Strake Jesuit's wrestling team hosted a tri-meet with St. John’s School and Clear Lake Wednesday night. The Crusaders came out on top, beating St. John’s 51-30 and Clear Lake 50-33.

Clear Lake defeated St. John's 47-30.

“I try to seek out good teams because that’s the only way we get better," Strake Jesuit coach Robert Buley said.

Strake Jesuit’s “superstar”, according to Buley, is Colin Day (140). Day won both his matches, first against St. John’s Will Wallace and then against Clear Lake’s Chase Cobb.

“He has destroyed everyone he has wrestled. He hopes to wrestle at the collegiate level,” Buley said.

Patrick Henning (112), another key wrestler, won his match versus St. John’s Patrick Flam but fell to Clear Lake’s Matt Greene.

“Patrick Henning has upset some really good wrestlers,” Buley said. “He’s on his way.”

Strake Jesuit is now ranked 10th in the Greater Houston area and is aiming for the top, state champions.

Although St. John’s School lost both their duals Wednesday, coach Alan Paul knows his team is growing.

“We’ve been surprisingly strong,” he said. “We’re a very young team with no seniors and 11 freshmen. Several of the freshmen have stepped up big this year.”

Those freshmen are Cameron Neal (130), Will McDugald (119), who they call "the milk truck" because he delivers, Jack Waller (171), and Patrick Flam (112), who is about .500 on the season.

“They all have winning records,” Paul said. “Right now we are just looking forward to getting better and moving on to next year with this young group.”

Clear Lake’s 1-1 record in this tri-meet is still pleasing to coach Brian Palazzi.

“We’re very happy in our second year,” said Palazzi. “We’re very pleased with the progress we’ve made from last year. For second year wrestlers, some of my guys are really picking it up and focusing.”

Matt Greene (112), who began the year at 119, dropped weight and moved back down to his usual weight class. 

“Matt had a real good match against Strake Jesuit’s Henning,” Palazzi said. “Matt wrestled him real, real tough and ended up taking him to the mat. He’s 30-1 right now.”

Chris Rivera (125) made it state as a freshman last year and Palazzi said, “He’s turning it on right now and is 25-1.”

Cailin Tutt (135) just had a big win at the St. Thomas tournament against the No. 2 ranked wrestler in the area.

“He is a nice surprise,” Palazzi said. “He’s having a great year. I’m very proud of what he’s done.”

Justin Arnold (180), one of Palazzi’s standout wrestlers, is one of Clear Lake’s few seniors.

“He just won his match and immediately he came up to me and asked what he could have done better,” Palazzi said. “I’m really happy with their attitude and they way that they carry themselves. They respect the sport and they respect their opponents.”

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