After first title, Cougars size up state
Led by girls at regionals, Cinco Ranch hoping to bring home big prizes from Berry Center
Cinco Ranch was third in District 11-6A, but the team’s stars rose up at the Region III-6A tournament, leading the Cougars girls to their first regional wrestling title.
They scored 109 points to squeak past Langham Creek, which was second with 108.
Morton Ranch and Seven Lakes, which went 1-2 in district, also finished in the topfive Saturday at the Merrell Center.
“We wrestled really well, and we needed every single point we got,” coach Bill Dushane said. “We knew we had a good chance at, at least three champions, we got that, and my 148 (Queena Chen) came through with some pins to take third. A real surprise was my 102-pounder (Ellie Monk) taking sixth.
“So it was a pretty exciting Saturday.”
The regional title was the first for Cinco Ranch’s wrestling program, boys or girls.
The Cougars won a state championship in 2007, but they lost the re- gional title by three points that year. “It’s big,” Dushane said. “We could do it, so you always want to do it, if you can, and it sets up (this) week. We’ve been gearing all year long for the state meet, knowing with the stars we have, we cancompete for a state title.”
Charlotte Fowler (110 pounds), Kayla De Leon (138) and Taylor Rosario (185) won individual championships, which they hadtodo.
Then Cinco received key contributions from Chen, who beat Morton Ranch’s Sophia Levin, who’d pinned her previously this season.
Rosario’s pin of Clear Springs’ Eboni Johnson in the 185 final clinched the team crown.
Fowler improved to 45-0 and secured her third straight regional championship with another solid tournament.
“She’s been wrestling at a high level all year long, so I was really pleased with her,” Dushane said. “She had a very tough match in the finals, and it wasn’t one of her better matches this year, but she still pulled it out. Now she’s a three-time regional champion, and she only wrestled for three years.”
De Leon, only a sophomore, improved to 45-0 at 138.
“She’s so physical,” Dushane said. “She’s only wrestled for two years now and she’s a two-time regional champ. Shemade it all the way to the state finals as a freshman, but she’s a much more complete wrestler than she was last year, so we’re re-
ally looking forward to seeing what she cando this weekend.”
Dushane expects Rosario, who’s 36-1, to take care of business this week, like she has all season.
“She d idn ’t wrestle last year at all, so she’s coming back,” Dushane said. “But she has been solid all year long. Her only loss was when she was up at 215. She’s not lost at all at 185. She’s fun to watch wrestle.
“She has great technique, and she’s been so dominant this year.”
Cinco Ranch qualified three boys for the state tournament.
Seniors Cody Koger and John Bentley won regional titles at 160 and 285 pounds, respectively, and Harrison Bird placed third at 145.
Koger didn’t give up a point Saturday, improving to 44-7 with his 190th career win.
Now he’s looking to put it all together at state, where’s he’s come up heartbreakingly short the last two years.
“He now has the record for most victories of any wrestler we’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot because I’ve had several twotime state champions and multiple state placers, and Cody’s got more victories than all those guys,” Dushane said.
“He just needs to put it all together at the end of the year, and he’s doing that.”
The Cougars are staying home for the state championships, which are set for Friday and Saturday at the Berry Center.
It’s the first time Dushane’s staying homesince 1998.
Thatwas the last yearSt. Thomas, with Dushane as coach, and Kinkaid hosted one state tournament for public and private schools before wrestling joined the University Interscholastic League.
“It’s the first time ever, since I’ve been here at Cinco for 17 years, that we’ve been able to sleep in our own beds for regionals and state, and I’m looking forward to it,” Dushane said. “It’s going to be pretty neat.” Katy boys
TheKaty boys wrestling team is a regional champion – for the first time in program history.
The Tigers won with 135 points Saturday at the Merrell Center, holding off The Woodlands (103) and CypressWoods (101).
“It was fantastic,” coach VincentLowe said.
“The kids set it is a goal and stepped it up. It was amazing how well they wrestled, and howwell everything came together.”
The regional championship was their fifth team title this season. They’d never won a team championship before this season.
Katy sent 10 wrestlers to the regional tourney and qualified five for state.
Freshman Daniel Manibog led the boys, winning the 120-pound championship by beating Clear Creek’s Timmy Thompson.
“He’s an exciting wres- tler,” Lowe said.
“He’s never quite out of a match. He’s been wrestling for a while, so this is not his first year wrestling, as a freshman, and he’s a kid who’s never out of it. He’ll keep coming at you and coming at you.
“Hewas down3-0 in the third period of that finals match and came back to win it in overtime.”
Senior Sergio Nugent won a regional title last year but lost to Cy Lakes’ Joaquin Bautista in the semifinals.
Then he rebounded to pin his nexttwo opponents for third.
“We had wrestled just about everybody else in the region except for him, so we were interested to see that match,” Lowe said. “I don’t think we were really at our best on Friday, but Joaquinwas.
“He was out there and ready to go, and sometimes bouncing back from that is tough.”
Jaylen York also placed third at 138, and Cameron Barnes lost a close one to Clear Springs’ Keegan Kretzer in the 220 final.
It was the third meeting this year between Barnes and Kretzer, who won the first two by fall.
“This time it was a 2-1 decision,” Lowe said. “We learned how to stop a little something, but we need to put some offense back together ourselves so we can try to beat himthe next timewe face him.”
Heather Pike led the girls with a regional title at 148.