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Article by Coach Schimming

On Saturday the Whitewater Wrestling team hosted their 8th annual Whitewater Invitational with 12 teams participating in the event. The Whippet Wrestlers did very well for themselves wrestling very well throughout the day, finishing in 2nd place, only 12.5 points behind tournament champion Janesville Craig. This was the highest finish for the team in this tournament, many times settling for 3rd.

Individually the team had 9 wrestlers finish in the top 3 of their weight class. Leading the way was Amaru Casas who continued to show the hard work in the off-season pay off. Casas went 4-0 on the day with four very nice wins. Also taking first was Braulio Belmudez at 113 pounds.

From 152-170 pounds the whippets had a string of runner-up finishes. Starting at 152 David Cushman brought home the silver going 3-1 on the day. He definitely had the exciting match of the day against his first round opponent. Losing going into the 3rd period he kept battling and eventually wore his opponent down and secured a pin. Coming in 2nd at 160 was Carter Friend, who had some good tests along the way and passed all except for one hiccup along the way. Finally Martin Gonzalez at 170 had his best tournament of his career coming in second place.

Taking the bronze medal was Trenten Zahn, Marcus Deporter, Jaden Salmieri and Gehrig Monday. All four of these student-athletes had some very competitive weight classes but were able to wrestle their way to the podium. Each of them had some big pins along the way as well which helped the team score.

Coach Schimming would like to thank all of the wrestlers, parents and all the workers who helped make this tournament a class tournament for the area. A lot of work is put in by all and all the above mentioned help in making this a class act tournament.
The whippets are next in action on Tuesday night when they host Belleville for Parents Night. Note there is a time change for the JV matches, which will begin at 5:30.