On Saturday, February 5, the Whitewater Wrestling Team traveled to Brodhead to participate in the 2022 Rock Valley Conference Wrestling Championships. This was a battle between the nine conference teams, each looking to win a team title, and individuals looking to be crowned champions.
Whitewater wrestled well throughout the day, with seven students achieving a medal for placing in the top three. The Whippets had five individuals in the championship matches, winning three of the five bouts. Marcus DePorter, Carter Friend, and Mason DePorter each earned their first conference championship, with all of them winning convincingly throughout the day. Marcus was the first to claim a championship, with a commanding 12-3 victory over his opponent from Turner. Friend then followed two weights later, wrestling a very controlled match, defeating his opponent from Evansville by a score of 9-3. Finally, Mason wrestled outstanding in his championship match, taking a commanding lead early, and never letting off the gas on his way to a 12-0 victory. This is a great accomplishment for these young men as a lot of hard work has been put into these championships and now they have their name etched in Whippet History.
Carter Friend 
Marcus DePorter 
Mason DePorter
Also reaching the finals for the Whippets included Jarvis Porcaro and Connor Friend. Each of these young men wrestled well all day, but came up short in the finals. Porcaro pinned his way to the championship match, before falling to his opponent from Evansville. Friend had an extremely exciting match in the semi-finals, avenging an earlier season loss, to win 5-4 to reach the championship. Connor came up short in the finals to a senior from East Troy, falling 6-0.
Bringing home the bronze medal for Whitewater were Aaron Porras and Leo Ortiz. Both of these students lost heartbreakers in the semi-finals, but came back and finished their day strong to bring home third place.
As a team, Whitewater came in Runner-Ups to a very good team from Evansville. The coaching staff is happy with the performance of the team, as they did give Evansville a run for part of the day, until they started to pull away in the final round.
The Varsity is now off until Saturday, when they travel to Jefferson to participate in the Regional Tournament. The Junior Varsity team closes out their season this week, as they travel to Clinton on Monday for the RVC JV Conference tournament and then travel to Badger High School on Tuesday to compete in their last tournament.
Article and Photos Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
