Mike Homan’s roots in Shawano’s wrestling program go back more than two decades.

He wrestled for the Hawks before graduating from Shawano Community High School in 2004 and took over as varsity coach in 2014.

All in all, it turned out to be a successful three days for area wrestlers at the WIAA State Individual Tournament, held Feb. 26-28 at the Kohl Center in Madison.

Saturday, Feb. 28

Lena 47, Three Lakes/Phelps 44

Lena’s girls basketball team needed its three-point halftime lead as both teams scored 24 points after the break, giving the Wildcats a 47-44 regional title win over Three Lakes/Phelps.

Carla Caballero-Morante led Lena with 16 points, while Ella Thomson scored 13 and Alisa Finger had six.

Any chance the Spooner girls basketball team had of pulling off a major upset in the WIAA state tournament didn’t last very long.

Rory Salvesen and Melaina Granquist made sure it didn’t happen.

Friday, Feb. 27

Bay Area 3, Lakeshore Lightning 1

After defeating the Lakeshore Lightning by a 4-0 score Dec. 4 and a 3-1 score Jan. 17, the third time was a charm for the Bay Area Ice Bears girls hockey team as they punched their ticket to state, defeating the Lightning 3-1 on Feb. 27.

Despite a few warm snaps (one that canceled the fishing portion of Battle on Bago ice fishing tournament that I wrote about last time), this crushing winter is really wearing most of us thin.

As I get older, I find my hands and feet get cold much quicker. It’s probably related to my type 2 diabetes or maybe because I don’t walk as much as I should. But it’s a great time to catch up on my reading.