Sports – Friday, August 12th, 2016

UW-Whitewater has been selected to reclaim the WIAC Football crown this year. That’s according to the preseason poll of conference coaches and sports information directors that was released Thursday. The Warhawks have won six of the last nine NCAA Division 3 football titles and have 34 league championships to their name. UW-Oshkosh was projected to finish second. The Titans earned the ninth conference crown in program history last season, and advanced to the national quarterfinals for the second time in four years. The rest of projections have UW-Platteville finishing third, Stevens Point fourth, River Falls fifth, La Crosse sixth, UW-Stout in seventh and Eau Claire in eighth. Whitewater, Oshkosh and Platteville are all ranked in the top 15 nationally by D3 Football dot com.

The Packers will face the Browns in the preseason opener tonight at Lambeau Field. Aaron Rodgers likely won’t play and backup Brett Hundley is still nursing an ankle injury, so much of the quarterbacking duties will be left up to rookies Joe Callahan and Marquis Williams. Callahan says his goal for tonight’s game is to simply manage the game as a quarterback, and second year running back John Crockett says he’s confident heading into tonight’s game. You can hear the game tonight on KFIZ, pregame at 5pm, kickoff at 7pm on News/Talk 1450.

The NFL preseason schedule began in earnest last night with six games played throughout the league. The only NFC North team in action last night was the Chicago Bears, who were shutout 22-0 by Denver at home. Tonight, Detroit visits Pittsburgh and Minnesota is at CIncinnati.

The Brewers tallied 14 hits and scored in every inning of their 11-3 win over the Atlanta Braves at Miller Park Thursday afternoon. Home runs by Chris Carter, Scooter Gennett and Hernan Perez helped Milwaukee build a 6-0 lead and back starter Matt Garza who won his third straight start to improve to 4-4 on the year. The Brewers open a series against Cincinnati tonight at home, we will not have the game on KFIZ due to Packers preseason football.

The Bucks will tip off the regular season at home for the second straight year when the Charlotte Hornets visit the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Wednesday, October 26th. The team announced their 2016-2017 schedule on Thursday, in conjunction with the release of the league’s schedule. Milwaukee will play nine games on national TV, including two on ESPN, and will host reigning NBA champion Cleveland on November 29th and December 20th.

Wrestling competition begins at the Olympic games in Rio this weekend, and in the greco roman portion of the competition, you’ll see two former Wisconsin high school wrestlers. Jesse Thielke of Germantown wrestles at 130 pounds and was a three time state champion in high school. Ben Provisor attended Stevens Point Area High School and wrestles at 187 pounds. He Placed third, fifth, fifth and third in the Wisconsin state tournament and had a career record of 158-14. Both Thielke and Provisor are ranked at the top of their weight class in the Team USA rankings.

Zach Johnson shot a 6-under 65 on Thursday for a share of the lead with Patrick Rodgers and Ryan Moore in the suspended first round of the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois. Play was delayed for 3 1/2 hours at TPC Deere Run by a storm that dropped just over an inch of rain. The round resumed just after 3pm., with none of the players in the afternoon session able to finish.  Three-time champion Steve Stricker had a 70, while Mequon’s Jordan Niebrugge had a 74.