WHITEHALL — It's almost an annual tradition for Whitehall to methodically build to an end-of-season peak, and the Vikings looked Wednesday night like a team ready to fulfill that mission again.
Whitehall swept its home quad meet against Shelby and North Muskegon, dispatching the Tigers 64-12 and routing the Norsemen 72-6. Already fresh off a huge performance at the Rockford Duals a few days prior, where they won a team title, the Vikings are hoping they're on their way to another trip to Kalamazoo and the state finals.
"I feel like we do that most years," senior Kolten Weiler said. "We just start getting the snowball rolling and it starts getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Then we start peaking at the right time."
"It's good to prepare for the postseason by getting bonus points," Whitehall coach Justin Zeerip said. "It's always good to work on this stuff in matches, so when it comes to crunch time, we're able to go get majors and (technical falls)."
The Vikings certainly did that Wednesday, earning bonus points in all but three of the bouts against Shelby - the Tigers' two wins, and a decision win by Easton Wisniewski that opened the match. Besides that, there were nine pins, two technical falls and a major decision.
One of those pins earned Weiler admission into the prestigious 100-win club for his career. For the senior to be able to accomplish the feat at home was doubly sweet.
"He's done an amazing job," Zeerip said of Weiler. "He's been all-state already, and he has 100 wins, which is an incredible feat. The thing I admire most about Kolten is, he works really hard. He's a 'yes, sir' type of kid and he has really high character. He's dedicated to the sport, and it's always good to see guys like that get their hands raised."
Weiler was one of several Vikings to score 2-0 records on the night, taking a forfeit win against North Muskegon. Billy Darke and Blake Wallace each scored two pins, and Liam Leeke had a pin and a technical fall. Dom Zygmuntowski scored a pin and a major decision, Tanner Woodworth had a pin and a decision, Isaac O'Boyle had a pin and a forfeit, Cody Manzo scored a technical fall and a decision, and Max Krukowski picked up a technical fall and a forfeit.
"I thought they wrestled really hard," Zeerip said. "I was proud of them for being offensive and getting to their leg attacks and continuing to do the things we work on in practice."
A hallmark of the Vikings' success under Zeerip has been their tenacity, and in particular the ability of less heralded wrestlers to come up big with wins when called upon. He felt Whitehall exhibited those qualities at the Rockford meet, which will be necessary to make another run at state. At the same time, he hopes not to put too much pressure on the team.
"We wrestled really well there (against) five formidable opponents," Zeerip said. "Greenville and Bedford were obviously really tough. I'm just really proud of our kids and their resilience. We might have had a kid drop a match, and it was nice to see other kids pick up that slack.
"This postseason, we're trying to not put any expectation on ourselves - just go out and compete to the best of our ability, and the rest will take care of itself."
