On Saturday, January 22, the Whitewater Wrestling Team traveled to Monroe, Wisconsin, to participate in the 39th annual Monroe Invitational. This is an outstanding event as the personnel in Monroe do a great job, and there is some great competition from the Western part of Wisconsin.
Whitewater wrestled very well throughout the day. After the semi-final round, the team found themselves in 2nd place, but the consolation semi-finals are very important in team races, as it determines who goes for 3rd and who goes for 5th. The Whippets rose to the occasion and won many of the matches contested in that round. In the final round of the tournament, Whitewater had 3 in the finals, 6 in the bronze medal match, and 3 in the 5th place match. Whitewater also claimed the team championship over the other 10 participating schools.
Medalists 
Team Champions
Bringing home championships for Whitewater were Carter Friend and Mason DePorter. Each of them wrestled very well throughout the day. Mason ended the day having pinned all three of his opponents. Aaron Porras came up just short in the championship in a hard-fought match against his opponent from Darlington.
Bringing home bronze medals for Whitewater were Jarvis Porcaro, Jason Villegas, Marcus DePorter, and Payton Lyon. All four of these gentlemen wrestled well. Jason Villegas wrestled the best that I have seen him wrestle in his career, and he is starting to put things together very well. He started off the day with a nice pin and then had a very hard-fought victory to win the bronze medal. Payton Lyon was able to avenge his first round loss by defeating the same opponent in an excellent match for 3rd place. DePorter battled back after a tough semi-final loss to have two dominating wins in the consolations to claim 3rd, as did Jarvis Porcaro. Jarvis had three really nice wins on the day on the way to his bronze medal.
The coaching staff was very pleased with a job well done on the victory. It was truly a team effort. No matter where they placed on the podium, all points were a premium for the team.
This week the team travels to Beloit Turner on Tuesday to close out Conference duals, and on Thursday, the team travels to Oregon to take on the Panthers of the Badger Conference.
The JV Wrestlers also had a great weekend! Qualifiers for the State JV Challenge Series Finals in Wausau included Ashly Xochipa, Traysen Thomason, Hector Arnodo (3rd place,) Yovanni Royas-Reyes, Sebastian Cuellar (5th place), and Armando Villarreal (5th place). Whitewater has had the opportunity to have students qualify for this event in years past, but this is the first year we have brought home medal winners. The competitors are in brackets with 24 competitors for their weight class so bringing home a medal is a great accomplishment.
Article and Photos Submitted by John Schimming,
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org
File Photo on Main Page Courtesy of Bob Mischka
