NATHANIEL MATA | SPECIAL TO THE MONITOR
State contenders filled the Rio Grande City High School gymnasium on Thursday. Sweaters that read ‘STATE’ in bold letters outnumbered letterman jackets, a signature of a Valley wrestling meet.
During the 23-school Snakebite Invitational wrestling tournament past state qualifiers, future state hopefuls and crosstown rivals shared the mat.
Computer issues pushed back the start of the day, but once the action started it was smooth, non-stop wrestling.
Out of town schools had a big presence, with Coastal Bend teams traveling south and having a strong tournament.
Victoria West girls took the team title. Their eight wrestlers accumulated 148 points, 58 more than second place Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial. Host Rio Grande City finished on the podium in third with 82 points as a team.
Head wrestling coach for the Victoria Independent School District, both Victoria East and West, Kerry Iannazzo said this tournament is valuable because of the strong wrestling in the RGV.
“We come to this tournament because of the competition from the Valley schools,” Iannazzo said. “We don’t get to see them. They are excellent wrestling schools, especially like Rio Grande City. We see them at regionals all the time, but we don’t see them throughout the course of the year, and our girls need that competition. We will travel to see the best, and that’s why we’re here.”
Though Victoria West ran away with the team title, many Valley wrestlers took home individual golds. In the lightest class of the tournament, the 95-pound division, Rio Grande City’s Kassidy Ramirez defeated Victoria West’s Jaedyn Garcia by decision.
Ramirez, a senior who is relatively new to the sport, was glad her family got to share in her moment. The all-district softball player is excelling on a whole new stage.
“It feels great because I’m home. All my family got to see it. It’s really great because I knew that since I’ve only been wrestling a year, I knew that I needed that experience,” Ramirez said. “It’s really going to help me prepare for the later stages in district. This really does bring my confidence up that much more, having that it was home and that girl was from outside of the Valley.”
On the boys side of the competition, Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial won the team title, with 158 points. Bryan High School took runner-up. Edinburg Vela, Mission High and PSJA High took third through fifth, respectively, representing the Valley’s top entrants.
Edinburg Vela had the most winners among RGV boys teams. Robby Silva was a champion at 132 pounds, and Mike Mendez won over Sharyland Pioneer’s Emmanuel Huerta in 195. At 285 pounds, Alex Gonzalez-Franco was a winner, as well.
Hosts Rio Grande City finished in sixth, but they still boasted a pair of first-place finishes. Elias Sanchez finished first in 113 and Ruperto Bautista won gold in 138.
Rio Grande City coach Ronald Pratt was proud of the success of the tournament, now in its 12 year. Thursday’s invitational featured 247 wrestlers — 159 boys and 88 girls.
Pratt knows that the growth of the sport and local tournaments are a sign the Valley is improving as a wrestling area.
“We like showing off our kids,” Pratt said. “We like showing off our facilities. We like getting our kids the exposure against upstate teams, because we’re going to see some of them at regionals and state and we want to compete against the best. Now we have other areas of state saying they want to come down here and see what they got.”
As the calendar turns, the crucial part of the wrestling season looms, and the veteran coach expects late-season form in the coming weeks.
“By mid-January they need to be in district form, because they need to be at their weight class they need to be ready to come. Come Feb. 9, you need to be there and you need to be on your A game,” Pratt said.