Wylie’s Karl Wara recorded a 12-8 decision over Wylie East’s Jaxon Miller-Rauscher during the Battle of the Belt on Wednesday, Jan. 15. Photo by Maddie Smith / C&S Media
By David Wolman
The annual Battle for the Belt between the Wylie and Wylie East wrestling teams has been rather one-sided of late in favor of the Pirates.
And while Wylie remained in possession of the belt following a 44-30 win over Wylie East from the Montgomery Center on Wednesday, Jan. 15, the final score of this year’s dual between the cross-town rivals proved to be the closest than it has over the last several years.
The action was relentless and exhilarating, though only one match lasted the entire six minutes. In the 10 matches that were held, eight were decided via a pin.
The 132-pound match between Wylie’s Jonathan Ewton and Wylie East’s Mekhi Brown went into the third period, and the match was stopped after Ewton got a takedown to finish off an 18-0 victory via technical fall at the 4:58 mark. The only match that went the distance was the 190-pound bout where Wylie’s Karl Wara recorded a 12-8 decision over Wylie East’s Jaxon Miller-Rauscher.
“I thought the action was awesome tonight,” Wylie head coach Tracy Cleveland said of the dual. “That’s what duals are supposed to be. They battled us more tonight than they have in the past couple of years. It’s good competition. These kids all go to church together. They see each other at other events and do a lot of other things together. So, in that sense, it’s a good rivalry.”
The dual started with Wylie taking a 6-0 lead with Noah Jagielski winning by forfeit as Wylie East was open at 106 pounds.
After a double forfeit at 113 pounds, Connor Liu earned six team points for the Raiders after he needed just 42 seconds to pin Wylie’s Ahmad Ibrahimi in the 120-pound bout. Wylie East then made it two straight wins after Blake Moore pinned Wylie’s Carson Cleveland at the 3:58 mark of the 126-pound match, as the Raiders took a 12-6 lead.
“Both of those guys (Liu and Moore) have been doing really well lately,” said Tad Hazlewood, Wylie East head coach. “They stepped up tonight and did really well.”
But Wylie has had a lot of encouraging results in their middle weight classes this season, and it proved to again be a big strength of their lineup last week.
Ewton’s 18-0 win at 132 pounds started a string of four consecutive wins for Wylie. Anthony Powers won by forfeit in the next match as Wylie East was open at 138. Cooper Mandrell and Presley Miller recorded back-to-back, first-period pins at 144 and 150, respectively. Miller’s win gave the Pirates a commanding 30-12 lead.
“Starting from 132 all the way up to 190 is a group of some pretty solid seniors,” Cleveland said.
Perhaps the most entertaining match of the night was the 157-puond bout between Wylie East’s Jacob West and Wylie’s Sawyer Cameron. West won via a pin, and he had to pull out all of the stops to earn that hard-fought triumph. West and Cameron wrestled to a 6-6 tie after two periods. However, in the third period, West emerged victorious after he rolled Cameron onto his back with a cradle move and won the bout at the 5:32 mark.
“That’s the fourth match this year between those two guys, and it’s been back and forth,” Hazlewood said. “By the time that district gets here, they would have probably seen each other five times.”
West’s win reduced Wylie East’s deficit to 30-18 with four matches still to be wrestled.
However, the Raiders won just two matches the remainder of the evening and the Pirates also got a win by forfeit at 215 as Wylie East was open at that weight class. Muataza Al Khalidi’s pin over Wylie East’s Levi Coin at 165 pounds clinched the dual victory for Wylie. The Raiders got a third-period pin from Carson Wilson at 175 and a second-period pin from Daniel Marquez at 285.
“Sometimes we go the distance. Sometimes we have a lot of six-minute matches,” Hazlewood said. “This year was a little different with the back and forth.”
Wylie East will wrestle Richardson this Wednesday at the Williams Center, and both the Raiders and Pirates will travel to Plano East on Thursday, Jan. 31 for the District 6-6A Tournament.
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