Harker Heights, Killeen and Shoemaker combined to place 31 wrestlers in the top four –– including four champions –– Saturday during a grueling District 13-6A meet at Leander Vandegrift High School, securing their spots into next weekend’s regional meet.
At a tournament delayed four days because of the winter weather that swept through the area earlier this week, Killeen ISD’s wrestlers shook off their rust and showcased exhilarating effort and exhausted every ounce of energy against wrestlers from Leander Vandegrift, Cedar Park Vista Ridge, Copperas Cove, Hutto, Round Rock, Round Rock McNiel, Round Rock Westwood, Round Rock Cedar Ridge, Temple and Waco Midway.
The top-four finish assured a ticket into the Class 6A Region IV meet at Austin ISD’s Delco Center on Feb. 6-7, the next step to the state meet Feb. 13-14 at Berry Center in Cypress.
Highlighting the KISD haul were individual district titles from Harker Heights Lady Knights Emily Malbrough (105 pounds) and Saniah Ebron (235), and Shoemaker Grey Wolves Aljohn Morales (126) and Sheldon Gunnells (215).
“I think that everyone definitely stuck to the plan, which was be aggressive and be first. We executed that really well. They came in here with that drive to make it to the next level,” Shoemaker head coach Sekayi Herrera said. “We had a few upsets but, overall, their performance was really good. We worked really hard to get here, so I’m glad.”
More photos can be viewed on Flickr here.
The Lady Knights (179.5 points), who advanced 10 wrestlers overall, entered as the three-time defending district champions and finished second as a team behind Copperas Cove (206.5). Temple was third and Leander Vandegrift fourth. Killeen finished sixth and Shoemaker ninth.
“Our girls, they wrestled their butts off and I actually think we’ll do better at regionals,” Harker Heights head coach Kris Perkins said.
On the boys side, the Grey Wolves were sixth, Knights seventh and Roos 13th.
“Our boys have come a long way. We still have a lot of growing to do but we are definitely laying the groundwork,” Perkins added.
KISD’s regional qualifiers were:
Harker Heights
Boys
Jordan Pough (third, 106)
Leonidas Michelon (fourth, 132)
Anthony Pough (second, 138)
Geoffrey Anderson (second, 190)
Ivan Arzate (fourth, 285)
Girls
Marisol Falcon (third, 100)
Emily Malbrough (first, 105)
Aliyza Ramirez (third, 115)
Kalani Saria (second, 120)
Evelyn Counihan (second, 130)
Maribel Flores (second, 135)
Deliya Jennings (fourth, 145)
Ana Davis (second, 170)
Layla Williams (second, 190)
Saniah Ebron (first, 235)
Killeen
Boys
Anthony Beverly (fourth, 175)
Aaron Arias-Erazo (fourth, 215)
Girls
Olijana Gabble (fourth, 135)
Angrand Mackeila (third, 140)
Zoey Zapata (third, 155)
Gizell Rodriguez (fourth, 170)
Fredaya Clarke (third, 190)
Shoemaker
Boys
Aljohn Morales (first, 126)
Juannes Limos (138, fourth)
Andre Harris (fourth, 190)
Sheldon Gunnells (first, 215)
Logan O’Brien (second, 285)
Girls
Cameron Roberts (third, 110)
Megan Urdanivia (fourth, 115)
Melanie Uddanivia (fourth, 120)
Zana Connally (third, 235)
“They came out and tried their hardest. They dealt with adversity. We wrestled well and we have an opportunity now to go be great at regionals,” Killeen head coach Nathan Gaskamp said.