District 8-6A Victory: College Park Girls Wrestle Their Way to the Top

Trying to keep up with their cohorts, the college Park Boys, is no easy task, but last Thursday, the College Park Girls won the District 8-6A championship.  With ten wrestlers advancing to Region 2, including two champions and three runners-up joining the twelve Boys’ qualifiers, the Cavaliers will have a full busload making the 235-mile trip to Allen.  The Woodlands and Grand Oaks each had three champions; Conroe and Oak Ridge had two apiece.

Team Standings:

• 1^st College Park 167
• 2^nd Oak Ridge 140
• 2^nd Conroe 140
• 4^th Woodlands 127
• 5^th Grand Oaks 106
• 6^th Caney Creek 83
• 7^th Willis 69

While there were only 12 ranked wrestlers in the tournament, 7 of them were top ten and 2 of them have been ranked #1 for the entire season.

100 lbs:  Top seed and #5 Heaven Herrera, and second seed and #8 seed, Maddison Parker of Oak Ridge tangled in the finals for the second week in a row. Herrera, pinned Parker in the finals of the Tiger Classic.  In the back District finals, Herrera built a 7-1 lead in the first period with two takedowns and a 3-point nearfall to only one escape by Parker. Parker could not get any points while on top in the second, while Herrera was able to escape at the end of the 2 minutes. In the third, Herrera added three more points via a clasp penalty and a reversal, and was about to get additional back points when Parker kicked over and scored a reversal of her own right before the final whistle. Herrera wins by MD 11-3.

• 1^st Heaven Herrera 35-4 Grand Oaks
• 2^nd Maddison Parker 23-8 Oak Ridge
• 3^rd Valentina Vitaliana 31-14 Woodlands
• 4^th Kendal Overstreet 9-6 Conroe

107 lbs:  With no ranked wrestlers in this weight, it was up to the wrestlers to hold their seed to make it to the finals. The number one seed was upset by Dannielle Sizelove of the Woodlands upset the top seed Kylie Smith, 13-9, in the semis to meet second seed Kamryn Quinn of Grand Oaks in the finals. Sizelove started off well, taking a 3-2 lead into the second period. Unfortunately, the girls had to stand idly by for more than four minutes as the Grand Oaks coach questioned why back points were not given out of bounds. That was way too much time for any discussion.

Quinn started on bottom and escaped, but Sizelove took her back down and had a 5-3 lead when Quinn turned on the jets, and finished the period with a six-point flurry, going up 9-5 headed to the third.  The wrestlers started in neutral and Sizelove would score the first points, getting a double leg takedown, but that would be it for the ret of the match as Quinn scored a reversal and nearfall to end the match with a 14-7 decision.

• 1^st Kamryn Quinn 26-10 Grand Oaks
• 2^nd Dannielle Sizelove  17-17 Woodlands
• 3^rd Kylie Smith 20-6 College Park
• 4^th Yvette Villanueva 14-14 Conroe

114 lbs:  Probably the marquee match of the day, saw #1 Riley Rayome of the Woodlands take on #3 Vanessa De La Cruz of College Park.  In their previous matchup, just five days prior, Rayome won by an 8-0 major in the finals of the Tiger Classic.  There were no points scored in the first period, De La Cruz chose bottom and did her best to get out, but Rayome followed and rode hard the entire period until she was able to get her to her back right as the period ended for 2 nearfall points. Rayome starts on bottom in the third, De La Cruz releases her in the hope of getting a takedown, but Rayome ties up her arms, keeping her from being able to shoot. De La Cruz gets free and makes a shot that Rayome easily defends, and turns into a takedown. Time expires, Rayome wins a 5-0 decision. Two finals in six days; #3 De La Cruz has failed to score a point against #1 Rayome.

• 1^st Riley Rayome 46-0 Woodlands
• 2^nd Vanessa De La Cruz 40-6 College Park
• 3^rd Miaham Jimenez 27-13 Caney Creek
• 4^th Emma Pittman 22-14 Oak Ridge

120 lbs:  #3 and top seeded, Violet De La Cruz of college Park took on second seed Mayra Ortiz of Caney Creek in the finals. De La Cruz started with a takedown after thirty seconds and added a three-point nearfall at the end of the period to lead 5-0. Ortiz escaped early and was taken down soon thereafter. De La Cruz applied the finishing touches with a pin at 3:07.

• 1^st Violet De La Cruz 28-3 College Park
• 2^nd Mayra Ortiz 29-14 Conroe
• 3^rd Kylee Best 22-15 Willis
• 4^th Avery Zavala 6-6 Oak Ridge

126 lbs:  Samara Burroughs, the unranked, top seed from Conroe, upheld her seed and pinned everyone she wrestled in the second period for the championship, the first of her career. Not only did she win by pins, but she was also unscored upon. Congratulations!

• 1^st Samara Burroughs 25-7 Conroe
• 2^nd Avery Johnson 11-12 Willis
• 3^rd Isabel Trujillo 14-8 Caney Creek
• 4^th Briseis Armendariz 6-16 College Park

132 lbs:  This weight class would come down to a final that consisted of the top seed, #20 Aubrie Cheatham of Grand Oaks and the third seed, # 18 at 145, Marina Wilson of Willis. Wilson has actually been wrestling at 132 since after the CFISD tournament.  Wilson upset the number two seed Kathryn Kaminski of Caney Creek with a 13-7 decision in the Semis.  Unfortunately for Wilson, Cheatham was just too much for her in this Finals. Cheatham earned four takedowns, two nearfalls, and two escapes to win the match with 15-3 a major decision.

• 1^st Aubrie Cheatham 31-9 Grand Oaks
• 2^nd Marina Wilson 25-10 Willis
• 3^rd Kathryn Kaminski 30-11 Caney Creek
• 4^th Halo Acevedo 19-26 College Park

138 lbs:  In a weight class with only four wrestlers, and two of them were ranked; if you predicted that the two ranked would meet in the finals, you would be right and you would be wrong. #1 Anna Vogt, the returning state champion should have wrestled with #18 Emma LaCount of Caney Creek, but that match did not occur because LaCount took a Medical Forfeit. Disappointing to say the least.

• 1^st Anna Vogt 33-0 College Park
• 2^nd Emma LaCount 23-7 Caney Creek
• 3^rd Ana Ramirez 10-14 Willis
• 4^th Leyla Hernandez 6-7 Conroe