ALLEN HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING

Full Steam Ahead: Allen sending 10 grapplers to state

BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@acnpapers.com

Published: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 4:55 PM CST

Winners of seven straight district titles, four regional crowns in a row and six of the past seven dual or UIL state championships, it could be easy for the Allen wrestling team to become desensitized to the success.

But even Eagles head coach Jerry Best came away impressed over the weekend as his team cruised to the title at the Region III Meet in Katy.

"I suppose the success is something you get accustomed to, but this a really big accomplishment," he said. "To win by this many points at regionals and have seven individual champions is pretty outstanding and that is fitting because this is a pretty special group of guys."

Allen won half of the weight classes, which wrapped up Saturday, as Jarrod Trotter (126 pounds), Jack Bass (138), Bo Nickal (145), Oliver Pierce (152), Matt Meyer (170), Nick Cobb (195) and Stone Drulman (220) each reached the top of the podium. Those wins helped the Eagles to 258.5 points, easily outpacing second-place Lake Highlands (144 points).

"Usually there are some ups and downs at a tournament like this, but our guys were a little looser than last year and we real wrestled well," Best said. "It was a good weekend and it was an important one because it was the next step to get to a state title."

Trotter picked up Allen's first weight class win by tech-falling or pinning his first three opponents and taking a 6-2 decision over Westside's Sean Lofgren in the finals.

Bass and Nickal followed similar paths with each defeating a state runner-up in the finals as the former beat Clear Lake's Daniel Rivera and the latter bested Klein Oak's Cougar Babin. That wasn't the only Allen-Klein Oak final as Meyer defeated Asaiah Dyer to finish out 170.

Plenty of other schools were dropped by Allen in the finals though, including Katy Cinco Ranch, who saw Cody Newnom beaten by Stone Drulman at 220.

"I thought all of our champions were pretty dominant," Best said.

Perhaps none more so than Pierce and Cobb.

Pierce pinned or tech-falled his first three opponents before scoring a major decision in the finals against Brad Klewitz from Cy Woods. Cobb pinned his first two opponents, scored a major decision in the semis and had Rockwall-Heath's Troy Mercer forfeit the finals.

By winning regionals, the aforementioned seven wrestlers advance to state.

But Allen's state qualifiers don't stop there as the top four from each bracket move on and Gabe Torres (106), Mason Smout (113) and AJ Hinkle (132) each fit the bill.

Torres may have had the toughest push to Austin as he finished fifth in his bracket, but won a wrestleback to take the final spot. Hinkle finished third in his class while Smout advanced to the finals of his bracket before losing to Thayer Atkins of Lake Highlands.

Trcey Eital (160) and Matt Bryan (heavyweight) competed at Katy over the weekend as well, but didn't advance with Eital posting a 2-2 record and Bryan going 1-2.

Allen still advanced 10 of a maximum 14 wrestlers to state, which is comparable to last season when the Eagles pushed through 11-of-15. The team didn't take too much time to celebrate though with the UIL Wrestling State Tournament commencing Feb. 24-25 at the Delco Center in Austin.

"We have continued to do short and long runs this week to work on our conditioning and will live wrestle until Saturday," Best said.

Allen's practices shorten up starting Monday as the team, which has won four straight dual state titles, takes aim at winning its third consecutive UIL team title. The last time Allen didn't reign supreme at state came in 2009 when it finished second to Canyon Randall. Though Randall lacks depth this season, Best still mentioned them, Lake Highlands, Flower Mound and Klein Oak as teams to watch out for at state.

The opposition will be nothing new as Allen has seen tough foes all season with multiple trips to Oklahoma as well as tournaments in Green Bay and Kansas City.

"I think now is the time where our schedule will pay big dividends because we're used to being in tournaments where every guy you wrestle is a state placer or champion," Best said. "Our guys just love the competition."