WITTENBERG – Over the past two seasons, Wittenberg–Birnamwood’s (19-0, 11-0 conference) girls basketball team led by senior standouts Rory Salvesen and Melaina Granquist has only lost one game.
The Chargers steamrolled into the postseason in 2025, hoping to capitalize on what finished as a perfect regular season for the ladies. But they then met the only team that’s been able to slow them down in the past few seasons: Xavier.
The Hawks have knocked the Chargers out of the postseason for the past two seasons.
Mechelke’s group of Chargers led by his dynamic duo have only lost eight total games in the past four seasons. Salvesen, who leads the Chargers in scoring this season, is a decorated three-sport athlete for the Chargers. She’s made a commitment to play softball at the University of Minnesota.
Granquist, a Western Illinois basketball commit, recently collected her 1,000th rebound with the program as one of the area’s most productive forces in the paint. She currently posts a double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds per outing.
Within the Chargers basketball program, there is a winning standard that the group, led by Granquist and Salvesen strive to uphold.
“They don’t want to lose, and I think many of them take it to heart, especially the kids that I have now,” girls basketball coach Nick Mechelke said. “They hate it just as much as I do. But that makes them have a lot of discipline and pay extra attention to details.
“I think that’s a big focus for us and the girls understand that it’s going to be tough. They’re going to be coached hard, and with that kind of mentality, the girls kind of gracefully take it on.”
The competitive standard is set by their two leaders, Salvesen and Granquist. They compete with each other in practice. Which encourages the lowerclassmen to step their game up.
Mechelke said they all enjoy challenging each other in practice.
“Nobody wants to lose, you know?,” Mechelke said. “And you become emotionally attached to winning and losing. And it can be really hard. I think that’s where learning from those two losses to Xavier in the sectional finals is feeding them to get over that hump.”
As far as the team’s approach while seldomly tasting defeat, Mechelke said that each day they strive to address what they can improve on and how they can challenge themselves to prepare for the unpredictability of the postseason.
During his time at the helm that’s approaching a decade, he feels he’s never had a group that wasn’t motivated to win.
The determination shows. He’s built a group that has not only found pleasure in the grind toward winning, but also doing it united as one.
“It starts in practice. I think they truly want to be there,” Mechelke said. “And I can’t say if that’s every kid who plays basketball, but this group that I have is very, very close. They all get along. It’s like an extended family that kind of does everything together. Whether it’s basketball wise or team meals or anything like that, they just enjoy each other.”
With just a handful of games remaining, the Chargers are looking to close out another regular season strong and conquer the Central Wisconsin-East conference. While they hope to finish out their regular season slate unbeaten, they understand none of that matters once the ball is tipped off for postseason play.
“This group has been to the sectional final the last two years, and they want to get over that hump. That’s their motivation,” Mechelke said. “Now we talk about having a one game at a time kind of mentality, which we focus on, but this group is hungry. They want more. You try to keep the talk down to a minimum until the postseason and you’re where you want to be, because everybody wants to get to those last two games in March, which is tough, and anything can happen.
“But the seven girls that are heaviest in rotation have been in these situations for the last two years. They know what it takes. And they’re exceptionally hungry. I would say, if we fall, it’s going to be very disappointing, maybe the hardest one of our group’s would take a loss at the end of the season.”
Contact or send game stats/info to Sports Reporter Alfred Smith III at alfred.smith@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @AlfredS_III.
This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: Wittenberg-Birnamwood seeking breakthrough: ‘They don’t want to lose’
Reporting by Alfred Smith III, Wausau Daily Herald / Wausau Daily Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
