Lakeland golf among spring teams promoted via WIAA performance factor

The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Classification Committee conducted hearings for member school requests and appeals in applying the performance factor initiative for the spring sports with implementation during the 2026 seasons.

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 & field and swimming & 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.

The spring school sports programs that have accumulated at least six points during the most recent three-year span to engage a promotion to a division with higher enrollments, if applicable, are listed below.

Baseball (4) — La Crosse Aquinas, Johnson Creek, Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic, Stevens Point Pacelli

Boys’ golf (9) — Cambridge, Chetek-Weyerhaeuser, Eau Claire Memorial, Edgerton, Lakeland, Marquette (Milwaukee), Mineral Point, Sheboygan North, Waunakee

Girls’ soccer (8) — Waukesha Catholic Memorial, Cedar Grove-Belgium, Madison Edgewood, Kiel, Muskego, Oregon, Plymouth, Whitefish Bay

Softball (8) — Brodhead, Fall Creek, Kaukauna, Mishicot, Kenosha Bradford, Oakfield, Stevens Point Pacelli, Waupun

Boys’ tennis (5) — Brookfield Academy, Brookfield Central, Marquette (Milwaukee), Middleton, University School of Milwaukee

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 34 programs listed above that compiled the threshold of points to engage in a promotion, four appeals were submitted. The Classification Committee reviewed and evaluated one appeal in baseball (Johnson Creek), two in boys golf (Chetek-Weyerhaeuser and Edgerton) and one in softball (Waupun). There were no appeals approved for the programs moving up a division based on the performance factor.

This initiative affords schools the opportunity to request to move to a division with lower or higher enrollments for all sports. The Classification Committee reviewed 13 such requests for spring sports. All the requests were to move down for the 2025-26 tournament series, including six in softball (Fall River, Frederic, Gibraltar, Riverdale, Sheboygan Lutheran, Sheboygan South), four in baseball (Iowa-Grant, Luck, Riverdale, Sheboygan South), and one each in boys’ golf (Spring Valley), girls’ soccer (Sheboygan South) and boys’ tennis (Sheboygan South).

The committee approved Fall River, Gibraltar, Sheboygan Lutheran and Sheboygan South to move down to a lower-enrollment division in softball; Luck and Sheboygan South to move down in baseball; and Sheboygan South in girls soccer and boys tennis; and Spring Valley in boys’ golf.

The Classification Committee consists of nine athletic directors, two principals and seven superintendents. The Competitive Balance Performance Factor was approved by a 265-115 membership vote at the 2023 Annual Meeting and was implemented for the first time in 2024-25.

The WIAA will release the tournament series assignments for all 2025-26 spring sports later this summer.