Wylie’s Wyatt Richardson rolls Rockwall-Heath’s Samuel Alvarez onto his back for a pin. Richardson went 3-0 at last Saturday’s Raider Invitational to capture first place at 215 pounds. Photo by Maddie Smith / C&S Media
By David Wolman
The Wylie and Wylie East wrestling teams didn’t have to leave the city last Saturday to compete in a tournament.
In fact, the Pirates made the short drive to the Williams Center, on the campus of their rival, Wylie East, for the Raider Invitational.
Last Saturday proved to be successful outing for both teams. The Raiders had three wrestlers in the top four of their respective weight class in their home tournament, while the Pirates had eight grapplers captured top four finishes, including a first-place finish at 215 pounds from Wyatt Richardson.
Richardson was in championship form. He needed less than three minutes to pin each of his first two opponents. He advanced to the first-place match after he pinned Wylie East’s Colin Ferguson just 53 seconds into their semifinals match. Then, in the championship match, Richardson cruised to an 11-1 major decision over McKinney’s Juett King.
Wylie also got runner-up finishes from Karl Wara at 190 pounds and Muataz Al Khalidi at 165. Wara went 2-1 on the day with a pin over Rockwall-Heath’s Will Ory in the quarterfinals and an 18-4 major decision in the semifinals, but he lost by a 7-1 decision to Prosper Rock Hill’s Arthur Nersesyan in the 190- pound title match. Al Khalidi went 3-1 with pins in each of his first three matches but was pinned by Highland Park’s Bennett Ham in the first-place match at 165.
Sawyer Cameron and Presley Miller finished the tournament on a high note by capturing third place at 157 and 150 pounds, respectively. Cameron rallied with four straight wins on the back side of the bracket after losing to Rockwall-Heath’s Camron Heiney in the quarterfinals, capped by a pin of Wylie East grappler Jacob West in the third-place match. Miller also won his last four matches after losing in the second round of the winner’s bracket, highlighted by an 11-4 decision of Trinity Christian’s Parker Walton in the third-place match at 150 pounds.
Payton Maier, Anthony Powers and Cooper Mitchell also earned a podium finish after wrestling to fourth place at 120, 138 and 144 pounds, respectively.
Noah Jagielski (106), Phillip Skelly (126), Jonathan Ewton (132), Travis King (157), Jayden Martin (165), Kaylan Wara (175) and Kendrick Mensah (285) also wrestled for the Pirates at the Raider Invitational.
As for Wylie East, Daniel Marquez achieved the team’s highest individual finish with a second place showing at 285 pounds.
Marquez pinned Princeton’s Logan McGill in the quarterfinals and advanced to the final after he pulled out a 4-1 decision of Rockwall-Heath’s Zachary Montcalm in the semifinals. In the first-place match, Marquez came close to earning a win but lost in sudden victory to Brett Dopona of The Episcopal School of Dallas.
Connor Liu went 1-2 on his team’s home mat to earn fourth place at 113. He reached the third-place match after pinning his teammate, Philo Mason in the consolation semifinals, but lost by a 17-1 technical fall to Prosper Rock Hill’s Carson Musquiz in the consolation final.
West also earned a medal after capturing fourth place at 157 pounds. He showed a lot of competitive spirit on the back side of the bracket, winning four matches in a row to reach the consolation final after falling to Highland Park’s Graham Rodgers in his first match of the day, including a pin of Camron Heiney of Rockwall-Heath in the consolation semifinals. However, West lost in the third-place match via pin.
Mason (113), Aidan Dionne (120), Connor Bouasykeo-Souhala (132) Cameron Serna (138), Kaiden Roach (144), Ignacio Ramos (150), Levi Coin (165), Carsen Wilson (175) and Colin Ferguson (215) also wrestled for the Raiders at their home invitational.
Both teams will be back in action this Saturday at the Wylie Invitational.
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