The wrestling teams kicked off the postseason with success at their district tournaments, with both teams advancing to regionals at home last Saturday. This came after a strong showing with 15 wrestlers, eight girls and seven boys, placing from first to fourth place in their respective weight classes.

GIRLS

All eight girls who competed all placed high enough to be eligible for regionals, while finishing second as a team in district. There were three first place winners: Jezebel Pardo (138), Brittany Marshall (185) and Jordan Lee (215); four second place winners: Elizabeth Pagano (95), Clarissa Fuentes (110), Dariyn Day (128) and Silvia Mualcin (148); and one third place: Jackelyn Roman (128).

Senior Clarissa Fuentes said hosting the district meet gave the teams a boost.

“I thought it gave us more motivation to win,” Fuentes said.

Defending state champion Brittany Marshall won her fourth district title and was awarded with two other wrestlers the “Outstanding Girl Wrestler” award.

“When you know it’s your last year, you’re not all completely there,” Marshall said. “If you win at districts, it controls your seeding at regionals, which controls the seeding at state.”

Both Coppell and Trinity were named as some of the toughest teams the girls will face at regionals. In fact, it was mostly Coppell wrestlers who beat them to take the district title.

Coach Joe Daniel said that he wasn’t too happy about it.

“We wrestled real tight,” Daniel said. “Coppell did a really good job of taking of our mistakes. It is what what is is and hope we wrestle better this weekend.”

BOYS

The boys had three first place finishers en route to a fifth-place finish in the team standings: Xavier Franklin (126), George Haskins (145) and Quinn Bauer (220); two third place finishers: Jordan Haskins (106) and Chris Hamill (160); and two fourth place finishers: Anthoney Kingsbury (152) and Cullen Walsh (182).

Senior Cullen Walsh said having districts at home was a great home experience.

“It’s great wrestling on your home mat especially when up until last Saturday, I never lost at home before,” Walsh said. “Whenever you have to travel, it’s always a hassle.”

A tough competitor the team will be facing will be the Allen Eagles who are hosting the regional tournament.

Junior Chris Hamill, seniors George Haskins and Walsh and even coach Noel Peterson named their Allen opponent as their toughest competition at regionals.

Franklin was awarded the “Outstanding Wrestler,” beating out wrestlers from the district champion Flower Mound team. Ironically, it was a Flower Mound wrestler whom Franklin defeated to win first place in the 126-pound weight class.

Peterson said he thought that the team didn’t do as well as they could have.

“I was disappointed in our overall performance.” Peterson said. “That being said, we had three district champions which is the most we’ve had since I’ve been here, and we qualified seven which is more than the previous two years.”