Panhandle nationals youth tournament

Over 600 wrestlers made the post-Thanksgiving trek to Amarillo, Texas for Panhandle Nationals, the first in the circuit of five Texas national tournaments for the 2022-2023 season. Panhandle Nationals is a two-day youth tournament hosted by the West Region and is known for it’s coveted championship belt prize.

Panhandle Nationals, a high-level tournament that attracts talented wrestlers from several surrounding states, is held the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. Some wrestlers choose to bump their weight class for this tournament in order to freely consume Thanksgiving feasts while others choose to forgo or delay the turkey and dressing to maintain control over the scale.

Whatever their choice, the holiday doesn’t seem to deter folks from participating in this annual tradition. This year Panhandle Nationals drew teams from Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and all over Texas. In all, 121 of the prestigious first-place belts were awarded to boys and girls who won their respective open divisions. 

All over the country women’s wrestling has seen enormous growth! Women’s wrestling has been touted as the largest growing sport in the country and that was evident last weekend in Amarillo as there were 119 girls entered in the girls-only divisions with 46 girls taking home champion belts.

As we continue to foster the growth of youth wrestling in Texas it is very important to create novice competition opportunities. This year, for the first time, Panhandle offered a novice division for wrestlers who have less than 2 years of experience and the turnout was excellent with 166 novice entries.

The top three teams, out of 68 total teams representing five states, received team plaques. In first place, scoring 322.5 points, was Next Level Wrestling Academy out of El Paso, Texas. Second place, scoring 284 points was Wesley Wrestling Club out of Amarillo, Texas. Third place, with 274.5 points was ReZults Wrestling out of Lubbock, Texas. Congratulations to these teams and their coaches!

Up next in the iron-man circuit, Edge of Texas Nationals in El Paso, hosted by the Far-west Region, December 10. See you there!