The Whippet Wrestling Team had the opportunity to host and participate in the Mid-States Wrestling Classic held at UWW on December 27 and 28. This is a long-standing tournament that has been going on for over 40 years and has some of the top talent from Wisconsin and Illinois participating. This year this talent consisted of 38 teams partaking in the very talented pool.
This year the Whippets all wrestled well with 5 of the 12 competitors, CJ Tomomitsu, Connor Friend, Marcus DePorter, Carter Friend, and Mason DePorter, reaching day two of competition.
CJ Tomomitsu wrestled very well throughout the tournament. We have continued to see progress from him, and it was exciting to see him have success against tough competition as he finished in 10th place.
Connor Friend had some good matches and would show some areas of his youth and dropped some matches, although he wrestled well. In the end Connor finished in 12th place.
The Mid-States Classic honors the top 8 wrestlers in their weight class on the podium at the end of the night. This year, Whitewater claimed 3 top eight finishers.
Marcus DePorter wrestled a very good tournament, going 5-3 on the weekend to claim 8th place.
Carter Friend was in a very competitive 170 lb weight class and was able to reach the semi-finals, dropping his match to a tough student from McHenry, Illinois. He was able to close out the tournament with a well wrestled match to finish in 5th place. Over the course of the tournament Carter achieved his 100th win, which is a great milestone for wrestlers!
Mason DePorter wrestled very well throughout the day. He lost a very close quarterfinal match, 8-7, that came right down to the end. Mason came back strong and won 2 of 3 on day two to finish the tournament in 7th place, after going 5-2.
Overall the coaching staff was happy with how the entire team wrestled as this is a very competitive tournament and if you are not up for it, it can be a short-lived competition. We felt the team was ready to wrestle and just missed out having a few more advance to day two. This tournament also exposes areas we need to work on as we move onto the second half of the season.
Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
File Photo Courtesy of Bob Mischka
