Trinity sending 12 wrestlers to state meet, Bell sends 2

The past couple of seasons haven’t been perfect for the Euless Trinity wrestling teams.

But they’ve been about as close as you can get otherwise.

In 2016, coach Travis Clark’s team qualified a wrestler in every weight class for the postseason. This season it almost equaled that feat, sending a boys wrestler in each event except one, and qualifying a girl in each in event in which they competed, a total of 22 qualifiers in 23 events.

And from that group they will be sending a dozen (nine girls, three boys) to the Class 6A State Tournament in Houston on Friday and Saturday. In addition, the Hurst L.D. Bell girls have two state qualifiers.

Leading the regional champions for the Lady Trojans is junior Mack Beggs in the 110 class. She improved to 52-0 after Madeline Rocha of Coppell refused to wrestle Beggs, who is transitioning from female to male.

Also winning regionals for the Trinity girls were freshman Carmen Allred (43-11), 102; junior Tiffany Delacruz (25-6), 119; senior Paisley Zandi (10-1), 148; and senior Passion Hollins (48-3), 165.

Trinity boys regional champions are junior Harley Williamson (49-4), 106; and senior Alfredo Benavidez (49-3), 132.

Regional runners-up for the Lady Trojans are senior Savannah Bye (33-13), 128 and Leann Irland (36-16), 138. Senior Keaton Fanning (44-8) finished second for the Trojans in the 182 division.

“The kids are rolling right now,” Clark said. “I knew we were going to be good, but we had a lot of young people step up.”

Trinity had seven boys and five girls win District 5-6A. They then had five girls and two boys win Region II.

Also, the Trinity girls won the regional team title with 208 points, well ahead of runner-up South Grand Prairie (182). The Trinity boys were third with 120.5 points, behind Allen (351) and Rockwall (167). This came on the heels of dominant district championship performances by both Trinity teams.

“Both the boys and girls teams wrestled great against some great competition. Finishing third in the boys division with the teams that were there, that’s impressive,” Clark said. “We finished ahead of Rockwall Heath, the Class 5A state champion last season.”

Beggs, Hollins, Benavidez and Fanning are making return trips to state. Williamson was an alternate.

“Even though he didn’t wrestle, he was there at state and took it all in,” Clark sad of Williamson. “The other two, they know exactly what it takes and have that experience from last year. Six of my nine girls have been there over the last two years.”

Also qualifying for state from the Trinity girls, junior Anaiah Watkins (14-17) placed third at 95 pounds and freshman Aaliyiah Gilbert (17-29) placed fourth at 185.

“I think all of them are sitting in a good position to do well at state,” Clark said. “The three boys we have wrestling down there have a very good chance of bringing home a medal. The girls, if they all show up and do well, we could do very well in the team standings also.”

L.D. Bell sophomore Kylee Sanchez (11-9) will be making a return state appearance in the 102-pound weight class, finishing fourth. Also from the Lady Raiders, junior Mariah Cook (12-8) qualified fourth in the 165 class.

The Trinity boys had three alternates (fifth place); seniors Alex Poole (30-8), 285; Ryan Jones (25-7), 138 and Nick Hoenich (44-13), 152.

Boys District 5-6A champions from Trinity include Williamson; Jeremiah Harper, 126; Benevidez, Hoenrich and Cameron Bye, 170; Fanning and Pool.

Girls district champions include Allred, Beggs, Delacruz, Paisley and Hollins.

Other postseason qualifiers for the boys were Trey Reed, 113; Jon Lozos, 145; Arturo Moreno, 160; Brooklyn Twomey, 195 and John Valdez, 220.

Beggs was voted the Girls Most Outstanding Wrestler at district. Benavidez was voted the Boys Most Outstanding Wrestler.

Bell wrestlers reach postseason

The Hurst L.D. Bell wrestling team advanced five boys and four girls to the postseason.

Qualifying for the boys from the District 5-6A Tournament were Abdel Mudawi, second, 113 pounds; Mitchell Meadors, second, 170; Reagan Jordan, third, 126; Derek Thomas, third, 152 and Jonathan Valdez, third, 220.

At district, state qualifiers Cook and Sanchez placed second and third in their respective weight classes. Also joining them in the postseason were Lexis Vasquez, third, 95 and Raquel Lopez, third, 148.

This story was originally published February 20, 2017 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Trinity sending 12 wrestlers to state meet, Bell sends 2."