Defending state champion White River focused on development with no Mat Classic this year

The White River High School girls wrestling team has turned disappointment into development this spring, finding motivation in alternate goals and rekindling their love of the sport.

The Hornets, defending state champions, were set up for a title run this season. With most of his state participants returning and a few promising newcomers ready to pop, coach Jason Jackson’s group thought a repeat in 2021 was there in front of them.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that, of course.

The WIAA halted all state playoffs for this school year. That reduced this season’s wrestling season to five weeks of dual meets, moved from the traditional winter season to May and June.

“Our turnout went from 24 girls last season to 13,” Jackson said. “Some of them just didn’t want to wrestle for nothing.”

Many found different reasons to be on the mat this spring.

“Our team is not just a WIAA team,” senior Claire DiCugno said. “A significant portion of us also train for other reasons. I’m going to compete in college, and I just made the world team.”

The defending champion at 125 pounds in Washington will thus trade a return trip to the Tacoma Dome for one to Russia for the Junior World Championships in August. Her White River teammate, Shelby Moore, finished third in her weight class at the recent world team trials and is an alternate.

“With how we train, I don’t expect anything less,” said Moore, a sophomore who was third at 115 pounds at Mat Classic last March.

“If you watch her over the next six to eight years, she’s going to do something great in the sport,” Jackson said of Moore.

Moore and DiCugno have been a part of the wrestling world since they were little.

Moore’s brother, Nathan, currently wrestles at Northern Colorado after he won three state titles at White River. Shelby grew up watching him.

“I wanted to be like him,” Shelby Moore said.

These days, little sister has at least one bragging right on big brother, even though she will never be able to match his state title totals thanks to the pandemic.

“I always make fun of him,” Shelby said. “I’ve won three national championships. He hasn’t won one yet. But I do just want to get back to the opportunity to win state again. I’ll get two and make up for it.”

DiCugno’s ties are even closer to the Hornets.

Her dad, Chris, is an assistant coach at White River. Her sister, Anna, was third at 105 pounds at Mat Classic a year ago.

“My parents got me into all sports growing up,” DiCugno said. “I was never really athletic or good at them, but I loved them.”

Then she followed her dad to the gym where he was a volunteer wrestling coach.

“Wrestling is a sport for everyone and anyone,” DiCugno said. “It rewards your hard work and effort much more than other sports. And I’ve always been a really hard worker, even when I didn’t maybe even know what that meant.”

While still in elementary school, DiCugno got on the mat and went to work. Like in other sports, she said, she wasn’t very good at the start. But …

“I’ve been dreaming of making the World team since the sixth grade,” DiCugno said. “For a long time, it just seemed like something other people do. But it’s opened a whole new door of opportunity for me.”

Making the World team this spring means travel. It means DiCugno gets to train with the team at the Olympic training center. And it is the first step to a goal of making the U.S. Olympic team in three years.

“I’m just so happy to be given these opportunities,” DiCugno said. “There’s a UFC fighter named Rose Namajunas, and I’ve adopted something she said. My mantra is ‘Thankful, Grateful, Blessed. I am the best.’ She’s just my favorite.”

Despite a senior season that is quite different from what the first girl ever to wrestle at her middle school (North Tapps then Cascade Christian) envisioned, DiCugno has found value this spring.

“It is really weird,” DiCugno said. “But I am happy that we get anything at all.”

That attitude permeates the White River approach to the year. Jackson said they have tempered the training a bit, giving the girls a chance to reconnect with their love for the sport.

“The sport of wrestling is tough, and we train that way,” Jackson said. “This year, we play more games. We’re a little more lax in our style. We’re going to take this five-week season and put it in their brains. It’s only five months in between instead of nine. We might be able to retain some of that knowledge next year, and hit the ground running.”

After all, White River still will be the defending team champs when they begin the 2021-22 season in November.

“We won it last year with no seniors,” Jackson said. “And we had the same team returning. We should have won it again. I thought that we could pull off three.”

The Hornets had seven placers at Mat Classic in 2020. After a developmental year, Jackson believes it could be even better next season.

“Next year we have the potential for even more than that,” Jackson said. “We can turn ‘B’ players into ‘A’ players. They are building for another state championship next year.”