Iron Tiger wrestling hosts first major tournament
Iron Tiger wrestling hosts first major tournament
The Dripping Springs wrestling program is going great guns these days. So much so that Coach Joe Kirksey was able to plan the very first major tournament held at Dripping Springs. He named it the Iron Tiger Invitational. It was certainly a success as the varsity boys and JV boys teams won their tourney while DS varsity #2 placed sixth. The Lady Tigers placed second.
In discussing with Coach Kirksey the growth of the program he touted two main reasons. He gave major credit to his assistant coach, Eric Koontz. He has been with the program for three years, coming from Canyon Randall, a state 5A champion. He has been running the practices for the past couple of years. He mentioned that it also helps that the kids in the district are enrolling in local programs that give them previous experience before joining the school team.
The varsity boys competed in a dual tournament whereas most are set up in a double-elimination format where the emphasis is on individual accomplishment. The dual format puts the emphasis on team accomplishment and every member can encourage each other during their match. In this tourney the twelve teams were assigned to four pools of three. From there they are seeded and play in the championship match, giving every team five dual matches. The varsity girls played in what was known as a scramble tourney. The JV boys format was called the Madison 8-man brackets. Both were allowed unlimited entries.
Varsity boys results: DS 78 New Braunfels 6; DS 70 Westlake 12; DS 61 Georgetown 16; DS 63 Vandegrift #2 6; DS 45 Vandegrift #1 27. These wins upped their dual record to 13-0. This was the second year in a row the Tigers have bested Vandegrift in a dual. Last year Vandegrift was 6A regional champs while DS was 5A regional champs. Shane Bookbinder, Ben Lourens, Alec Rill, Grant Clarno, Nathan Prehar and Cole Kaspar all pinned their Vandegrift opponents in the championship match.
Varsity girls standings: Smithson Valley 133, DS 125, Georgetown 102, Leander Glenn 93.5, Comal Pieper 88, Westlake 51.5, SA Roosevelt 50, NB Canyon 43, Salado 24, Vandegrift 17.
DS results: 95 - Emma Gonzales (6-3) 3rd; 110 – Carson Crow (17-3) 2nd; 128 – Addison Williams (2-2) 6th; 128 – Sara Rothermel (3-9) 4th; 128 – Alyson Brownson-Welch (17-2) 1st; 138 – Kiersten Rainey (4-7) 4th; 138 – Caroline Nix (12-5) 2nd; 148 – Ivone Rios (10-8) 7th; 165 – Harlan Jack (11-5) 4th; 165 – Angelina Juarez (0-4) 8th.
JV boys standings: DS 297, Pieper 247, Smithson Valley 204, Cedar Park 172, Westlake 156, Vandegrift 134, Vista Ridge 126.
DS results: 117 – Milad Khezrefaridi 1st; 117 – Logan Rainey 4th; 129 – Sheldon Engstrom; 132 – Lucas Parmeson 2nd; 136 – Lee Weiershausen 2nd; 142 - Matt Lourens 1st; 144 - Spencer Austin 3rd; 144 – Gavin Guida; 147 – Matthew Becker; 147 – Gavin Law 4th; 151 – Amos Ivey 1st; 151 – Eric Ortiz; 151 – Ethan Garcia 2nd; 153 – Walter Bristol; 153 – Gabriel Quevedo 1st; 153 – Wyatt Czerniec 3rd; 156 – Colton Griffin 3rd; 156 – Daniel Krauss-Thompson; 160 – Dayne Weaver; 160 – Kannon Funderburgh; 165 – Wyatt Hall; 165 – Case Crow 3rd; 171 – Connor Udemi 3rd; 171 – Alan Anderson; 171 – Joshua Wagner; 179 -Reilly Barbisch; 179 – Andrew Barbisch; 203 – Paxton Burke 2nd; 218 – Zach Johnson 1st; 227 – Joseph Drummond 4th.