On Saturday, February 22, the Boys’ Wrestling Team was represented by 5 individuals competing to advance to the WIAA State Individual State Wrestling Tournament in the Sectional Tournament hosted by Waupun. When the day ended, the boys were 12-4 with four of them punching their ticket to the Kohl Center this coming Thursday night.
Jarvis Porcaro started things off for the Whippets, winning the sectional championship, being the 3rd one to do so since 2007. Jarvis dominated his competition, wrestling extremely well all day. He started the day with a technical fall 19-2. He followed that up with a first period pin in :57. For the finals, Jarvis wrestled very well getting a takedown, which would have ended the match with a technical fall, but due to taking down two students back he was able to secure the pin.
Jasen Porras was our second student to reach the finals with a very strong day of wrestling. He started the day off with a strong victory over a young man that proved to be a tough opponent on top, but Jasen secured a second period pin. In the semifinals, Jasen weathered a little bit of a storm early but was able to just wrestle very smart and was able to secure a 8-2 decision. In the championship match, he ran into the number one student in the state and fell against a young man that proved he is worthy of the ranking. Jasen had to wrestle back to hold onto his 2nd place finish. This can be a tough task coming off a loss and the opponent coming off a win. Jasen controlled him early and secured a first period pin, thus holding onto 2nd place!
Connor Friend followed, bringing home the 2nd championship of the day. He started off with a very nice win against a student who was physically quite strong. Connor ended up getting a 3rd period pin. In the semifinals, Connor was taken down earlier which was maybe a little bit of a wakeup call as he ended up controlling the rest of the match and secured a 20-4 technical fall win. In the championship, Connor had a young man who had some nice height and length, but Connor was patient and took control early on his feet. Connor was able to secure the championship with a 9-1 major decision.
Traysen Thomason was next up for the Whippets. Traysen started the day strong with a 18-3 technical fall win. In the semi-finals, Traysen had a very good match, and with a little bit of a scramble that didn’t quite go his way he ended up dropping the match 7-4. This put him into the wrestle backs where he would need to piece together two wins to advance. His first match was against a familiar opponent from the last couple of weeks, and Traysen continued a strong game plan pinning his opponent in 1:05. This put Traysen one win from a state berth against a tall young man from Lake Country Lutheran. Traysen did very well, wrestling a smart match, and was able to secure his state berth with a 19-9 major decision.
Richi Kalra was our 5th competitor on the day. In both of his matches, he wrestled very well. In the first match he came out and got the opening takedown and then was in on a second, but the opponent made a throw as a counter, pinning Richi. In the wrestle back match, Richi had a familiar foe from Delavan. Richi wrestled extremely well on his feet, holding good position. Unfortunately, Richi saw his season end with the loss. Both of the opponents Richi lost to qualified, with the student from the first match winning the tournament and the student from the second match taking 3rd, so Richi went down and competed well against the best!
The four boys will all be competing on Thursday night, February 27, at 6:00 pm at the Kohl Center in Madison.