Whether it was by a little, or by a lot, the Dumas Demons boys and girls wrestling teams were both standing atop the field at the end of the day Saturday when the totals were final. The Dumas girls won their third straight district team title with 248 points, over 100 ahead of second place Borger, while the boys won with 221.5 points, just one point ahead of second place Amarillo High.
All told, the Dumas wrestlers did both what was expected and pulled off a pleasant surprise in the team standings. At the end of the day, no one was prouder than Chris Holzworth, who coaches both the boys and girls teams.
“I think on the girls side it was realistic because we’re pretty senior-heavy and it’s just a good group which has done a lot of winning with its effort and attitude,” Holzworth said. “On the boys side we’ve been trying to put one foot in front of the other and figure it out one day at a time.”
Freshman Angel Estrada got the Demons off on the right foot by pinning Caprock’s Ryland Allen in the 106-pound class, and senior Ivan Magallanes (120) and sophomore Eli Loya (126) both followed with decisive victories. The win by Magallanes was especially big, since he beat Amarillo High’s Gavin Chambers 13-4 in the only head-to-head finals matchup between the top two boys teams.
Hunter Bogner (138) was the other individual winner for Dumas, improving to 33-1 by pinning Caprock’s Jaden Pina.
“It was a lot of teamwork and hard individual work and those are like peanut butter and jelly,” Holzworth said. “One sticks you together and the other makes sure you aren’t starving by the end.”
Two wrestlers have been eating well the entire season, and they made sure they enjoyed their full meals and dessert at district, staying undefeated on the season for the boys.
He’s not going to be happy with just being an unbeaten district champion.
“I was just so happy to see my hard work go on to the mat,” Lewis said. “The state championship’s going to be the big payoff. I think down the road for the years ahead. That’s what I’ve worked for right now. I’m super excited because my coaches and teammates have helped me so much.”
The other boys wrestler who stayed undefeated was Hereford’s Azariah Martinez, who won the 175 class. Martinez, a senior, pinned Caprock’s Bryson Butler in 1:55 to improve to 32-0.
“I’m just going out there doing what I worked for and making the most of it,” Martinez said. “The game plan is just to work your favorite attacks with your best moves and just stay aggressive. You just take what they give you and if you have an opportunity to take a cradle you get on it. It’s great to be able to say you’re undefeated, but anything can happen but you have to not get your pride too high and stay humble.”
Tascosa tied Dumas for most individual wins, as Aiden Rivera (113), Thomas Pacheco (144), Landin Lamberth (157) and Jaxon Johnson (285) all won titles.
Amarillo High and Caprock both had two individual winners. Drezdyn Ballard (165) and Brice Cothrin (215) both won for Amarillo High and Christian Casarez (132) and Max Trostle (150) took home titles for Caprock.
Borger won both the biggest and smallest weight classes.
Defending state champion Ariana Chavez improved to 39-0 at 235 by pinning Khylee Whalen of Dumas in 3:29 after falling behind 3-0. Lila Breedlove started the day by beating another Dumas wrestler, Yadelyun Gavirio, by a 20-2 technical fall decision at 100 pounds.
A scary moment
One name expected to make it to Saturday’s finals for the girls never made it, as Caprock senior Deja Wheat-Salazar, the No. 2 seed, was hospitalized Friday evening.
Salazar was wrestling Borger’s Nicole Soldevilla in the semifinals when she fell to the mat and was unconscious for 30 seconds. An ambulance was summoned to the gym and Wheat-Salazar was taken to a hospital and later released.
As a result, Salazar, who entered the meet with a 28-4 record, took an injury forfeit and saw her season and high school career end.
Randall boys win 3-5A team title
It was a new district, or at least new company, but the same old results for the Randall boys.
Appropriately hosting this year’s District 3-5A meet at the Leslie Broadhurst Gymnasium, Randall came out on top again in the boys team standings Thursday afternoon. Randall won the team points title with 260.5 points, finishing 40.5 points ahead of fellow Canyon ISD school Canyon High.
As a school which is the defending Class 5A state champion and has won eight state titles under coach David Quirino, winning a district title is hardly uncharted territory for Randall, which also won 3-5A last year.
The difference this year is the size and scope of the district, as the three CISD schools (Randall, Canyon and West Plains) are separated from the rest of the traditional Panhandle rivals and are teamed with six Lubbock schools along with Springtown, Henrietta, Vernon and first-year program Happy.
“I’m extremely pleased,” Quirino said. “We’re all sick. Everybody’s sick and had to gut and grind it out, so having eight kids in the finals is really special. To come out on top in this tough district is really a welcome back for us.”
Of the eight Randall boys who reached the finals, half of them brought home individual titles. Mikey Ruiz at 126 pounds led the title parade for Randall, as he was named the boys most outstanding wrestler of the meet.
Ruiz, a junior who won the state title at 113 pounds last year and moved up two weights this year, has showed that going bigger hasn’t hurt him. He won his three district matches by technical fall or pin, won at 126 by beating Lubbock-Cooper’s Jordan Builtron via technical fall in the final, leading 17-0 at the 3:12 mark to improve to 23-2 on the season.
“I think I accomplished what I wanted to and got the job done and did my part,” Ruiz said. “I was trying to get all pins but I got into situations where I just missed out on it. I just take it one day at a time and keep on getting better. I don’t look ahead and focus on just one tournament.”
Randall’s other boys’ winners were Abraham Campa Cortes (113), William Hendricks (138) and Daniel Acosta (150).
Canyon had two winners in Braden Swanson (190) and Brayden Drager (215). West Plains finished fifth with 142.5 points and had a winner with Shane Ledford at 132.
On the girls’ side, Canyon had the best team score, finishing second with 153.5 points, well behind winner Cooper.
CISD produced three individual winners for the girls. Randall had two, as Morgan Green (152) and Emma Heaton (185) both took home gold. West Plains had a winner as Kylie O’Dell won at 165. Randall was fourth in the team standings with 142 points, followed by West Plains in fifth with 114.