Vikings Coast to Regional Championship
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Editor’s Note: Gibraltar’s sectional semifinal contest was played after this issue of the Peninsula Pulse went to press.
The WIAA regional seedings said this wasn’t supposed to be Gibraltar’s year. But the Vikings have other plans.
The team came into the WIAA tournament seeded fifth, with a long road to sectionals that seemed likely to require three-hour, back-to-back road trips. But after ninth-seeded Gillett upset top seed Waubeno-Laona March 4, Gibraltar’s road got a lot shorter.
The upset meant Gibraltar would host the regional championship game for the first time March 5, and the team didn’t let the opportunity slip away. Gibraltar jumped to an early lead before Gillett climbed back into the contest on the strength of scrappy guards who weren’t afraid of the Vikings’ twin towers – Trevor Ash (7′ 0″) and Will Friedenfels (6′ 7″).
Gillett struggled in the paint as Gibraltar’s twin towers of Trevor Ash and Will Friedenfels (pictured) dominated the boards. Photo by Heidi Sitte. 
Jake Schar scored 12 points to help Gibraltar cruise past Gillett in the regional final. Photo by Heidi Sitte. 
Sam Lindenberg scored a game-high 26 points for Gibraltar. Photo by Heidi Sitte. 
Trevor Ash soars for a baseline dunk to score two of his 18 points for Gibraltar. Photo by Heidi Sitte.
But Gibraltar’s size would prove more than Gillett could handle. The Vikings went into halftime with an 18-point lead they would only expand during the second half, cruising to an 81-51 victory.
Coach Justin Burress said the Vikings may not have been the favorite in the eyes of the algorithm that determines seedings for the WIAA tournament, but the team has had high aspirations from day one.
“We really expected to be here,” Burress said. “Realistically, we have felt we could go to state this year, and we hope to get there.”
Several close losses during the first half of the season, plus quirks of the first year with computer seeding, pushed the team down in the regional rankings. It started 5-8, and just 1-7 in conference play, but went on a tear during the second half of the season. The Vikings went 9-2 down the stretch and pulled their conference record to 8-8, proving that those lofty goals weren’t far-fetched.
They’re led by sharp-shooting Sam Lindenberg, who paced Gibraltar with 26 points Saturday. That put the senior past Vikings legend Dave Voskuil for the most points scored in a single season in school history. Voskuil scored 538 points in 1970 in just 22 games (24.5 ppg). Trevor Ash added 18 (including an emphatic baseline slam), and Jake Schar chipped in 12.
