Over the last week, from January 10 through the 13th, the Whitewater Wrestling Team had the opportunity to continue to see success on the mat, going 3-0 in dual meets.

On Tuesday night, the Whippets hosted the Oregon Panthers. Whippet Alum Brian Hookstead brought his team to his old stomping grounds. Coach Hookstead has a very nice team this year with some hardnosed wrestlers. It was truly a night of wrestling as the youth club from Oregon also came down, setting up 18 matches showing their skills. Overall each team won about half their matches so it was a good experience for the 3rd – 7th grade students. The JV wrestled very well, winning 48-30 in their contested matches with Oregon.

Coming up with nice wins for the Whippets on Varsity included Jasen Porras (Decision), CJ Tomomitsu (pin), Traysen Thomason (pin), Sebastian Cuellar (pin), Hector Arnodo (pin), and Richard Franco (decision). Also winning by forfeits included Connor Friend, Aaron Porras, and Jesus Barajas to help the Whippets win the dual 48-30. 

On Friday night, the team traveled to Evansville to participate in the Rock Valley Conference Duals. This included three rounds of wrestling with Whitewater competing in two of those rounds. In their first dual the Whippets had Brodhead/Juda. Although Brodhead does not field a full team, their students are very tough. Whitewater did very well, including those matches that were not in our favor. Whitewater won this dual 54-30.

In round 3 of the RVC Duals, Whitewater defeated Big Foot 63-16.  Going 2-0 on the night were Jasen Porras, Jason Villegas, CJ Tomomitsu, Connor Friend, Sebastian Cuellar, Aaron Porras, and Payton Lyon. Going 1-1 included Jarvis Porcaro, Traysen Thomason, Odair Porras, Avi Kalra, Hector Arnodo, and Deavion Olson. 

Sprinkled in throughout the night the JV team also had the opportunity to compete. They did extremely well as it is proof that if you do the basics really well you will see success.  

The varsity wrestling team is now 8-0 overall, 7-0 in the RVC. The team is next in action when they travel to the highly competitive Monroe Invitational on Saturday, January 21. On Tuesday, January 24, they host Evansville with each team being 7-0 in the conference.

Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka

Last Saturday, January 7, the Women’s Wrestling Team traveled to Kenosha Bradford to participate in the program’s first ever women’s tournament. The team wrestled very well with them coming home with a 2nd place team finish.

Leading the way for the ladies were Lauren Buehler and Ashly Xochipa. Each of these ladies took runner up in their weight classes. Both of them had two very nice wins on the day with their only losses coming to very good girls from Whitefish Bay. Ashly improved to 12-2 on the season and Lauren improved to 8-6.

Taking third place for the Lady Whippets were Khloe Meyer and Odeling Gonzales. This was the first time each of these ladies has medaled in a tournament, and they are really starting to put things together on the mat.

Finishing out placement for the Whippets was Athena Soto taking fourth place in her first tournament ever, as well as Stephanie Wence also taking fourth place. 

Besides Ashly, wrestling is very new for our ladies as they have never competed before. The coaches are very impressed with the growth they are all making each day in practice, and it shows when they compete. Whitewater is fortunate to have enough ladies on the team so they have enough to have practice partners in the room. The goal is to keep those numbers growing.

The ladies are next in action when they all travel to Wausau West High School on January 21 to complete in the WWCA Women’s State Finals.

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

Last Saturday, January 7, the Whitewater Wrestling team hosted a huge wrestling tournament at Whitewater High School called the WWCA JV Challenge Series Regional. This is a tournament sponsored by the Wisconsin Wrestling Coaches Association and provides the junior varsity wrestlers an opportunity to compete for a state championship through the coaches’ association. It is a great opportunity for the JV wrestlers around the state to get some extremely great competition.

Whitewater was the host for 28 schools traveling from as far away as River Valley to Oconomowoc. The tournament is all one division, so students from division 3 to division 1 all descended into Whitewater on Saturday. These 28 schools brought 277 wrestlers to compete in this event with as many as 34-person brackets to work through in an attempt to place in the top 3 and earn the right to advance to the state finals in Wausau.

The Whitewater team did very well all weekend, from Friday evening with setting up 6 mats, Saturday competition, and then finally the cleanup of the entire area on Saturday evening. On the mat, Whitewater wrestlers did very well. There were not any disappointments as far as how the team competed. Sure, there were disappointments in not qualifying for the top 3, but there was outstanding competition to work through, and nearly everyone secured at least one win on the day. Whitewater placed 9 of their 14 wrestlers in the top 5 at their weights. 

Highlights of the day included the Whippets having two bring home a Championship, one Runner-Up, and two 3rd place finishes, all qualifying for Wausau. There were two more members of the team who took 4th and were named alternates. Prior to writing this article Coach Schimming got a phone call from Wausau asking for those two students to also come, so Whitewater will have 7 students participating on Saturday, January 21, at Wausau West High School.

Bringing home championships for the Whippets were JJ Gonzalez at 160 and Jesus Barajas at 170 lbs. Both of these athletes wrestled very well throughout the day on their way to the championship.

Coming in runner up for the Whippets was Richi Kalra at 170. Richi wrestled very well all day before falling to teammate Barajas in the finals. 

Two students won their final match of the day to come in 3rd place and earn their automatic bid. Curtis Rossmiller at 126 lbs and Nate Black at 152 both wrestled very well losing tough matches in the semi-finals before securing their spot at Wausau with their win at 3rd.

Reaching the semi-finals before suffering their first lost were Keenan Sheffield at 145 and Christian Minett at 152. Keenan lost his 3rd place match to finish in fourth. Christian defaulted his match to teammate Nate Black due to a recurring injury. Fortunately for each of them they will still qualify based on a competitor ahead of them not going.

Finishing in 5th place on the day with a record of 5-1 included Max Babcock and Avi Kalra. Each of them lost early in the day, and based on the design of the bracket the best they could do was 5th place. Each did the best they could after the early loss which was great to see.

Closing out placements was Kane Obregon who took 7th. Kane is in his first year ever wrestling and has done very well losing a couple of close matches over the course of the day.

As an entire program the coaches could not be prouder of the effort given by the team, wrestlers and managers, putting this event on. The group not competing had the daunting task of working tables, which can get to be a very long day for them. They did absolutely outstanding with their job, and when the tournament was over did an outstanding job with the cleanup of the 6 mats that were used and picking up garbage in the stands. The wrestlers and managers should be commended for giving up an entire Saturday so Junior Varsity wrestlers around our area had this opportunity. 

Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
File Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka

The Whippets hosted McFarland in girls’ basketball on Friday, January 13. In the first half, McFarland came out on fire, hitting nearly every shot they took. That put the Whippets in a deficit early in the game. We fought back and connected on some 3-point shots to give us a spark. We went into half down 23-49. 

In the second half, we inched back little by little and went on a scoring run midway through, closing the gap to within 14, but McFarland fired back beating us 82-49. 

Calli Grosinske led the team with 11 points, followed by Mayte Navejas with 9. Danielle DePorter and Katie Gillette both added 8.

Article Submitted by Kristen Lippens
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Basketball Coach
klippens@wwusd.org
File Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka