Ray Shoaf
This weekend kicks off the major start to Texas High School wrestling as it’s the first weekend for the big tournaments. Although a lot of teams have already started the week off with duals and will still be short with football still going on we will get to see where all the movers and shakers start out with the weight gains and losses from last season.
We will start out with
The Empire Invitational in El Paso area which has 9 El Paso Teams listed to compete boys and girls mainly all 5A teams with Americas, Bel Air, Burges, Coronado, Eastlake, El Dorado, Jefferson, Parkland, and Fabens listed on track.
The Arlington Invite in the DFW area with boys and girls will host 24 teams from the area a mixture of 5A and 6A with some prep in attendance. Allen will be the heavily favored team here but Prosper, Trinity Christian, and Midlothian will have some top ranked wrestlers.
The Knight Invitational in the Houston area will host 20 plus teams of boys and girls with a mixture of the 5A and 6A teams in attendance. None of the Houston area Prep schools are registered. The heavy favored teams here include Klein, Cypress Ranch, and LC Clear Falls.
The Moody Trojans Invite in the Corpus Christi area will feature mostly all 5A teams from the area and the valley down to the southern tip of Texas with boys and girls approximately 17 teams in total with the heavy hitters being mostly the Corpus Christi Schools and McAllen.
The Cinco Ranch Big 12 Invitational is a smaller tournament in the Houston area but will have a couple of Louisiana teams in the house, 3 to be exact with Brother Martin, North Desota, and Calvary Baptist all heavy teams. With the local teams of Katy, Clear Lake, Cypress Teams and Bryan being heavy contenders.
2021 Rumble in the Jungle is a small 6 team tournament in southwest DFW area with all 5A schools except Little Elm in their 2 season of wrestling is 6A. New comer this year is Aledo with according to track has 25 plus strong wrestlers for their first year, they are in district 4 with Azle who is also in attendance.
The Panther Invitational will be going down in DFW in the Dallas area with mostly 5A teams in attendance. It’s a 12 team tournament with boys and girls with the heavy hitters being Lucas Lovejoy and Carrollton Creekview. Frisco Emerson yet another Frisco ISD school makes its first year wrestling debut as well.
Timber Creek Fall Classic is another DFW area tournament this one being on the Ft Worth side. It’s a boys and girls 12 team tournament with a mix of 5A and 6A teams. This tournament has a lot of top contenders with Arlington Martin being the favorite, however Burleson Centennial, Keller Central, Northwest, Weatherford, Haltom City, Grapevine, and Timber Creek the host all having top ranked wrestlers. This tournament will be one to watch if all the ranked wrestlers show up or make weight.
Best of luck to everyone competing this weekend. Updated ranking coming soon.
