By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Moments after his team won the boys and girls championship at the District 16-5A wrestling meet on Thursday, Rio Grande City coach Ronald Pratt joked about his disappointment.
It was only a year ago that the Rattlers claimed both prizes for the first time in the program’s history. But in their repeat trip to the district championship, Pratt wanted more.
“I wanted the JV boys (to win), as well,” he said, laughing. “I didn’t quite get the clean sweep I wanted. I guess I got greedy.”
All things considered, Rio Grande City cleaned up nicely. Its boys and girls teams won district titles for a second year in a row. They claimed the district duals championship a month ago, as well. And on Thursday, the girls JV team hoisted the first-place trophy.
The Rattlers qualified 16 wrestlers for next week’s regional meet in Austin, with four boys winning individual district titles on Thursday and two girls nabbing the same recognition.
Agapito Muñoz (106-pound weight class), Rupert Bautista (132), Oscar Garcia (138) and Alex Islas (285) won their respective divisions, as did Alouette Gonzalez (95) and Allyson Acevedo (119) on the girls side.
“I told them, ‘You got a target on your back (after winning last year)’,” Pratt said. “Everybody’s going to come for you. So you have to work at a bigger level because they’ll come gunning for you.’ All of our practices, we reminded them of that.”
Pratt credited his assistant coaches, and his daughter, Ashleigh, who implemented a yearlong strength and conditioning program and weightlifting regimen. It paid off for the Rattlers, who picked up points on pins and tech falls, and saw first-year Raul Lopez (113) and Elias Sanchez (120) flourish.
Both wrestlers advance to regionals.
RUNNER-UP
Though Mission Veterans’ girls came in second place, it finished with the most first-place finishes (four) on Thursday. Rio Grande City and Edinburg Vela had two individual winners apiece.
The Lady Patriots did it with Joaida Torres (102), Brandi Alaniz (138), Mariah Gonzalez (165) and Klarissa Blanco (215) winning their respective classes. In an effort to accumulate the most points possible, coach Ben Yzaguirre moved Torres from the 95-pound weight class to 102 for the first time this season, and it paid dividends for Mission Veterans, as Torres avoided Rio Grande City’s Alouette Gonzalez, a three-time state qualifier (and bronze medalist).
“She decided, ‘OK, what’s her best chance of getting most points as a team,’” Yzaguirre said. “That 95-pounder for RGC is just really sharp right now. So we said, ‘Let’s go with the next class.’ She was fine with it. I mean, she suggested it. It was a smart move, and I said let’s do it.”
After sustaining some injuries this year, Yzaguirre was cautious as the Lady Patriots approached district. He reduced practices from two hours to one hour, and instructed his wrestlers to focus on refining their technique, rather than risk injuries in simulating competitive matches.
“We could’ve started district two or three weeks ago,” Yzaguirre said. “But we just tried to maintain to get to this point.”
“We’ve been blessed here,” he added. “Our girls have excelled for quite a few years. Every year, we send girls to state and regionals. Now that this happened, we go on to that next step, trying to get to that state level again.”
MISC.
In third place in the girls division was Edinburg Vela. The third-year program, which finished second last season, had two-place finishers in Petra Felix (148), who defeated Mission Veterans Memorial’s Leslie Alaniz, and Miranda Melchor (215), who beat Rio Grande City’s Erika Moreno. The Lady SaberCats totaled 116 points, falling behind RGC (165) and Mission Veterans (153).
In only its second year as a school, Sharyland Pioneer’s boys finished in second place Thursday behind Rio Grande City. The Diamondbacks had only one first-place finisher in Dominique Rodriguez (170), who defeated Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial’s Ben Humada to win his division, but they made up the rest of the points with three runner-ups and four six-place finishers.
With that, the Diamondbacks totaled 193.5 points, trailing RGC (246.5) by a wide margin but surpassing PSJA High (154.5) and Grulla (142.5) by a sizeable amount.
PSJA High’s boys finished third after posting 154.5 points. The Bears competed in four first-place matches and won one, when Edison Brooks (145) beat RGC’s Alonso Berrones.