By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
Whitewater High School’s wrestling team won its regional championship, the first time it has accomplished the feat since 2015.
The Whippets ended the 12-year drought by wrestling in the WIAA Regional at Big Foot High School on Feb. 11.
The way the regional works is that the top-two place winners advance to an individual tournament that takes place on Feb. 18. Just because a wrestler makes the championship match, however, doesn’t guarantee a top-two finish.
If an athlete loses in that championship match and hasn’t faced the third-place wrestler yet, that third-place wrestler has a chance to go against the second-place wrestler in a right to claim second-place and a shot at the individual tournament on Saturday.
Whitewater’s dominance could be displayed just by looking at how many of its wrestlers made it to the semifinal round. The team had 14 participants in the regional and all 14 made it to the semifinals.
Ten went on to the championship match, and two finalists ended up falling in the championship match and then lost the second-place match to finish in third. The champions, however, were Jaden Salmieri (126-pound class), Hiqmet Dauti (138), Thomas McManaway (170), Jimmy DuVal (182) and Ernesto Magana (220).
“All five of these wrestlers had a great day,” Whippet head coach John Schimming said. “Salmieri had a huge pin in the third period. After trailing, his conditioning showed as he secured a nice pin to clinch the championship. Thomas McManaway had a very strong opponent in the finals. Much of the match was in the neutral position with neither man able to create an angle to get a takedown.”
“Thomas has been staying after practice for at least three weeks for extra conditioning,” Schimming added. “This proved to be well worth the extra time as Thomas was able to take him opponent to his back for five points and a four-point win.”
Schimming talked about the majority of his wrestlers and how both Dauti and DuVal wrestled great matches. DuVal got a pin in the first period, while Dauti won on an injury default after possessing a three-point lead in the third period. Magana also won his championship match, 5-4.
Three other members from the Whippets also qualified for the individual tournament in Tyler Gamble (106), Cody Gamble (120) and Aldo Soto (160).
“All three of these wrestlers had a tough opponent in the finals and dropped their matches,” Schimming said. “Cody Gamble had to come back and hold onto his second-place finish as he had not wrestled the third-place wrestler. Cody did a great job putting his opponent to his back as time expired in the first period to earn his sectional birth.
“This feat was definitely a team effort as it was not only the 14 competitors on Saturday that made winning the regional possible, but the entire team who come to practices to help everyone get better.”
The individual WIAA Sectional for the eight qualifying wrestlers is set to start at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 18 at Milwaukee Lutheran. With winning the regional championship, though, the Whitewater team also earned a chance to compete on Feb. 14 against Lomira at East Troy High School in a team sectional tournament.
The match against Lomira was a team semifinal match and was a part of a four-team tournament with the winner of this tournament going on to compete at state as a team.
“Whitewater ran into a very tough team in Lomira, who is very seasoned with many seniors with lots of experience,” Schimming said. “When the dust settled, the Whippets found themselves on the wrong end of a 59-12 loss. Lomira then went on to defeat Valders 51-12 to earn a trip to team state. Overall, the wrestlers competed as hard as they could, which is all the coaching staff ever asks of them.”
Soto, McManaway and DuVal each won their respective matches while Cody Gamble and Tommy Cushman lost close matches, 12-10 and 7-5, respectively. Schimming said he congratulated his team on its team sectional birth and that it will be something the team can build upon for the future.
