Article by John Schimming

Saturday the Whitewater Wrestling team traveled to Beloit Turner to participate in the Rock Valley Conference Tournament. The day started with a three-team race for the team championship. When the dust settled the whippets found themselves in second place in the RVC for the season. Combining the teams 7-1 conference record (10-1 overall) and their finish on Saturday the whippets finished in 2nd place in the conference. Evansville continued to be the team to beat as they have won conference titles since Whitewater was the last team to win the title in 2011.

Individually the whippets had 6 competitors in the championship match. David Cushman won an exciting overtime match to win his first Rock Valley Championship. He started the day with a bye then had a great third period pin against a very good opponent from Brodhead. He then secured the championship defeating an opponent who has improved very much over the course of the year with a takedown in the overtime period.

Joining Cushman in the finals was Cody Gamble, Jaden Salmieri, Carter Friend, Will Leibbrand and Arturo Franco. All five of these guys wrestled great matches in the opening round and the semi-final round to reach the finals. Unfortunately, they came up just short  of bringing home a championship. All but Franco are underclassmen so they have something to strive for in the future when it comes to the RVC tournament.

Closing out the medalists for the whippets and bringing home a bronze medal was Trenten Zahn and Gehrig Monday. Each of them lost their semi-final match and came back to win their next two.

The team is next in action when they start the post-season as they travel to East Troy to participate in a very competitive regional. The top two in each weight class will qualify for the sectional tournament the following Saturday. The top team will qualify for Team Sectionals. Wrestling will begin at 10:00 am.