For one last time, couple welcomes four-legged phenoms to Naperville
These are definitely athletes.
Many run faster than 30 mph and can leap to catch objects more than 9 feet in the air.
Hang time? Jordanesque.
About 100 of these athletes — dogs, amazing ones — with their trainers will flock to Naperville’s Nike Park, at Mill Street and Diehl Road, for the Ashley Whippet K-9 Frisbee World Championships, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Naperville’s Tom Wehrli and his wife of 49 years, Chris, have been to all but a handful of these events since 1980. They started running local events in the late 1990s and once the world championships moved to Naperville in the mid-2000s they served as directors.
This will be their last year at the helm.
“I turn 73 this year. It gets to be a lot physically and mentally,” said Tom Wehrli, an athlete himself, a gymnast, at Naperville Community High School, Class of 1971.
There’s permits, fees, insurance, site plans, the food vendor and Porta Potties, the loading and unloading. There’s the 40 banners for the event stored in his garage.
Tom Wehrli, an Ashley’s Hall of Famer himself, speaks with reverence of the sport’s founders: Irv Lander, Eldon McIntire and particularly Alex Stein, who with his acrobatic pup illegally jumped onto the Dodger Stadium turf during a 1974 broadcast of Monday Night Baseball to play Frisbee long toss.
After Stein got out of jail, a sport — led by its first star, Ashley Whippet — was born.
Most of the 17 rescue dogs the Wehrlis have owned have been Frisbee dogs. Their best athlete, a setter-retriever mix named Delta, was a three-time world finalist who performed at NFL halftime shows in Detroit, Green Bay, Indianapolis and Minnesota.
Wehrli anticipates teams from Canada, Costa Rica, Japan and Mexico, plus people and dogs nationwide arriving to compete or watch this weekend’s action at Nike Park. Stein himself will be coming up from Florida.
After the Wehrlis fulfill their duties, Tom will be content maintaining the Ashley Whippet K-9 Frisbee Museum, a treasure trove located in the basement of their Naperville home.
In addition to a “couple thousand Frisbees,” Wehrli said, including models signed by the likes of Jimmy Carter, Dick Biondi, Bruce Jenner and Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr, the museum displays historical discs, international banners, jerseys, articles, and way, way more — even a portion of Ashley Whippet’s ashes.
“It was a tough choice because of the love of the sport,” Wehrli said of retiring from the championship. A Michigan couple has expressed interest in running it, he said.
“Alex (Stein) and I are still going to be the ones that pick our lifetime achievement and hall of fame awards,” Wehrli said. “After that I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about getting stuff done for the coming weekend. I think Chris and I have earned our wings.”
The fast lane
Stevenson senior Aria Grossenbach swam in her first international meet for Team USA, the Junior Pan Pacific Championships, Aug. 17-20 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Warming up the first day with the 50-meter butterfly and an exhibition heat of the mixed 400 medley relay, on Aug. 18 the Louisville recruit broke out.
Grossenbach earned a silver medal in the 100 freestyle. Canadian Ranumi Eashwarage needed a personal-best 55-second swim to beat Grossenbach by .07 seconds.
On Aug. 19 she led off the United States’ gold-medal 400 freestyle relay with a leg of 55.43.
Grossenbach capped off her competition Aug. 20 in another exhibition, swimming 54.94 as anchor of the 400 medley relay.
Back in the States, on Saturday Grossenbach won the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events at Hinsdale Central’s KP Invite. She anchored Stevenson’s winning 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
She’s expected to be named to the women’s Junior National Team when USA Swimming announces the roster next week.
Battling for the boot
Former Neuqua Valley soccer player Tadiwa Nyamunduru and Hasan Ali Alogaili, 14, of Aurora, were on a four-person team representing TOCA Naperville that advanced to the finals of TOCA Soccer’s inaugural Generations Cup tournament.
One of five regional champions, they competed in Dallas for a trophy molded from a boot worn by English superstar Harry Kane — and a trip to Europe.
The Naperville foursome reached the Dallas finals out of 61 teams and 230 players nationally who entered the Generations Cup, eventually won by Redmond, Wash.
Scoring points by hitting targets on their shots, Alogaili placed fourth out of the 20 finalists, and Nyamunduru finished 10th.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com