Ray Shoaf
Its that time again. The UIL Texas state Tournament is upon us and the field is set. This year it will be back to normal with 16 wrestlers per weight and normal brackets where if you lose at any time one can wrestle back to 3rd place where as last year to place 3rd you had to reach the semifinals. As always, the brackets are filled per the matrix that changes each year so its always possible to have a semifinal match be a true championship match.
The #1 team to beat as always will be Allen High School who this year is taking 13 wrestlers. Arlington Martin the region 1 champs who has be under the radar this year is taking 11 wrestlers including 2 alternates. While College Park the 2nd place team is only taking 5 wrestlers. Klein who in my opinion shined at the regional tournament is taking 8 while Northwest and Katy are bringing 7 each.
Below we go through each weight.
106lbs
The top 4 ranked wrestlers are #1 Damian Aguilera of Pharr San Juan Alamo, #2 Thiago Almeida of Los Fresnos, #3 Ivan Lopez of South Grand Prairie, and Isaak Arevalo of Arlington Martin. Aguilera in his senior year has one loss on the year and that is to #5 @ 113 Brett Burgess of Lake Travis from earlier in the season. While Almeida only has 2 losses and both are to Aguilera. Both wrestlers are region 4 wrestlers from way down south. Lopez shows 2 loses but only 1 shows on track to #2 @ 113lbs 5A Hunter Bogner of Dumas. Arevalo has only 1 Texas loss and its to Lopez in the Region 1 finals. Aguilera is the only returning state placer from last year, 6th. Arevelo could meet Aguilera in the quarter finals if Aguilera gets past Aodham Jimenez 1st round and Lopez could meet Almeida in the quarters as well meaning that only 2 of the top 4 will make the semifinals. My dark horses are #6 Vinny Tindal of Allen and #10 Kody Tanimoto of Keller Central.
