By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Whitewater High School wrestling team’s lone action last week came in the Rock Valley Conference dual meet tournament Jan. 12.
Whitewater finished 4-1 in improving to 8-1 overall in duals.
Whippets head coach John Schimming said his team knew it would be a challenge, because it faced the league’s top five teams in the same day.
“The wins were all very exciting,” Schimming said. “We started off with a criteria win over East Troy because the score was 39-39. (We) won on the fourth tiebreaker criteria – most first points scored in matches – where we scored first in seven of the 13 matches.”
Whitewater also defeated Edgerton, Jefferson and Turner, while its sole loss came against Evansville.
Schimming said a snowball effect occurred against the Blue Devils, who raced to a 24-3 advantage en route to a 48-28 victory.
David Cushman and Carter Friend went a perfect 5-0, while Amaru Casas and Will Leibbrand finished 4-1.
“In the East Troy dual, David needed to pin his opponent to push the tiebreaker, and he did an outstanding job,” Schimming said.
Casas suffered his only defeat against East Troy, however, he recorded the first takedown in the match, one of the seven to help the Whippets win the criteria.
“Will Leibbrand wrestled very well all day,” Schimming said. “Getting into a bad position led to his only loss. During the Edgerton dual, Will had an outstanding pin to help in the victory.”
Whitewater visited Brodhead-Juda on Tuesday and participates in an invitational starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Monroe High School. The team will be at home again for a dual against Clinton at 7 p.m. Jan. 24.
More Whitewater HS sports can be found in the Jan. 17 Register.