7:43 left in the half with another run by Baumann.

KML drew to within a touchdown, with a 23-yard pass by Jared Henning to Zach Nelsen with 1:57 left in the first half.

After a West possession, KML got the ball back with 43 seconds left in the half inside its own 20-yard line.

Trying to avoid a sack, Henning lost the handle on the ball and it trickled into the end zone. A KML player recovered the ball, giving West two points for the safety.

KML dominated possession, but didn’t have much to show for it, which left a disappointing taste in Heckendorf’s mouth afterward.

“We learned a lot about ourselves,” he said.