Late Saturday morning, February 1, leading into early afternoon provided fans of wrestling with some great action to take in as the Whitewater Boys’ and Girls’ Wrestling teams closed out their home season with dual meets against the Panthers of Oregon.
The day started off with 20 great match ups between the two teams as weights aligned very well and all students from both teams had the opportunity to compete in front of their parents and family on parent/senior night. At the end of the JV competition the Whippets found to be on the positive side of approximately ⅔ of the matches so it was a great showing and very positive way to close out the home season.
Girls’ Wrestling Hosts First Ever Dual Meet Under the Light
Following the Boys’ JV the Girls’ Team had the opportunity to wrestle under the spotlight for the first time ever at Whitewater High School. This was a very nice experience as it had the exact same feel that fans are used to seeing when the boys compete, with the spotlight and their famous 30 seconds of walkout music that pumps them up. The girls wrestled very well with Isabelle Cantu, Aubrey Fuoco, Payton Taylor, and Marianna Kubicz all coming away with wins on the night. Aubrey had the match of the night as she was losing 3-0 in the 3rd period. She chose to go on top when it was her choice and she used lots of grit to turn her opponent to take a lead 4-3 and then turned her again this time to seal the pin. It was a very nice moment for a young lady who had just joined wrestling for the first time this year. Marianna Kubicz closed things out for the girls with a 2nd period reversal and then turned the girl to her back to secure the pin for the Whippets. Unfortunately, Oregon Girls were too much to handle and the Whippets dropped the dual meet 24-42, but it was definitely a step in the right direction for the growth of girls’ wrestling in the area having a dual meet with the same atmosphere as we are used to seeing the boys have at home.
Boys Fall to Oregon in Close Dual Meet
The boys’ team closed out the day’s events with a very good dual meet that saw them fall just short to a very strong Panther team. Oregon is a favorite to win their regional in two weeks, and the Whippets held their own. Unfortunately, in the end a couple of tough losses were too much for the Whippets to overcome, falling 36-38. Junior Soto got the team on the board first with what may have been his best wrestling match of his career as he wrestled extremely smart vs an opponent that was significantly bigger than he was. Junior was able to stay in great position on top and used perfect technique to turn his opponent over for the pin. The Whippets followed with a couple of forfeits at 106 and 113 by Cooper Housel and Juan Garrafa. This brought us to one of the featured matches of the day where Jarvis Porcaro had a very talented opponent from Oregon. Jarvis just missed out on a takedown on the edge of the mat in the first period as his foot just came off the mat; as they say sports are inches from success or failure sometimes. This really could have been a swing in the match. Jarvis ended up wrestling to the bitter end but dropped a tough decision. After a couple more tough loses for the Whippets, Connor Friend came out and went to work securing a pin to bring the Whippets back where they needed to be, needing one win to secure a victory. Another pivotal match occurred at 150 pounds where Traysen Thomason had a great opponent whom he had narrowly beaten at the mid-states 7-6. This was a match that came right to the end with Traysen falling 7-8. Avi Kalra closed out the scoring for the Whippets with a pin at 165 to bring the score to the final of 36-38.
A big thank you goes out to all parents and family members who make wrestling possible for their sons and daughters. Also, a congratulations goes out to the seniors as they competed on the Whippet home wrestling mat for the final time on Saturday. It was a nice career for all of them, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds in the tournaments series as well as their future selves.
The Lady Whippets are next in action on Tuesday night, February 4, when they travel to Beloit Turner for a quad starting at 5:30. Both teams then close out the regular season on Wednesday night at Janesville Craig. Friday night sees the JV team traveling to East Troy to compete in the JV Conference Tournament followed by the boys’ and girls’ teams traveling to East Troy on Saturday morning for the RVC Conference Tournament. Wrestling begins on Saturday at 9:15.
Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org