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Article By John Schimming

After three great weeks of practice, the whippet wrestlers finally were able to hit the mats in competition against someone other than a teammate. This tournament in Watertown is a great opener for the team as it has some very competitive teams there. The format of the tournament has the student-athletes compete in either two or three rounds depending on the size of the bracket and, depending on how they do, they then get put into placement pools. This is a great opportunity for the students as it allows them to see good competition and then in the later rounds be in brackets at their ability.

Whitewater wrestled pretty well in their first competition placing four guys in the top four and finishing the day in 7th place out of 17 teams. It is always nice for the coaching staff to see the team in competition so there can be evaluation and see where we need to focus more work.

Placing 3rd for the whippets were Amaru Casas at 182 pounds and Gehrig Monday at 195 pounds. Both of these student-athletes wrestled well on the day going 4-1.  Finishing in 4th place was Trenten Zahn at 120 pounds and Jaden Salmieri at 138 pounds. They each wrestled their way into the gold bracket and ran into really tough guys here. They finished the day 3-2. Taking 5th for Whitewater was freshman Carter Friend at 152. He finished the day at 4-1 losing in the quarterfinals to a sectional champion from Mineral Point. Other than that setback Friend looked good in his first varsity tournament.

The Whippets are in action two times this upcoming week. On Thursday they travel to Big Foot to open up the dual meet season and on Saturday the team will be hosting the 8th annual Whitewater Invitational. Wrestling on Saturday will begin at 9 am.