On Friday night, February 14, the Girls’ Wrestling Team traveled to Mukwonago High School to participate in the Girls’ Regional Wrestling Tournament. This tournament consisted of 22 teams with girls wrestling to place in the top four of their weight class to advance to the Girls’ Sectional to be hosted by Whitewater High School on Friday, February 21. The girls are all in one division so participants range from Badger High School to a small division school like Catholic Central. Based on our location in the state this posed as a huge challenge for the girls.
All of our Whippet Girls wrestled very well on Friday night. Yes, there were disappointed ladies at the end of the day as unless you do not qualify in the top four you realize your season has come to an end. The coaches truly believe our girls are not ready to be finished with their season.
Leading the way for the Whippets was Marianna Kubicz who went 3-0 on the day securing a pin in the semi-finals and then a strong double leg takedown to start the championship match, unfortunately hurting the young lady she was wrestling who had to injury default.
Coming in 3rd place with an outstanding last match of the night for her was Payton Taylor who was in a very close match throughout, however continued to hold good positions. She was able to use her power in the end to get the opponent out of position scoring the decisive takedown near the end of the 3rd period. Payton is in her first year of wrestling but does a great job listening and adjusting during matches.
Rounding out our qualifiers was A’Lani Ross. A’Lani started her night off in great fashion with a 2nd period technical fall 17-0. She unfortunately dropped her semi-final match. In the 3rd place match she found herself in a tough battle with her opponent and was unable to finish with the victory but still secured her position on Friday night with a 4th place finish.
Taking 5th place and just missing out on the opportunity to advance was Atreya Wilson. Atreya won her 5th place match doing extremely well coming back from a tough loss early in the tournament and picking up a couple of wins to stay in contention. Unfortunately, the girl that Atreya needed to win the 3rd place match lost, so that girl took fourth. Had the other girl won, Atreya would have had the opportunity to wrestle for true 4th. She is an alternate so if something were to happen over the course of the week she could be given the call up, so she will still keep her nose to the grind.
Others girls who competed with all their hearts included Isabelle Cantu who took 6th losing a very tough match for 5th. She was so close to pinning the girl but just couldn’t get the 2nd shoulder blade down. Ema Aranda was in the same boat, riding tough, but could not turn a girl with very flexible shoulders. Silvia Harris participated in the largest bracket in the tournament and wrestled well throughout, securing a very nice win by pin in her second match but was unable to get into the placement match. Aubrey Fuoco had a great last match but inexperience showed, and she came up short. Vivian Harris drew a young lady who is someone you would want to come and watch on Friday night as she is so technically and physically strong. Vivian then came back, losing her final match and ending her first season in high school wrestling. To close out our girls was Alexa Arredondo who showed heart wanting to compete, battling through being not 100%.
Friday night Whitewater High School hosts the Girls’ Sectional starting at 5:00. The top 2 girls from each weight class will advance to the state tournament held at the Kohl Center. If you want to see some really good girls’ wrestling it is recommended you come to Whitewater on Friday night as many will argue this will be the toughest sectional in the state with many highly ranked girls participating.