The Whitewater Boys’ Wrestling teams have seen their 2025-2026 season come to a close sooner than they would have liked as they participated in the Division 2 Sectional Tournament at Wilmot Union.
The boys battled through lots of adversity going into the tournament going through some illnesses. The coaching staff was very pleased with the effort throughout the day as all those present performed to the best of their abilities on the given day.
Gabe Crane (132) led the way with a 3rd place finish. The immediate result was disappointing for Gabe as he had high aspirations of qualifying for the state tournament but came up one place short. The positive of the day was the fact that Gabe was definitely not 100% and after an early loss he could have used it as an excuse and just cashed in the season. He battled hard and was able to fight through his matches finishing 3-1 on the day with 3 pins. Gabe finished the season with 28 pins, one shy of tying the school record for pins in a season.
Coming in 4th place included George Christon (106) and Brady Friend (138). Each of these young men had tough losses in the quarterfinals but came back through on the backside with a couple of much needed wins to get into the 3rd place match. Both of them wrestled hard in the final match but came up on the losing end.
Austin Retzlaff (215) had some nice wins on the day, including two against a very tough opponent in the last match for him. Austin finished the day in 5th place winning the last match by a technical fall.
Trevor Piper (190) continued to show his improvement that he has shown the last few weeks of the season. He was able to avenge an earlier season loss in the wrestle back match which really had him excited as it justified his hard work in the room was paying off. At the end of the day Trevor finished in sixth place.
Closing out the placements for Whitewater was Deavion Olson (HWT). Deavion wrestled very well in his last high school tournament having two very close matches against opponents who had defeated him earlier in the season. Olson was able to finish out his high school career with a win by pinning his opponent in the 7th place match.
Although the last couple of outings for the Whippets were not what was hoped for the team, they had a great season considering their youth. They won the Whitewater and Clinton Invites and finished as Co-Champions of the Rock Valley Conference “Valley” Division in duals.
Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
