TexasWrestling
The 2020 edition of the Klein Collins Tiger Classic Invite went down on Friday and Saturday last week. 29 teams made the trip to face off in the Klein Collins Cafeteria. Austin Bowie was the lone out of town team to enter the competition. Lots of local talent was on display as the brackets were formed Friday evening.
In the team battle, College Park came away with the ½ point win. Despite having a large portion of their line up pinned by the Flu, College Park came to battle. The team race was tight for the top 3 spots, College Park, Klein and new comer Klein Cain kept flipping spots each round. In the end, College Park took home the Champion Trophy with 257.5 points. Klein Cain Was ½ a point behind with 257, and Klein High rounded out the top 3 with 256. Look for their district tournament to be one of the deepest in Region II, and maybe the State.
The rest of the top 10 settled out as follows:
- Katy Morton Ranch: 158
- Klein Collins : 147
- The Woodlands High: 143.5
- Cy-Woods: 136
- Austin Bowie: 127
- Bridgeland: 106
- Humble High: 99.5
106
The 106 Bracket saw 6A #3 Douglas Melrose of Morton Ranch and #11 AJ Marino of College Park on a collision course to the semis with #17 Marc Cortez on the bottom half of the bracket. The major action was in the Melrose Vs. Marino Semi match. Down 4-3 going into the freshman made it clear that he was not going to lay down for the senior Melrose. When the dust settled, Melrose needed everything he had to earn a 10-7 victory over Marino. Unfortunately, that would be Melrose’s last match of the day, giving Cortes of Klein Cain the win via injury forfeit.
113
The 113s had #16 Grant Faulkner of Austin Bowie and #5 Timothy McGuire of Klein on opposite sides of the bracket, but the real story here was new comer to the area, Klein Cain Junior Stephen Nguyen. Nguyen met up with Faulkner in the semis where Nguyen threw a quick head and arm that translated into a pin during the 1stperiod. This set up a finals match with #5 McGuire. This was a marathon of a match with both wrestlers exhausted at the end. Nguyen earned the 5-4 victory here, needing the tie breaker periods to get it done. With these 2 being district rivals, then adding #7 Jason Patillo of College Park into the mix, 113 may be a great bracket to watch at district in a few weeks.
120
This bracket featured #6 Micah White of Kingwood, #8 Ruben Moreno of Morton Ranch, and #19 Talim Hussain of Klein Cain. Moreno Earned the #1 seed, placing Hussain and White on the bottom side of the bracket. Hussain ran into in unranked Kaden Erman of the Woodlands High in the quarters and would not see the semis as Erman got the fall in the 2ndperiod. Erman then fell to White setting up #6 Vs. #8 in the final. This was a high scoring affair that was fairly even until the 3rdperiod when White out scored Moreno 7-3 in the 3rdperiod earning the 16 to 11 victory. White adds another tournament victory here on his way to State.
126
#3 Ruben Calderon of Cy-Falls and #10 Luke Hempfling of The Woodlands High were the only ranked wrestlers in the bracket this week, and both fought their way to the final. Calderon showed why he’s ranked #3 with a 10-3 Major Decision in the final match.
132
The 132 bracket had a pair of ranked wrestlers in #19 Joshua Moreno of Austin Bowie and #20 Mikell Goodwin of Morton Ranch. Goodwin would need all he had to earn a berth in the semis over Jonathan Lane of Klein with an 8-6 victory in the quarters. Goodwin then breezed through his semi match to earn a spot in the final where he was scheduled to meet up with Trent Evans of Cypress lakes. Evans received a victory via DQ over #19 Moreno in the semis, but was unable to wrestle the final match, giving Goodwin the victory via injury forfeit.
138
#4 at 145 Roberto Bautista worked his way down to 138 as he had done for the CFISD Tournament and was placed on the opposite side of the bracket as #17 at 138 Joseph Hendershot of College Park. A ranked final was not in the cards as Hendershot dropped his semi match 9-6 against 5A #10 Octavius Esquivez of Waller. Equivez was unable to continue on Saturday giving Bautista the victory and Tiger Classic Title via Injury Forfeit.
145
#5 Josh Thomas of College Park would meet up with #13 Jonathan Lizama of Morton Ranch in the Semis. Thomas got the fall over Lizama in the 2ndperiod, setting up a Final match with #12 Konnor Wright of Kingwood. Thomas needed all of 39 seconds to get the pin and the Tiger Classic title over Wright.
152
The 152 bracket placed #5 Brandon Thomas of College Park and #17 @ 160 Nicolas Bayliss of Klein on the same side of the bracket . Baylis Made an early exit via his freshman upstart teammate Andrew Clayton with a 4-0 decision for Clayton. Thomas then got the 16-3 major decision over Clayton and continued to run the table through the Final match taking the Tiger Classic Title with an 8-3 Decision over Jonathon Weathersby of Humble.
160
It was all #1 Jonathon Wertz of College Park here. Wertz either earned a Tech Fall or Pin over every opponent through the Final. There will be no argument over who is #1 this week!
170
#10 Marvin Brewster of Cy-Woods was the lone ranked wrestler here. Brewster made sure to solidify his ranking by earning falls in every match except the finals where he took an 8-0 Major from Alex Cannon of Klein Cain.
182
The 182 bracket was again the Sheeren Show as # 1 Ranked junior, Eli Sheeren of Klein High pinned his way to the finals and then pinned his way to victory over Marc Hawthorne of Cy-woods.
195
We were able to see a couple of ranked wrestlers battle it out on Saturday as #3 Deandre Rucker of Klein Collins, ran into #14 Ian Sears of College Park. Sears would get the worst of it on Saturday as Rucker took the pin in the 1stperiod giving him a well earned victory for the home team in his last Tiger Classic. Congrats Deandre!
220
We had #11 Xavier Diaz of Klein and #19 Guy Lefort of the Woodlands in the bracket as well as the #3 @ 285 Johrdan Howard of Klein Cain coming down in weight to try his hand at 220. Howard met up with Lefort in the semis and was able to eke out the 3-0 win, setting up a Final with #11 Diaz. After a scoreless 1stperiod, Diaz would take control here with a 6-2 victory.
285
#6 Brandon McElroy of Conroe Oak Ridge and #11 Sylvester Villareal of Cy-Ridge were the only 2 ranked wrestlers featured in this bracket. Unfortunately The bracket saw these 2 wrestlers meeting up in the Semis. After a great battle, McElroy emerged with the victory 5-2 over Villarreal. This set up a final with a one loss, and unranked wrestler, Travis Bell of Klein Cain. Bell Held a 1-0 lead going into the 3rdperiod, that saw the score elevate to a 3-3 tie before McElroy took the win by fall.
Hats off to Coach Rucker and the Klein Collins staff for an exceptional Tournament, as well as Bracket wizard Tim Ray at the head table being the man behind the curtain for another tournament. Good Luck to Collins as we near the championship portion of the season!!
