If this is the week of the state wrestling tournament, that means tradition is alive for the Randall boys wrestling team.
For the second straight year, Randall stood atop the rest of the state at the UIL Class 5A state meet in Cypress this weekend. Randall won a second straight team state title Saturday evening by a decisive margin, scoring 139.50 points, 56 points ahead of second place Cedar Park.
Two other Panhandle schools also ended up on the team medal stands with top three finishes. Tascosa was third in the boys standings with 77.50 points, and Dumas was second in the girls standings with 80 points, over 30 behind repeat champion Lubbock-Cooper.
Randall was actually more dominant this year than last in winning the school’s ninth state championship under coach David Quirino. Last year, Randall won by 16 points and had only one individual state champion, and this year, there were two gold medalists.
Also, Randall entered the state meet as the Region I-5A champ after finishing second at that meet last year.
“When we had a chance to look at what we were accomplishing when we were going there we realized that we were 9-1 in the last two rounds and we’d never done that before,” Quirino said. “We had all our kids win the medal matches and we’ve never had that done before. It was an extremely special performance that the kids gave.”
What was similar to last year was Randall’s Mikey Ruiz winning a gold medal, only this time at a bigger weight. Ruiz, a junior who won state last year in the 113-pound class, moved up to 126 this year and proved more than up to the task, as he beat Frisco Centennial’s Yusuf Uribe in the championship match via technical fall, 19-3 to finish the season 28-2.
Randall’s other individual winner was another junior, Mark Gallgeos at 175. Gallegos defeated Cooper’s Gabriel Ordonez 11-5 to win the gold medal.
“We’re extremely excited about the potential for next year because we’ve got a lot of guys coming back,” Quirino said. “When you look at our regional tournament you have the third place finisher at state in our region, iron sharpens iron and you know you’re taking quality kids to the meet. Highland Park qualified eight just like we did but they didn’t have a good tournament. When you face some adversity along the way you don’t want to break.”
No other school outside of Region I-5A had multiple state champions, so Randall appeared prepared for the moment from the get-go.
“You feel like you’ve got the kids to win in all the weight classes so you’re biased in that sense,” Quirino said. “They won the backside semifinals. You graduate kids and you get kids to move into those slots to fill those holes for you and hope they can get the job done. You can’t neglect those other guys.”
Tascosa is also no stranger to tradition, as evidenced by the third place finish. Coach Joe Stafford was named the Texas High School Wrestling coach of the year at the state meet.
Stafford had two senior wrestlers take home gold medals, as Tascosa joined Randall as the only boys’ schools to have multiple state champions. Thomas Pacheco (144) defeated Lubbock High’s Jaxon Russell 15-1 in a major decision to finish the season 44-1, and Jaxon Johnson (285) pinned Clint Horizon’s Joshua Rodriguez in 4:51 to end with a 41-2 record.
Hunter Bogner of Dumas (138) finished his career with a fourth straight state championship, beating Azle’s Chance Yancey 12-6. Bogner finished the year 41-1. Bogner was also named the state tournaments most outstanding wrestler.
Palo Duro junior Darien Lewis (190) was the only area wrestler to finish the season unbeaten. Lewis defeated Corpus Christi Carroll’s Roman Nino via technical fall 19-2 to take home gold with a season record of 39-0.
In an oddity, Dumas finished second in the girls team standings despite not having a girl finish in the top two spots in any weight class.
Area girls literally came up big, as the three winners from the Panhandle came from the three biggest weight classes. Borger senior Ariana Chavez scored her second straight undefeated state championship at 235, pinning Liberty Hill’s Alyciana Rogers in 2:28 to finish the year 47-0.
Palo Duro also had a state champ on the girls side, as sophomore Xazanya Gonzalez pinned Frisco’s Layla Asana in 4:54 to win the 165 class and finish with a 47-7 mark. Hereford senior Mareetza Maceda (185) pinned Frisco Memorial’s Camille Harris in 2:36 to win gold with a 22-3 record.
