Cody Thorn
The Arlington James Martin boys wrestling team hoisted the state championship trophy for the first time since 2004 — but it wasn’t without a good mix of drama.
The Warriors held off Allen to claim the 6A state title at the Berry Center in Cypress, fishing with 190 1/2 points — just ahead of Allen’s 185.
Allen had won the past 14 state championships and the last five years the Warriors were second place.
After a win by Ibraheem Ahmed in the 175-pound title, Coach Patrick Dunn thought the Warriors had 191 1/2 points — a little breathing room.
But, he was told by head official Caleb Malcolm that a point was taken away due to a celebration of a championship by a Martin wrestler earlier in the tournament.
The 5 1/2 point lead provided some peril, to say the least.
Allen had Aidan Cooley in the 190-pound final against Klein’s Isaac Sheeren.
With the scoring criteria of 4 points for a win in the finals, and 2 points for advancing in the bracket the Eagles could win the title with a simple decision win by Cooley.
A win by fall, tech fall, or major decision would’ve padded the margin.
Needless to say, the Houston-area school had a lot more fans cheering for Sheeren in the finals.
Sheeren lost to Cooley, 5-0, on Dec. 12 and then again the week prior in the regional meet, 4-2.
A defending state champion, Sheeren got the win 3-1 and sealed his back-to-back title and in a way, sealed the Martin win.
“I like we controlled our own destiny,” Dunn said. “I believed in our kids and I knew they were going to do it. The nerves were up and down. It was a tight race. Allen wrestled well like they always do. I told our kids, you don’t control the score and you don’t control the clock, just wrestle. Just enjoy yourself, wrestle and whatever happens, happens.”
After five straight runners-up finishes to Allen, Martin finally reached the top of the UIL podium 20 years after the first title.
Martin had three other individual championships to go with Ahmed’s crown.
Isaak Arevalo repeated as a state champion for the third time by winning the 120-pound title. The junior entered ranked No. 1 in the state and rolled to the title with three pins and a 16-3 major decision in the finals against Jonah Arellano of Austin Lake Travis.
Arevalo was 32-2 on the year and will carry a 30-match win streak into next year.
Nicholas Zamora had an improbable championship at 144 pounds.
He beat Kyle Lew of Houston Westside, a defending state champion in the semifinals, 12-10.
The fourth-ranked junior then won by the same score in the…
