Plano East’s Talaal Habib, right, qualified for this week’s Region III-6A Tournament after he placed third at 120 pounds at last Friday’s District 6-6A Tournament from Plano East. Photo by Maddie Smith / C&S Media
By David Wolman
The road to what the Plano East, Wylie and Wylie East wrestling teams hope will end in the Class 6A state tournament commenced last Friday at the District 6-6A Tournament at Plano East’s Archie McAfee Gymnasium.
For all three schools, the event was an overwhelming success.
All three programs advanced multiple wrestlers to this weekend’s Region II-6A Tournament in Allen, with Wylie East’s Daniel Marquez winning the district championship at 285 pounds.
Marquez was 3-0 on the day and won all three matches in dominating fashion, capped off by a second-period pin of Plano East’s Cesar Arguello in the first-place match. He was one of two regional qualifiers for Wylie East. Joining him this weekend in Allen will be Jacob West, who earned second place at 157 pounds. West went 2-1 with two pins.
Although the Panthers didn’t win a district title on their home mat, Plano East had the best day of those three teams as a whole with the Panthers advancing six male wrestlers to the regional tournament.
Plano East got second-place finishes from Arguello, Bilal Habib (106 pounds), Vedant Lal (132) and Leandro Franco (215), a third-place finish from Talaal Habib (120) and a fourth-place finish from Abrar Alam (175).
Franco was the closest Panther to winning a district championship. In the first-place bout against McKinney’s Juett King at 215 pounds, Franco led King late in the third period, but King forced overtime after recording a takedown with less than 10 seconds remaining. King won the match 12-9 in sudden victory.
Nonetheless, it was a rewarding day for Franco, who went 2-1 and won each of his first two matches via pin.
Habib also went 2-1, punching his ticket in the regional tournament with a first-period pin of Prosper Rock Hill’s Ethan Flom in the semifinals. Lal finished 2-1 at 132 with a 19-4 technical fall and a third-period pin. Arguello won each of his first two bouts in dominating fashion, with a 12-4 major decision in the 285-pound quarterfinals and a first-period pin of Princeton’s Mason Sbazo in the semifinals.
Talaal Habib advanced to the regional tournament after he outlasted McKinney’s Azzam Nasser by an 11-6 decision in the third-place match at 120 pound. For the day, Habib went 4-1 with three pins, two coming in each of his first wo matches.
Habib’s efforts were part of a fourth-place team finish for the Panthers, who amassed 144 points. Allen, with 322, won the 6-6A title in runaway fashion. Wylie was seventh with 94.5. Wylie East tied with McKinney Boyd for 10th with 66 points.
Plano East’s Anna Dao advanced to regionals on the girls’ side after she wrestled to fourth place at 114 pounds.
Wylie qualified five wrestlers for regionals.
Wyatt Richardson bounced back from a loss in the semifinals to earn third place at 215 for the team’s highest individual finish. Richardson beat Allen’s Connor Brown via second-period pin in the consolation semifinals before securing his spot in the regional tournament with a pin against Plano West’s Payton McAlister in the third-place match.
Jonathan Ewton (132 pounds), Presley Miller (150), Muataz Al Khalidi (157) and Karl Wara (190) all won their respective wrestle back bouts to earn fourth place in their weight divisions.
Ewton went 3-2 on the day with a 19-3 technical fall, second-period pin and a victory by no contest in the fourth-place match. Miller clinched a berth in regionals after he needed just 18 seconds to pin Princeton’s Nolan Culverhouse in the fourth-place match at 150 pounds.
Al Khalidi was 3-2 with a 15-4 major decision, first-period pin and victory by no contest in the fourth-place bout. Wara, meanwhile, needed two wrestle back wins to keep his season alive. He cruised to a 10-1 major decision of Plano West’s Hunter O’Neal in the fifth-place bout and tripled up Breylon Kelleher of Princeton by a 9-3 decision in the fourth-place match at 190 pounds.
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