By Adam Knoll
Sports correspondent
The Whitewater High School wrestling squad continued a string of fine performances by placing third in the Monroe Invitational Saturday. Finishing at 140 points, the Whippets finished only behind Prairie du Chien and Darlington while Monroe, the host of the event, finished 5th.
Overall, according to coach John Schimming, they were pleased with how the team did, saying they’ve “been struggling with experience but the student-athletes did a nice job showing improvement in areas that we’ve been working on.”
Schimming said during the first round the team ended five periods where they scored with 10 seconds or less to go, nice to see “because a few weeks ago the team was giving up points at the end of periods.”
Whitewater had four second place finishers in their weight class and one who took third. James Ehlen led the team with 18.5 points. Ehlen (160) piled up two strong matches before falling to Lucas Kastner of Cuba City in the final.
According to Schimming, though the runners up were disappointed with their second place finishes “I believe these were good losses because an area was exposed that each of these young men need to work on in preparation for the tournament series.”
Max Reid (138) also had a good day, taking second place while also winning his first two matches 17-11. Reid would eventually fall to Josh Donar, again of Cuba City, in the finals.
Irving Sedano finished second as well with Taylor Elliot of Prairie du Chien winning the medal over Sedano in the final match.
John Saylor put together perhaps his strongest effort of the year, placing second at 152, falling in his final to Dakota Meier of Darlington.
Tommy DuVal at 195 took third, beating Tye Schafer of Prairie du Chien to secure a medal.
Top scorers were of course Ehlen, at 18.5 team points, followed by Johns Saylor, Irving Sedano and Max Reid at 16. Samson Shekey and Duval put up 14 points, respectively.
The team is winding down its season and are set to host Watertown Luther Prep tonight with JV starting at 6 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m.
On Tuesday, Feb. 4 – also Parents Night – the Whippets will host Janesville Craig to close out its regular season again with JV at 6 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m.
Next Saturday, Feb. 8 Whitewater will travel to Clinton for the Rock Valley Conference Tournament. The following week, on Feb. 15, Whitewater will host the first round of the WIAA tournament series beginning at 10 a.m. at WHS.
