Bearcats qualify seven for regionals

Chad Thomas is returning to the Class 5A Region I Wrestling Tournament, and this year he’s taking a few folks with him.

Thomas qualified by placing third in the 120-pound division in the District 4-5A Tournament this past Saturday, Feb. 4, in Azle. He will compete in the regional tournament Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10-11, at West Texas A&M University in Canyon.

From there the top four finishers in each weight class will move on to compete at state at The Berry Center in Cypress Feb. 17-18.

Joining Thomas, a team captain, will be Bryon Moreno-Wheeler, who placed second in the 285 division. Also competing there will be Brice Bohn, third, 106; fellow team captain Zachary Attaway, third, 144; Ty Hand, third, 157; Jacob Ellerbusch, fourth, 132; and another captain, Britton Collins, fourth, 190.

Jason “Colonel” Douglas finished fifth in the 150 division and is an alternate.

“Our boys had a tough competition and got the tournament started really well,” coach Austin Stockon said. “Many of our boys faced the 1 and 2 seeds in their semifinal matches, and a few fell to the backside of the bracket that round.”

Moreno-Wheeler received a bye in the opening round before winning a 5-3 sudden victory (overtime) decision over Devin Wingfield of Azle and a 6-2 decision against Malachi Williams of Lubbock Coronado.

In the championship match, Dallin Fabrizius of Springtown escaped with a 4-3 tiebreak victory against Moreno-Wheeler in the third period of overtime.

Thomas won his opening match in a 52-second fall over Beau Pipkin of Lubbock Monterrey, then fell in a 37-second fall to Wyatt Hicks of Azle. He rebounded to defeat Daniel Diaz of Springtown in a fall at 2:30 and won a 9-8 decision of Iar Garza of Lubbock Coronado.

Bohn receive a bye in his first two matches and then fell to Rylan Luttmer of Saginaw in a 58-second fall. He came back to drop Ashton Ford of Lubbock Coronado in a 34-second fall and downed Parker Wyrick of Lubbock in a fall at 2:18.

Attaway opened with a bye before being defeated in a fall at 4:52 by Jakob Gibson of Lubbock. Then, after another bye, he topped Jon Lardizabal of Azle in a 10-2 major decision, decisioned Xander Lopez of Lubbock Coronado 10-3 and won the third-place over Gavin Cisneros of Lubbock Cooper 5-3.

Hand had a bye in the first round. He then won a 13-4 major decision over Charles Loving of Saginaw, fell in a fall at 46 seconds to June An of Lubbock, downed Andrew Marmolejo of Lubbock Cooper in 33 seconds and bested Loving in a rematch, again in a major decision by the score of 11-1.

Ellerbusch had bye, fell in a 2:46 pin to Colton Halstead of Springtown and a 2:35 pin to Chase Russell of Lubbock Monterrey. He came back with a 4:33 fall victory against Vernon’s Sebastien Ortega, a 9-0 major decision against Adrian Flores of Lubbock Coronado and a 1:48 pin of Halstead.

Collins’ qualified began with a bye, then a pin over Ismael Urista of Vernon in 2:40. After a fall at 33 seconds against Eliaz Ramirez of Azle, Collins pinned Haedn Ollis of Springtown in 19 seconds, lost a 10-1 major decision to Brian Chase of Lubbock Monterrey and ended with a no-contest victory against Ollis.

Douglas went 3-2 in his division, while Caden Atwood was 2-3 in his division to take sixth at 215. Also competing, but not placing, for Aledo were Jayden Escalera at 126, Kyle Scharlow at 138, Maxwell Toth at 165 and Samuel Belyeu at 175.