Cinco Ranch wrestling coach Bill Dushane says his defending state champions care about three meets: district, regional and state.

Saturday’s Texas State Duals at the Merrell Center falls into none of those categories, but nevertheless Dushane won’t downplay its importance.

“Just to qualify is prestigious. This is 16 of the best (boys) teams in the state,” Dushane said. “Duals are a different animal than tournaments. At state you have six, seven kids competing. At this it’s all 11 kids and they all have to perform.”

Cinco, Katy Taylor, Klein and Westside are the Houston-area representatives in the invitation-only field.

Waller and Cypress Ridge are the area teams in the eight-team girls field.

The boys field is divided into four pools, which are listed below. The top seeds are Arlington Bowie, Allen, Dallas St. Mark’s and Amarillo Randall.

Dushane admits the host Cougars, who are sending out eight new wrestlers this season, may not have the power top-to-bottom to match up with those teams – he quickly said he expects the top seeds to be in the finals. But he knows his team will have some say in the proceedings.

Senior heavyweight John Gioffre, a Rice football commitment, is 24-0 and hasn’t been scored on.

Freshman Christian Brower has 35 wins at 140 pounds. Dushane said Brower will be the first Cinco Ranch freshman to letter in at least four years.

“(Gioffre) is very motivated. He’s one of the outstanding heavyweights out there,” Dushane said. “We may not have a lot of stars, but there’s no way a team can do well without a few of them.”

Teams hoping the fly under the radar include Highland Park, which has won the State Duals seven of the past nine years but lost five state qualifiers to graduation and its coach to retirement. But Highland Park finished ahead of State Duals qualifiers Rockwall and Flower Mound last weekend to win the TCA-Addison Invitational.

“I don’t think that much is expected of us,” Highland Park’s Derek Burdick, a senior who is 30-3 at 152, told The Dallas Morning News. “It’s really our chance to show everyone what we are made of.”

Waller, one of the area’s top girls teams, did not originally receive a Duals bid but got theirs from Katy, which was awarded a berth because it’s part of the host district but declined because coach Vinnie Lowe believed the Bulldogs were more deserving.

Waller finished fifth in the large Lady Horn Classic in Amarillo. The Bulldogs put four wrestlers in the top five, including Maegen Fellers winning 185 and Whitney Disotelle placing second at 138.

This is the final year of a two-year dual for the Duals to be at the Merrell Center. The event will move to an Amarillo-area facility next year.

At a Glance: Texas State Duals

WHEN: Saturday.

WHERE: Merrell Center, Katy.

WHO: Sixteen boys teams and eight girls teams, by invitation only.

TICKETS: $3 for adults; $1 for students.

SCHEDULE: Boys dual action begins at 8 a.m.; girls duals begin at 12:45 p.m. The championship round is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

THE FIELD: The boys are divided into four pools, listed as follows: Pool A – Randall, Highland Park, Katy Taylor and Richardson Lake Highlands; Pool B – Dallas St. Mark’s, Westside, Coppell and Austin Westlake; Pool C – Cinco Ranch, Allen, El Paso El Dorado and Rockwall; Pool D – Arlington Bowie, Klein, El Paso Eastwood and Lewisville Flower Mound.
Girls teams include Cypress Ridge, Waller, Coppell, Arlington and Frisco Centennial.

Subscribe to this comment's feed