College Park Boys Crush the Competition at the Cavalier Clash

The Conroe Woodlands College Park Boys, fresh off a winning dual match against Arlington Martin to start the season, as well as a 2^nd place finish at the Arlington Martin tournament, hosted their big tournament of the season with ten other schools. There were 6A, 5A, and Prep schools participating. 27 ranked wrestlers, including 19 Top Ten wrestlers and six #1 ranked wrestlers were set to build on their extensive records. 

The College Park Boys ran away with this one. The host school won eight championships, two second place medals, and two fourth place finishes. The second-place team, Cibolo Steele had one title, one second, and two thirds. Katy finished third, 1.5 points behind Cibolo Steele. They had one champion, two silver medalists, and two bronze medalists. All Saints Episcopal Prep wrestlers won two championships.

Here is how each match went:

Starting at 106 lbs., College Park’s #3 freshman standout, Nick Payne, was matched up with 5A #7 Esteban Vela of Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial. In their pool match on Friday, Payne scored a Tech Fall at 5:49 with a 23-8 score. This match would prove to be much closer. 

The only action in the first period came when Payne twice had Vela’s leg up off the ground in a standing position, but could not get the takedown as Vela skillfully prevented it from happening.  

Vela chose bottom in the 2^nd period and escaped immediately. Vela was warned with a stall halfway through the period, and the pair ended the period on their feet.  

Payne started on bottom for the last two minutes of the match, trailing 1-0. Vela was comfortable riding Payne with a leg hook. Unfortunately, the ref thought he was too comfortable, and called another stall warning, giving Payne a penalty point, and tying the score, 1-1. Payne was able to stand, turn in, and hook Vela’s ankle, but Vela kept control with a grasp on Payne’s leg, until the ref blew the whistle for a potentially dangerous hold. Vela was unable to break Payne off of his base, so Payne kept moving, and sensing Vela’s balance on top to be a little off, he rolled and turned, catching Vela on his hip and earning a reversal, and riding the last 0:27 out for the title with a 3-2 decision.

The 113 lb. finals featured two 9^th graders, Victor Matos of College Park and Shawn Coffel of Cibolo Steele. Coffel defeated Prep #2 Huxley Johnson in the semis to reach this match. This finals match went to overtime with three scoreless periods. Both boys received a stall warning while on top. 

In the first overtime period, both boys were on their feet, but neither really had an advantage for a takedown. With no points through the overtime periods, it went to an ultimate tie breaker, with Matos on top. He had a leg-ride, but his hip went to the mat. He kept a right arm held under Coffel’s arm, but Coffel was able to get one arm out and around Matos’ waist. 

As the whistle blew, the ref awarded Coffel the reversal and the UTB win, but in all honesty, the ride-out victory  could have just as soon gone to Matos. The two boys were very evenly matched, and being freshmen, I’m sure they will run into each other in the future.

Freshman D’Angelo Zuniga of El Paso Pebble Hills, brought his 19-1 record into the finals against Katy’s sophomore, Santiago Garcia Contreras (12-0). Garcia handed Zuniga his only loss of the year in Friday’s pool, with a 7-5 decision, and held a 14-0 record coming into the bout.