By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
In its conference tournament, the Whippets wrestling team finished second, its highest placing in the past decade, head coach John Schimming said.
“This was a great accomplishment for the team as there were many young men involved in this accomplishment,” Schimming said after the Feb. 4 tournament. “From the team’s regular starters throughout the season to young freshmen who stepped up to fill weight classes due to injuries it was truly a team effort.”
To earn a second-place finish in a conference meet, not just one or two athletes have to dominate, but many do in order to compete with other top schools. For Whitewater, six different wrestlers made their respective championship matches.
Two seniors, Thomas McManaway and Ernesto Magana; two juniors, Jimmy DuVal and Tyler Gamble; and two freshmen, Jaden Salmieri and Aldo Soto, were those that made it to their final matches.
Gamble ended up re-matching a wrestler he met just 10 days prior, and while he lost to him a second time, he decreased the deficit this time around.
“In the semifinals, Salmieri wrestled his best match of his young high school career, defeating the No. 2 seed by a 15 point margin,” Schimming said. “In the finals, he found himself against an opponent who was a senior who took third at state last season and won his fourth individual conference title in as many years as he defeated Salmieri.”
“Aldo Soto got the Whippets their first conference champion with a very exciting match at 160 lbs,” Schimming added. “Soto secured a takedown with 17 seconds left to go up 5-4 and was able to hold on for his first championship.”
McManaway was next up for the Whippets and he was a part of an exciting match, falling down 5-0, early. He then secured a takedown with 34 seconds left to take a 7-5 lead and win his first conference title.
DuVal was competing for his second conference title in his career at 182 pounds. The junior did just that, winning his match 6-3. After that, Schimming said things did get interesting, but DuVal did close out the match.
“Closing out the day for the whippets was Ernesto Magana who wrestled a great semifinal match, winning 3-2, and reaching his first conference championship match,” Schimming said. “In the finals he had a tough task at hand against an opponent who was in the state tournament last season at 220 pounds with only one loss on the year. Ernesto came up short but should be proud of his runner up finish.”
Schimming mentioned that as a whole, the coaching staff was proud of their team and will continue to look for improvement as the postseason begins. The regional tournament is set to start at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 11 at Big Foot High School.
