By Peter Dewey

The New Year kicks off in a big way with the Dollarmur Grapevine Duals on January 5th and 6th. Showcasing the event will be the premier wrestling programs from Texas and Louisiana. Highland Park will be defending its 2006 title. New Orleans Jesuit wants to take home a 3rd title in the last 5 years at Grapevine. HP has won 5 of 8 UIL state championships since 1999 and is two time defending champions. NOJ has won 21 La. State Championships since 1972 and is three time defending champions.

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by Peter Dewey

Another week at St. Marks’ and another well run tournament. Mike Grisz ran it right on time as promised. The hardware was distributed and the teams were clearing out the gym before 3pm. Parents were thrilled. An Oklahoma team came down and captured first place. But there were a handful of relatively unknown Dallas teams that had breakout tournaments and will need to be reckoned with as the season progresses. And there were an awful lot of individual wrestlers who made strong statements as well.

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By Peter Dewey

Even before we discusss wrestling, let me say how nice it was to show up at a tournament and find it was running ahead of schedule. As always tournament director Mike Grisz, Coach Ortega and the whole St. Mark’s community ran a flawless event. I look forward to returning next week for the St. Marks’ Invitational (an individual tourney).

The big dogs heading into this tournament figured to be Bowie and St. Mark’s. They proved why in a hurry. Bowie plowed through Jesuit 69-13, FWCD 90-0 and FM Marcus 68-9. And St. Mark’s dismantled Grand Prairie 74-6, Richardson 76-6 and Creekview 72-7 to face #1 seed Bowie in the finals. (more…)

Updated 12/12 Houston Area Individual Rankings

A rankings update after Westside and Woodlands

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This ranking is based on tournament scoring, not dual meet.

1. Bishop Lynch
2. Canyon Randall
3. Highland Park
4. Cinco Ranch
5. Rockwall
6. Arlington High
7. Arlington Bowie
8. Cy-Fair
9. Lake Highlands
10. Colleyville Heritage
11. (tie) Keller & Amarillo Tascosa with Arlington Martin closing in

It was a solid opening weekend of Houston wrestling, but things should get better in a hurry. 3/4 of the teams present missing wrestlers to football and it showed in the Friday duals and the Saturday tournament, particularly in the upper weights.

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The Houston Report: “Season Preview” and Houston Area Individual Rankings
By Russell Pate
ITW Staff Writer

Each new part will be added daily 11/13 – 11/17

Part I: Monday, November 13
A look at 10 burning questions that loom large in Houston heading into the season, followed by the return of the Houston area Rankings from HoustonEye.

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by Panhandle Al
ITW Staff Writer

Another season is upon us and West Texas a/k/a “The Panhandle” is pumped and ready for a great season of wrestling. Canyon Randall should be the area team to beat this year with Amarillo Caprock right on their heels.

Here is a brief look at the top teams and a ranking of the area:

1. Canyon Randall – This team is poised to have a very good year. Leading the team are seniors, Brandon McDonald (119) a two-time state placer and All-American, Kalvin King (125) three-time state qualifier, Cameron Padilla (160) returning state placer is coming off an injury but is ready to return to state form, and Chance Cupp (215) was unable to wrestle last year due to a football injury but is ready to focus only on wrestling this season. In addition, will be state qualifiers junior Joey Sykes (171), sophomore Joseph Flores (189), and Josh Martinez (112). Rounding off the team of returning wrestlers will be Cody Dudding (180) a state alternate from last year. Joining the team this year will be two very solid freshmen wrestlers Victor Dodson (103) and Jace Bennett (130). This should be a very solid team and could make a run for the state championship for the first time in school history.

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By Peter Dewey
ITW Senior Writer

The 2006-2007 wrestling season is right around the corner. There is excitement across the state as wrestling continues to grow and improve. We love to see such progress across the Lone Star State but the hot bed of wrestling continues to be the Big D. At the State tournament last year, six of the top 10 teams were from the Dallas area. I don’t expect that to change come February 2007.

In corresponding with the coaches of the teams profiled below, each coach firmly believed that this year’s team will be stronger than last year’s version. Some expect dramatic improvement. Many teams have enough depth to produce real competition for starting spots. A word of caution. Coaches warned that the lineups are very tentative. In many cases weight certification and wrestle-offs had not occurred as these potential lineups were being developed. In addition the way weight certification looks to play out this year, any number of wrestlers may be showing up in districts and Regionals at lower weights than they wrestled most of the year.

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by Willy Coyote
Copyright 2006
InsideTexasWrestling.com

TEXANS WRESTLING IN COLLEGE

KEVIN SCHMITT-125-ADAMS STATE-DII-FR.
JOSH MARTZ-165-AIR FORCE-DI-SO.
JONATHAN POWELL-157-AMERICAN UNIV.-DI-FR.
DANNY CARRASCO-165-APPALACHIAN STATE-DI-SO.
ANGEL ALEGRE-125-ARIZONA STATE-DI-FR.
ZACH NICHOLS-165-AUGSBURG COLLEGE-DIII-FR.
GEORGE GOGONAS-125-AUGUSTANA COLLEGE-DII-FR.

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