EAGLE, WI : Former Janesville swimming standout killed in crash on Friday, 9th September 2016

Waukesha County authorities on Friday afternoon identified 21-year-old Spencer Twining of Janesville as the man killed Thursday near Eagle after his motorcycle collided with a truck that swerved into his lane, police said.

Twining, a Janesville Parker High School graduate and a swimmer on the UW-Whitewater Warhawks men's swimming and diving team, was killed after his motorcycle crashed into a pickup truck, the sheriff's department said in a release Friday.

In an email to The Gazette on Friday evening, Waukesha County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jennifer Wallschlaeger said Twining was pronounced dead Thursday afternoon at Highway 59 near County X just north of the village of Eagle.

Witnesses said they saw a Dodge pickup truck headed west on Highway 59 swerve into the oncoming lane and collide with an eastbound motorcycle, according to the release.

The truck then struck a Chevrolet Aveo, which was also traveling east. The sheriff's office reports the driver of the pickup truck, 28-year-old woman from North Prairie, suffered minor injuries. The driver of the Chevrolet Aveo, a 58-year-old male from Eagle, was not injured, according to the release.

In an email, Wallschlaeger said police have arrested one person involved in the crash for operating while intoxicated, but police have not named others in the crash, and Wallschlaeger did not name the person arrested.

She indicated in another email to The Gazette that the person arrested was driving the pickup truck involved in the crash.

As of late Friday evening the sheriff's department had not released a full crash report.

Twining had just started his senior year as a student at UW-Whitewater.

According to an announcement about Twining's death posted on the university's website Friday evening, Twining earned second-team all-conference honors in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in the 100-yard breaststroke in the 2014-15 season, and he was among top finisher in the conference championships in the last two seasons in the 200-yard breaststroke, the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard medley relay.

Twining was a 2013 graduate of Janesville Parker High School, where he was a state-qualifying swimmer who swam breaststroke, and he was one of the swimmers who helped set a school record in the 200-yard medley in 2012.

Eric Rhodes, Twining's former swimming coach at Parker, said he'd heard the news of Twining's death early Friday morning. Another former Parker swimmer had called Rhodes to tell him early in the day.

“It's been a chilling, chilling blow,” Rhodes said Friday night. “He was a great kid. It was great to see him mature and develop. He had a lot of things going for him in swimming and outside swimming, and he knew he did.”

Rhodes called Twining “a quirky and funny kid” who was easy for coaches to motivate but also self-driven and enjoyed volunteering to coach youth swimmers.

Twining was among four former Parker graduates swimminng for the UW-Whitewater men's swim team, Rhodes said. In a tradition that has taken root in recent years at UW-Whitewater, the former Janesville swimmers are often placed together on a medley team because they mesh so well, Rhodes said.

“They'd have had four, but it'll be just three now,” Rhodes said.

UW-Whitewater plans a celebration of life for Twining at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Kris Russell Volleyball Arena at the University athletic department's Williams Center. The university plans to fly the school's flag at half-staff on Sunday in Twining's memory.

Source :
Former Janesville swimming standout killed in crash