Article and Photos by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org

Saturday morning, five Whippet Wrestlers left bright and early to travel to Richland Center to compete in a very competitive sectional field of wrestlers with the hopes of finishing the day in the top two of their weight class, thus punching tickets to the state tournament. During a season that saw many changes and adjustments due to our current health situation, we were grateful as a team to be in this position and commend Richland Center on a job well done. It was an extremely well run tournament that went very smoothly.

Entering the last round of competition, the Whippets still had all 5 wrestlers competing, which was a great feat as the competition at that level is stiff. Although they may not have achieved goals they had set for themselves coming into the tournament, the coaching staff felt they all wrestled very well and should be proud of themselves.

Brian Porcaro finished off a very nice senior season taking 6th place. He lost a couple of well wrestled matches, but came up on the short end. He stated after his last match that he felt that although he lost he thought he wrestled well. 

Marcus DePorter started off the day wrestling the eventual champion, however gave the opponent his toughest match of the day. Marcus came back to win his next two matches putting himself in the 3rd place match. Marcus dropped this match, and that opponent went on to win his 2nd place match so both of Marcus’s losses came to the two guys that qualified for the state tournament. Marcus showed very nice improvement as his season progressed.

David Cushman has been a staple in the middle weights four 4 year and battled extremely well in a loaded weight class. This class saw the number 2, 3, 10, and 11 (Cushman) ranked kids in the state. David started off with a tough draw having the #3 but wrestled him tough. The opponent had lots of length and was strong. David does what he does and wrestled until the final whistle but came up short. In the wrestle backs David secured two pins for himself to put him into the 3rd place match. Again he was against a tough opponent (#10) and it was a great battle. David was extremely close to putting his opponent on his back from his feet but came up short 6-4. David has been a great worker in the program over the years, and the coaches know his future is bright at the next level.

Mason DePorter entered his first sectional tournament in nice fashion with a high scoring 14-12 victory over his first round opponent. Mason came back and dropped his next couple of matches to finish in 6th place, however the coaches are proud of the work he put in to make himself a better athlete. Mason set a goal for himself last Spring to make himself stronger physically. He crushed that goal; now he will reevaluate his goals as he goes into his senior season.

Carter Friend worked his way through a very tough bracket starting off the tournament with two nice wins to reach the finals. In the championship, he ran into a tough young man from Evansville and Carter was not able to get his style going, and dropped the championship. Because he had not wrestled the guy who took 3rd, Carter had to wrestle again to hold onto his position. This was a tough, high intensity match. Going into the 3rd period Carter was down 6-3, but his extra work that he and teammate David do after practice paid off. Carter took control of the match and came out on top 8-7, thus punching his ticket to the state tournament for the 2nd year in a row.

The coaches are proud of the student-athletes on their performance on Saturday. They should all be proud of their day even though the outcome may not be quite what they wanted.