In attendance were 28 boys’ and girls’ varsity teams, which included 505 wrestlers. In another gym, 242 junior varsity boys from 24 teams were also going at it all day.
There were 23 TexasWrestling.com ranked Boys and 25 ranked Girls. Included in those numbers were five Boys with rankings in the top 5 and two wrestlers ranked at #1. On the Girls’ side, ten ranked in the top 5, with two #1 ranked wrestlers participating. All rankings listed are based upon those rankings that came out at during the middle of the first week of January. This recap will cover only the Boys tournament.
On to the details of the Boys’ finals:
Lymon Jackson (27-2), from Conroe, who holds the #19 state ranking, also had the first seed. Jackson scored an upset victory over #7 ranked Brandon Carrillo (26-7) from Klein in the semifinals 10-3 for the right to face Lucas Early (33-4) from Kingwood.
Jackson started out strong with a takedown against Early in the first 20 seconds. Using a leg ride, he eventually scored two, 2-point nearfalls. Leading 6-0, he chose down in the second period. Within thirty seconds, Jackson escaped. Several shots were attempted by both wrestlers, but only Jackson was successful in the last fifteen seconds of the period. But he was not finished scoring in this period, he was able to score two 3 point nearfalls to end the match at a 15-0 tech fall at the close of the period to cap off a two fall, one tech fall, and one decision championship. Carrillo took third place with a win over Tyler Brayton of Oklahoma Southmoore.
#7 ranked Evan Harrington of Kingwood (34-2) also marched through the 113 bracket with one fall and two TFs to meet the #11 Mahir Ali of Cypress Creek in the finals. Harrington’s takedown in the first minute and was the only points scored by either wrestler in the first period. He then rode Ali out the rest of the period. Harrington started the second period on top and earned a 2 point nearfall in the first fifteen seconds. Ali escaped, but Harrington took him down quickly. Ali escaped again to end the period, down 6-2. In the third period Harrington, working from the bottom, scored a reversal and scored another2 point nearfall. Ali ended the match with a reversal, but could do no more, finishing the scoring at 10-4 in Harrington’s favor.
The 120 lb weight class looked to be a wide-open class in this tournament due to the absence of any ranked wrestlers. Spencer Ayon of Klein Oak, who was seeded 9th, made it to the finals by pinning the #1 seed, Tristan Rodriguez of Kingwood in the quarterfinals, and the #4 seed, Christian Magana of Cy Springs, 14-2, in the semis. This set up a final match with the third seed, Barbaro Veliz of Conroe.