SURPRISING STUFF
The cicadas are coming.
Within the next few weeks, Southeastern Wisconsin will witness cicadas take over once the soil temperatures reach the mid- to upper 60s. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They also have an exceptionally loud song. The “singing” of male cicadas is produced principally and, in most species, using a special structure called a tymbal. One exclusively North American periodical cicada, which spends most of its life as underground nymphs, emerges in predictable intervals of 13 or 17 years, depending on the species and the location.
This year we have two cicada broods emerging at the same time and that only happens once every 221 years or so. In Wisconsin, Brood 13 will make itself known mostly south of I-94 in southern Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson, and Walworth counties. And just what have the cicadas been up to all these years? The experts say they’ve been deep underground, feeding off tree root sap. While they seem like a nuisance, cicadas are a significant food source for many predators, and they help fertilize the soil when their bodies decompose. Cicadas feed on sap; they do not bite or sting and truly are not harmful to humans, pests, or crops. They may eat some sap from trees and shrubs though. Cover your saplings in mesh or netting to keep the insects out.
Elkhorn wrestler is set to compete in 2024 Paris Olympics.
Olympic qualifier and Elkhorn native, Payton Jacobson is heading to Paris and is bringing joy and positivity to Elkhorn after a few rough months. In the U.S., high school and college teams wrestle folk-style, a style of the sport that is closer to freestyle wrestling, where the U.S. had had most of its recent wrestling success, than Greco-Roman. This means wrestlers who want to specialize in Greco-Roman don’t train full-time in the sport until much later, unlike their competitors from other countries. Jacobson took a different path. Jacobson wrestled folk-style at Elkhorn High School but when he tried Greco-Roman, he was hooked.
In Greco-Roman wrestling the legs may not be used in any way to obtain a fall, and no holds may be taken below the waist. A wrestler may not attack his opponent’s legs, nor use his legs to trip, lift or execute other moves. The wrestler must wrestle from standing without the top of his head against his opponent’s chest. Payton gave up folk-style wrestling to wrestle Greco-Roman full-time and then went to Northern Michigan University to take part in the school’s Greco-Roman training program. Jacobson is hoping that speed and strength will turn into an Olympic medal in Paris.
His lifetime goal was to be an Olympian and now he is watching his dream come true. Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in human history, if not the oldest. Greco-Roman wrestling has been a blue-ribbon Olympic event ever since the first modern Games were held in Athens in 1896. It became a permanent fixture on the Olympic program in 1908. The best wrestlers in the world will be competing in Paris with the opening ceremony scheduled for July 26th.
Payton Jacobson clinches his Olympic spot
