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WIAA spring performance factor results in 2026 divisional movement

WIAA spring performance factor results in 2026 divisional movement
Medford’s 14U softball team lost to Lakeland 8-2 Friday in the Rod Timm Memorial Softball Tournament in Tomahawk, but it made a couple of nice defensive plays. Above, second baseman Eva Strebig makes a throw from her knees to get the out at first base. In right photo, third baseman Averie Werner and pitcher Gracie Strama catch Lakeland’s Darikka Decora caught in a pickle and eventually tag her out. PHOTOS BY BRETT LABORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES
WIAA spring performance factor results in 2026 divisional movement
Medford’s 14U softball team lost to Lakeland 8-2 Friday in the Rod Timm Memorial Softball Tournament in Tomahawk, but it made a couple of nice defensive plays. Above, second baseman Eva Strebig makes a throw from her knees to get the out at first base. In right photo, third baseman Averie Werner and pitcher Gracie Strama catch Lakeland’s Darikka Decora caught in a pickle and eventually tag her out. PHOTOS BY BRETT LABORE/THE LAKELAND TIMES

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 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.

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; Sheboygan South in girls soccer and boys tennis and Spring Valley in boys golf.

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): Aquinas, Johnson Creek, Kenosha St. Joseph Catholic, Pacelli.

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

Girls soccer (8): Catholic Memorial, Cedar Grove-Belgium, Edgewood, Kiel, Muskego, Oregon, Plymouth, Whitefish Bay.

Softball (8): Brodhead, Fall Creek, Kaukauna, Mishicot, Kenosha Bradford, Oakfield, Pacelli, Waupun.

Boys tennis (5): Brookfield Academy, Brookfield Central, Marquette, 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.

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 202425.

The WIAA will release the tournament series assignments for all 2025-26 spring sports later this summer. For more on the performance factor process, visit the Classification Committee homepage on the WIAA website, wiaawi.org.

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