On Tuesday night, February 15, the Whippet Wrestling Team traveled to River Valley to compete in the Team Sectional Wrestling Tournament with the hopes of getting two dual meet wins and the right to advance to Team State. The Whippet Community should be proud to call the Whippet Wrestlers their own as they fought hard against a very good Evansville team, but ended up losing the dual, hence ending the team portion of the season. Whitewater finished the season 9-2 with both losses coming to Evansville. I feel as though we wrestled much better last night than we did earlier in the season, so the coaching staff is proud of the team for that.

Individually in the dual, Marcus DePorter got the team on the scoreboard with a well wrestled match against his opponent, winning by a major decision. Aaron Porras followed with another win for the team by getting a second period pin to help spark some excitement for the team. Sebastian Cuellar followed with an exciting takedown to start the match against a young man who has 40 wins on the season and was wrestling well but unfortunately dropped the match. Carter Friend showed he will not back down to anyone as he went up a weight class to get another shot at an opponent he lost to earlier in the season and who was a state runner-up last year. Carter wanted to show he can do better, and indeed did, securing a couple of takedowns in the match and wrestling better overall. However, he was unable to get a victory. The team ended the dual meet by winning the last two matches, so they ended on a couple of positive notes. Mason DePorter got a first period pin, his 27th of the season, which has now broken the single season record held since 2010. Jarvis Porcaro ended the evening for the Whippets when he avenged his Conference Championship loss by defeating his opponent 13-10 in a very exciting match to end the dual meet.

The coaching staff is very proud of the team this season. They showed they are a true team as they are always there in each other’s corner, no matter what, supporting and picking each other up when needed. Although this is the end of the dual meet season, seven individuals will be traveling to Richland Center to participate in the Individual Sectional with the hopes of punching a ticket to State. Wrestling begins at 10:00.

Article Submitted by John Schimming
Whitewater High School Head Wrestling Coach
jschimming@wwusd.org