Recent success moves Medford-Colby gymnastics up to Division 1

The Medford-Colby gymnastics program is the first Taylor County high school sports program to reach the six-point threshold that moves it up a division under the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s new performance factor initiative. The WIAA announced the performance factor results for winter sports late Monday afternoon.

An ad hoc committee consisting of 11 superintendents/ district administrators, six athletic directors, one principal and one principal/athletic director proposed the performance factor process, which was approved by a 265115 membership vote at the 2023 WIAA Annual Meeting for implementation in 2024-25. The initiative promotes school programs that reach a threshold of tournament success based on a performance point system allocated over a three-year period.

School programs reaching the six-point performance factor threshold during the past three seasons are placed in the division containing the next largest set of enrollments from where the schools’ enrollments would place them for each respective sport other than track and field and swimming and diving –– which do not have a team component to advancement in the tournament series –– and sports with only one division. Schools are restricted to moving up a maximum of one division from the previous year’s placement.

Medford-Colby earned two points by winning sectional championships in each of the past three seasons to reach the six-point threshold. The squad is one of nine gymnastics programs to reach that threshold, however, three of them are already in Division 1. They are Franklin-Muskego, Verona-Edgewood and Mequon Homestead.

The six Division 2 programs moving up to Division 1 next winter will be Medford-Colby, Mount Horeb, the West Salem Co-op, Elkhorn, Nicolet and Whitefish Bay.

There is an appeal process for programs that do move up. Medford-Colby did not appeal its move. According to WisSports.net, appeals from Mount Horeb and the West Salem Co-op were denied.

This new initiative affords schools the opportunity to request to move down a division with lower enrollments. The Classification Committee reviewed 15 such requests for winter sports, including eight for girls basketball, six for boys basketball and two for boys hockey. The committee approved three requests in girls basketball, two in boys basketball and two in boys hockey. Additionally, five schools requested, and were approved, to move to a division of higher enrollments, including three in boys hockey, one in boys basketball and one in girls basketball.

The other school sports programs that have accumulated at least six points to engage a promotion to a division with higher enrollments –– if their 2024-25 tournament placement enrollment doesn’t initially move them up a division –– include: Boys basketball (9): Hartland Arrowhead, Brillion, De Pere, Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic, Neenah, Pewaukee, St. Thomas More, West Salem and Wisconsin Lutheran. Arrowhead, Neenah and De Pere are already in Division 1.

Girls basketball (9): Albany- Monticello, Arrowhead, Brookfield East, Kettle Moraine, Laconia, McDonell Catholic, Notre Dame, Pewaukee and Waupun. Arrowhead, Brookfield East and Kettle Moraine are already in Division 1.

Boys hockey (5): Madison Edgewood, Hudson, New Richmond, Green Bay Notre Dame and St. Mary’s Springs. Hudson and Notre Dame already competed in Division 1 last winter.

Wrestling (5): Coleman, Fennimore, Kaukauna, Luxemburg-Casco and Prairie du Chien. Kaukauna is already a Division 1 school.

Note that programs reaching the performance points threshold to be promoted and are initially assigned to a lower enrollment division, based on their 2024-25 tournament assignment enrollments, will be promoted back into the division they competed in during the most recent season’s tournament series.

In addition, the performance factor process affords schools the opportunity to appeal their promotion to the division with the next largest enrollments based on performance points. Of the 37 programs listed above that compiled the threshold of points to engage in a promotion, 12 appeals were submitted. The Classification Committee reviewed and evaluated these with one approval (Albany-Monticello girls basketball). It is also noteworthy that 13 of the 35 programs that achieved the six-point threshold competed in Division 1 in 2024 and will be promoted only if their enrollment places them in a division with lower enrollments.

The WIAA will release the tournament series assignments for all 2024-25 winter sports later this spring.

For more on the performance factor process, visit the Classification Committee homepage (https://www. wiaawi.org/Schools/Competitive-Balance) on the WIAA website.

In the fall sports evaluation process, Medford’s girls cross country program compiled five points over the past three years to avoid moving up by one point. The Raiders won sectional championships to earn two points in 2021 and 2022, but qualified for state by finishing second in this year’s sectional to earn one additional point.