by John Schimming

Saturday, January 18, the Whippet Wrestling team closed out a busy 10 days of dual meets culminating in a record of 4-2 over the time improving their overall record to 6-2.

Stating things off the Whippets traveled to East Troy in what is always a fun dual meet to be a part of as there is always a great turnout of support for both teams and the crowd really gets into it. Whitewater started off strong winning the first 8 matches to build a 41-0 lead. The team then ended the night with a nice pin to close out the victory 47-27.

The Whippets came back on on January 16th and hosted parents’ night as well as had a nice number of youth wrestlers come support the team after their practice when the team hosted Beloit Memorial. It was a great night to come watch the team as the entire team had an opportunity to wrestle. The JV team did outstanding only dropping four of the 16 matches. The varsity team then rolled to a 61-21 win.

On Saturday Whitewater was able to get on the roads after they were cleared of snow to travel to Clinton to participate in the Rock Valley Conference Duals. Whitewater had 4 conference dual meets on the day. They started off with a strong 72-12 win over Clinton. They were then in quite a battle with Beloit Turner as the coaching staff knew it would be. The dual meet was not decided until the last match; unfortunately the team was on the losing end of that contest, dropping their first dual meet of the season. There were some great matches in this dual meet with Turner coming out on top on a couple too many of the close ones. A highlight in the dual was Marcus DePorter who wrestled possibly his best match of his high school career defeating his opponent by a major decision 10-2. On the day Marcus did well going 3-1 overall.

The Whippets bounced back from the loss defeating Jefferson 58-21. The coaching staff was happy to see the team bounce back and wrestled hard after their first defeat.

To close out the day the Whippets did not wrestle up to their potential, which they needed to do against a very good Evansville team. The dual exposed items that will definitely be addressed as we start shifting focus for the varsity to the tournament series which will begin in only 3 weeks!

Highlights of the day for individuals included Jaden Salmieri who reached a milestone that he set when he was a freshman securing his 100th career win in the Turner Dual Meet. He finished the day 4-0. David Cushman also had an outstanding day going 4-0 seeming to get tougher as the day progressed. Going 3-1 on the day included; CJ Tomomitsu, Cooper Hammond and Marcus DePorter.

The JV team was also competing on Saturday at the Conference Duals in indvidual competition. The coaching staff felt they looked good and continue to improve. Going 3-0 were Aaron Porras and Leo Gonzalez. Going 2-1 were Victor Hernandez, Mason Nobs, and Hector Arnodo. The entire JV team has worked hard and is showing improvement every day.

Thank you, parents, for all your support of the Whitewater Whippet Wresting Team.