On Saturday, January 6, the Whitewater Wrestling Team hosted 30 teams at the high school with Junior Varsity wrestlers eyeing a trip to the JV State Finals in Wausau on January 20th. Of the 30 teams, there were 352 wrestlers with many of the brackets having 32 students in the weight class. This was a great opportunity for the Whippet Wrestlers to get some high-quality wrestling experience to see where we are and what needs to improve. Although there was no team award, trackwrestling does keep track of scores, and the Whitewater JV team came out on top with overall team score!
The Whitewater JV team wrestled extremely well. Twenty-Seven wrestlers competed for Whitewater, with 5 of the competitors placing in the top 3, thus earning their trip to the finals in Wausau. All of the wrestlers wrestled well, with many winning at least two matches on the day.
Leading the way for the Whippets was Curtis Rossmiller, as he had a great day going 5-0 and winning the 126-pound weight class. This is the second year that Curtis has reached the challenge series, and he has his eyes set on placing in the 24-person bracket at Wausau.
At 157 pounds, the Whippets took two of the top three spots with a runner-up finish by Edrick Comacho and a third-place finish by Christian Minnet. Edrick will be making his first trip to Wausau with his runner up finish in a large 32-person bracket. Edrick wrestled extremely well throughout the tournament going 4-1 and dropping his championship match against a very good student from Verona Area. Christian also wrestled well going 4-1. He, too, lost to the Verona Area student. His 3rd place match that he needed to win to advance was a tough fought match. He was at one point down 8-2, but he just continued to battle back one point at a time to secure a takedown late in the third period to win the match and punch his ticket to Wausau.
Richi Kalra at 175 pounds will be making his first trip to Wausau as he reached the semi-finals dropping a tough match to a Darlington student. Richi then had to come back through the consolation bracket, needing to win two matches on the backside to get to Wausau. Richi did just that winning those two matches and getting a first period pin in the third-place match to make it to Wausau.
Closing out the qualifiers for the Whippets is Avi Kalra. This will also be Avi’s second trip to Wausau by taking runner up at 190 pounds. Avi made quick work of his first opponents getting three pins to reach the championship match. Avi ran into a familiar foe from Janesville Craig, wrestling better than the first time they met earlier in the season, but still dropping his finals.
Quinton O’Toole had his best day of wrestling going 4-1 at 126 pounds. He unfortunately lost early in the tournament, which due to bracket set up left him unable to reach the top three. Needless to say, Quinton wrestled great after the first-round loss.
Great job to all wrestlers competing on Saturday as they did very well. Coach Schimming also sends out a huge thank you to all the varsity wrestlers who did a great job working the tables. It was a long day, but the group did outstanding all day long, right until the end of the tournament when they also did outstanding with the clean-up of the 6 mats.
Thank you also to the wrestling parents who did outstanding putting together a hospitality room for the officials and the students who were working. That was much appreciated! Thank you also to the parents who volunteered their time in the concession area. That was non-stop action.