Ahnen continues to excel
Former Sparta wrestler Jenna Ahnen was recently featured in an article in the La Crosse Tribune. Ahnen, now a sophomore at UW-La Crosse, has become one of the top players on the Eagles' softball team and in the entire WIAC. At week's end she was hitting .464 with two triples, a .538 on-base percentage while going 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts this year.
The article is below, but can also be found by clicking here.
Ahnen (above) takes care of business at regionals in 2007. Below, the face of her Holmen opponent is pretty close to the same face opposing pitchers are making this year after facing Ahnen, who is now a shortstop for UW-La Crosse.
From pins to putouts
Jenna Ahnen is proud of her small chapter in area sports history.
Ahnenwas a four-year varsity wrestler at Sparta High School, where shecompeted exclusively against boys, and finished her career with asecond-place finish at the United States Girls Wrestling Associationnational meet.
“I still get recognized,” Ahnen said of her time as a prep wrestler.
Butthese days, Ahnen is focused on playing for the UW-La Crosse softballteam. If she keeps it up, people might forget all about the wrestling.
Ahnen,a sophomore, has started all 20 games at shortstop and leads UW-L witha .464 batting average, two triples and a .538 on-base percentage. Sheis also 8-for-8 on stolen base attempts and has one home run and 14 RBI.
Eventhough Ahnen has been a starter since the beginning of her freshmanyear and is a big reason why the Eagles are 15-5 this season, she isnot ready to declare herself a finished product.
“I don’t know everything,” Ahnen said. “I’m just a sophomore.”
UW-Lcoach Chris Helixon watched Ahnen as a softball player and wrestlerduring her senior year of high school. He was already projecting her asa starter for the Eagles.
“Just from recruiting her, I couldtell,” Helixon said. “She’s very athletic and has a big range. I sawher field ground balls on the other side of second base. I also saw herwrestle in high school and you could see she had mental toughness.
“I knew as a freshman she would be mature enough to handle playing in college.”
Ahnenstarted 40 of 41 games in 2008 and batted .365 with three homers, 15RBI and 15 stolen bases. Defensively, she had a .900 fieldingpercentage, including 14 errors, which she wasn’t happy about.
“Lastyear, I did well, but I had a lot of errors,” Ahnen said. “A lot ofthem came where we’re at now, at the halfway point. This year, I havetwo (errors) so I feel I’ve improved.”
During UW-L’sdoubleheader sweep of Viterbo on Thursday, Ahnen, had four hits, scoredthree runs, drove in a run, stole a base, and threw a runner out athome to preserve the shutout in the second game.
“She can drop abunt down for a hit, or hit it out of the park,” Helixon said. “As abaserunner, she’s very opportunistic. Any slight mistake and she’lltake the extra base.”
Ahnen considered wrestling in college —she had some scholarship offers from women’s programs — beforecommitting to UW-L to play softball.
“Wrestling helped metremendously as an athlete because it requires so much determination,”Ahnen said. “I’m glad I went with softball. I love the girls here and Ilove UW-L.”