Brian S. Doyle
On January 5-6, seventy-seven high schools from Texas brought their girls’ wrestling teams to the Berry Center in Cypress, Texas, for the largest wrestling tournament in the state. Seven top ten teams with 6A schools Arlington Martin, El Paso Eastwood, Klein Cain, Klein Oak, Prosper Rock Hill, Klein Collins and 5A Northwest. Five hundred and forty-five girls competed against many ranked wrestlers that they had never faced before, for the coveted CFISD championship medal. With so many ranked wrestlers, there was a great opportunity for many to move up the rankings with a few good performances.
Let’s get right into the action.
100 lbs: Of the forty six girls in this bracket, eighteen of them were ranked, the highest being, Lilliana Zapata of Flower Mound, the #2-6A ranked wrestler. Zapata did not disappoint, as she made her way to the finals with a 9-1 MD win in the 3rd preliminary round over #8-5A Kaelani Palmer of Richmond Foster, and a 12-6 decision in the quarterfinals over #5-5A Heidi Caprio of Northwest, and a third period fall over Hailey Bello of Langham Creek. Despite the fall, Bello gave Caprio her biggest test. Bello had tied the match at 3-all with one minute left, when Zapata reversed and stuck her with the fall with 26 seconds on the clock.
Abigail Mendoza, #10-5A, made it the finals with semifinal pin (3:08) of Jersey Village’s #3-6A Christine Tran for the right to meet Zapata in the Finals.
After a minute of dancing and feeling each other out, Zapata got the first TD with a single, and rode Mendoza out the rest of the period. In the 2nd, Zapata chose neutral and score her second takedown, this time shooting a double. With another restart, and fifteen seconds on the clock, Mendoza started to stand and Zapata executed a great cradle and put Mendoza on her back, getting a 3-point nearfall as the period ended. The wrestlers started in neutral again, and just as it looked like Mendoza was going to get a takedown, Zapata muscled her over and covered for another NF-3. She couldn’t get the pin, so got back on top, was able to get Mendoza’s right arm up, and ran it till she turned. This 3 point nearfall was all she needed for the tech fall.
In the third place match, Bello met fellow District 10 rival, Tran. This season, they have each beaten each other once. Last season, it was 2-#19-6A Yazmin Cruz, #12-6A Heaven Herrera, #4-6A Mia Brown, and #3-6A Tran….
