Article by John Schimming

On Saturday the teams of the Rock Valley Conference all converged in Big Foot to partake in the RVC Duals. The Whippets went in knowing they were going to have a tough challenge as they were going to be having dual meets against the 5 top teams in the conference all in one day. When the dust settled and the team boarded the bus for the snowy drive home they found themselves 4-1 on the day.

The wins were all very exciting for the whippets. They started off the day with a criteria win over East  Troy as the score was 39-39. Whitewater won on the 4th tie breaker criteria most first points scored in matches, where the whippets scored first in 7 of the 13 matches! With the team success on the day the team pushed their record to 8-1 on the season, 6-1 in the RVC.

Other wins on the day included duals against Edgerton, Jefferson and Turner. All three of these duals were still up in the air with only one or two matches to go so it was very exciting. The whippets sole defeat on the day was to Evansville in a dual that got away from them early with a couple matches that were in Whitewater’s favor but then due to scrambles went against us setting a snowball effect that just became too much for the team to overcome. Before the blink of an eye the team was down 3-24. The team made a valiant comeback but came up short 28-48.  

The day proved to be a true team effort as many stepped up when they needed to in the victories. Cooper Hammond really was a crucial part in the Edgerton dual. He was put into a position where he had to wrestle a very tough opponent but by doing so helped the team in the long run. Josh Hacht also had to step up as he was entered into the line up due to illness setting in.

Going 5-0 on the day for the team was David Cushman and Carter Friend who both had some big wins in the duals as they came down to the wire. In the East Troy Dual, David needed to pin his opponent to push the tie-breaker and he did an outstanding job. Going 4-1 on the day was Amaru Casas who’s only loss was in the East Troy dual however he did have the first takedown in the match which was one of the 7 to help in the dual. Also 4-1 was Wil Leibbrand who wrestled very well all day. Getting into a bad position led to his only loss. During the Edgerton Dual, Will had an outstanding pin to help in the victory.

The Whippets are next in action on Saturday when they travel to the Monroe Invitational. Wrestling at Monroe begins at 9:30.