Neenah basketball star Allie Ziebell was honored as the girls athlete of the year and football, basketball and baseball standout Keagen Jirschele was honored as the boys athlete of the year during Thursday’s Northeast Wisconsin High School Sports Awards show.

The event, presented by Festival Foods, was held at the Lambeau Field Atrium in Green Bay.

In all, 34 awards were handed out at the show, which honored athletes, coaches and teams from the entire region. The boys and girls athlete of the Year Awards were sponsored by Cellcom.

Ziebell concluded one of the most decorated high school basketball careers in state history.

A generational talent, Ziebell led the Rockets to the WIAA Division 1 state championship game, was voted the Associated Press state player of the year and also named the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Ms. Basketball winner.

She was also named the Gatorade Wisconsin player of the year for the second year in a row and was selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American game. She was also a member of the Team USA U19 national team that captured the FIBA Women’s World Cup title last summer.

Ziebell finished her high school career fourth overall in state history in points scored with 2,819 and will play basketball in college at the University of Connecticut for legendary coach Geno Auriemma.

More: Find complete prep sports coverage on our Varsity page

Jirschele, a senior from Mosinee, is a three-sport standout in football, basketball and baseball. He was a Wisconsin Football Coaches Association all-state selection on offense and defense and was also voted the offensive and defensive player of the year in the Great Northern Conference.

In basketball, Jirschele was unanimous first-team all-conference and honorable mention all-state after leading Mosinee to the conference championship. And this spring, he was named the Great Northern Conference player of the year in baseball on the No. 1 ranked team in the state in Division 2. He will play baseball in college at South Dakota State.

The Northeast Wisconsin High School Sports Awards show is part of the USA TODAY High School Sports Awards, the largest high school sports recognition program in the country. The show was produced with the support of Prevea Health, USA Today Sports and Golfweek.

The show recognized prep athletes, coaches and teams in the Appleton, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Manitowoc, Marshfield, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, Stevens Point, Wausau and Wisconsin Rapids markets for their achievements during the 2023-24 school year.

MADISON – Mason Posa’s official visit to Wisconsin, which began on May 31, went better than anyone could have expected.

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound linebacker from Albuquerque, New Mexico, left Madison almost certain he would choose UW.

Posa made his decision official Thursday when he announced he had committed to UW for the 2025 class.

His other two choices were Oregon and Texas A&M.

The Aggies were originally scheduled to host Posa on a visit later this month.

“The coaches, I knew they were great,” Posa said on 247’s YouTube channel after making his announcement. “I knew the town was amazing. But what I was looking for on these officials visits was which players I felt comfortable with.

“And Wisconsin just fit me. Those players were great to me. I had a blast out there. I knew Wisconsin was home.”

Posa recorded seven sacks, 14 tackles for loss and 99 total tackles as a junior.

Including Posa, UW has 18 known commitments for the 2025 class.

That includes four linebackers for defensive coordinator Mike Tressel – Posa, Cooper Catalano of Germantown High School, Brenden Anes of Tennessee and Samuel Lateju of New Jersey.

What does Posa believe he will bring to UW?

“I’m ready to go win them championships,” he said. “I’m ready to bring a national title to the University of Wisconsin. I’m excited. I love Madison. I love that coaching staff…

“I want to be a first-round pick. I want to be in the NFL and I want to win us a national title. I know some of the recruits we have…there is something special coming at Wisconsin.”

More: Wisconsin football transfer portal tracker: Who’s heading out and who’s heading in?

Wisconsin Republicans reacted to former President Donald Trump reportedly calling Milwaukee “a horrible city” during a closed-door meeting on Thursday.

Trump visited the U.S. Capitol for the first time since his supporters sieged the building on January 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to halt certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. The ex-president met with GOP lawmakers as a precursor to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee—set for July 15 to July 18—where Trump is expected to be chosen as the party’s nominee.

Jake Sherman, founder of Punchbowl News who covers the Hill, reported on X, formerly Twitter, that Trump told House Republicans on Thursday, “Milwaukee, where we are having our convention, is a horrible city.”

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to Sherman’s reporting to X on Thursday, writing, “Wrong. Total bull****. He never said it like how it’s been falsely characterized as. He was talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are.”

Newsweek reached out to Cheung via email for comment on Thursday.

House Republicans from Wisconsin defended Trump but shared different interpretations of the former president’s comment.

“Another classic example of s****y reporting by a Democratic Party shill pretending to be a journalist. Lies busy omission. @realDonaldTrump was specifically referring to the crime the CRIME RATE in Milwaukee,” Representative Derrick Van Orden wrote on X.

Van Orden included a photo of a Spectrum News article titled, “Milwaukee ranks third for violent crimes nationwide,” from May 2023.

Sherman shared an April article from Wisconsin Public Radio titled, “Homicides in Milwaukee down nearly 50 percent compared to 2 years ago.”

Some said that Trump was referring to election integrity. After Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he claimed that the election was rigged against him. Biden won Wisconsin by a slim 0.7 percent margin, and there is no evidence to suggest there was election fraud in Wisconsin or any widespread fraud in 2020.

Representative Scott Fitzgerald told Matt Smith, political director of WISN, a Milwaukee ABC affiliate, that Trump’s comment was delivered after a question posed to him about election integrity: “What he was talking about was the elections in Milwaukee. They’re concerned about them.”

Lawrence Andrea, Washington correspondent for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said on X that Representative Glenn Grothman told him that Trump was “concerned about the election in MKE” and “felt we need to do better in urban centers around the country.”

Representative Bryan Steil said on X: “I was in the room. President Trump did not say this. There is no better place than Wisconsin in July.”

Steil told Smith, “He wasn’t talking about the city. He was talking about specific issues in the city,” before the congressman listed issues such as crime and the public school system but would not say which issues Trump mentioned, according to the clip Smith shared on X.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat, told reporters on Thursday, “Donald Trump wants to talk about things that he thinks are horrible, all of us lived through his presidency, so right back at ya, buddy.”

Johnson called Trump “unhinged” for making the comment and said he was “wrong” about Milwaukee.

Biden seized the chance to score some points with Wisconsinites, posting to X on Thursday, “I happen to love Milwaukee,” to which Johnson replied, “Milwaukee loves you back, President Joe Biden!”