RIO GRANDE CITY — Friday was a great day for sisters at the District 16-5A wrestling championships.
Rio Grande City sisters Velia Canales and Vivien Canales won their respective weight classes and helped propel the Rattlers to the district team title with 158 points, beating out McAllen Memorial with 134. The Mustangs were also helped out by sisters Serenity De La Garza and Eternity De La Garza, also winning district titles in their weight classes.
Velia Canales, a senior, defeated PSJA Memorial’s Valerie Arellano 18-5 to capture the 102-pound division. Vivien Canales, a sophomore, pinned PSJA Memorial freshman Sarai Ozuna in 5:42 in the 110 division.
Velia stared wrestling last year, and wrestled for only two weeks, Pratt said.
“She couldn’t grasp the concept of technique or maintaining weight,” the 18th year head coach said. “Then over the summer she latched onto it and those two girls are students or the sport and they are perfectionists. For Velia to start it and Vivien to come in right after just made me immensely proud.”
Serenity De La Garza won all three of her matches on the day to improve to 23-0 on the season. She has been the top-ranked 148-pound wrestler in the state all year, according to wrestlingtexas.com. Friday, it took her just 1 minute, 35 seconds to collect all three pin. She defeated McAllen High’s Bronwyn Sadlier in 19 seconds to advance to the finals, then put Mission Veterans’ Alexis Soria on her back in 30 seconds to capture her third straight district championship.
In the finals, as is customary with Serenity De La Garza, she immediately attacked, going for a double-leg takedown. When that didn’t immediately work, she struck two more times before claiming the victory.
“I just wanted to try a little bit of some new things that I haven’t done in a while because we had to stop due to COVID,” Serenity De La Garza said. “I wanted to try some things to see if I was OK. She left the legs wide open so I went for the double blast. I feel great, ready to go.
After Memorial teammate Maya Marroquin improved to 23-2 with a major decision victory in the 148-pound division, Eternity De La Garza made it three weight-class wins in a row with her third pin of the day, in 1:23, against La Joya Palmview’s Liliana Guardado.
It was her second straight district title as she improved to 24-1. Last year, however, she injured herself after the district tournament and before the regional tournament.
“I’m ready – I’m going to be more careful and pay attention to what I do,” Eternity De La Garza said. “Last year, I would get mad and not wrestle right. It wasn’t good wrestling. This year I’m more focused and technical.
“Everything I do is because of her (Serenity). She inspired me like crazy to do what she does, but in my own way.”
Sharyland High and rival Sharyland Pioneer battled it out to late in the meet before Sharyland High claimed its second straight title. The Rattlers finished with 202 points to the Diamondbacks’ 190.
The Rattlers claimed five district titles: Husbaldo Salazar (113), Paolo Miranda (120), Alberto Mendoza (126), Noel Torres (138) and Moses Rodriguez (160).