CORPUS CHRSITI, Texas — Veterans Memorial high school hosted a wrestling meet Thursday afternoon to prepare for the UIL district 15-5A championships just one week away.
The Veterans Memorial boys team defeated San Antonio Roosevelt 43-27 and SA Johnson 38-37 on an intense tiebreaker. The Johnson wrestler won the final match 1-0 to tie the team score, but the Eagles earned the victory on criteria of the tiebreaker.
The Eagles boys squad is one wrestler shy of a full team, with 13 athletes on their lineup. Veterans memorial returns two state qualifiers, Luis Vela and Aidan Rodriguez. There are a lot of young guys on the team, and senior Kaden Garcia has enjoyed being a leader for the future of the Veterans Memorial program.
"I like the feel of like it's family. We always like to joke around with each other," Garcia, 190 lb. senior wrestler, said. "We always joke around in practice, but it's hard work at the same time. I find it fun. It's fun having a bunch of young kids. I'm a senior. The goal is to make it to state, be a district champ, regional champ and make it to state and hopefully place and even win it all."
The Veterans Memorial Lady Eagles wrestling program defeated SA Roosevelt 36-17, but lost to SA Johnson 48-12.
The Lady Eagles have seven athletes on the roster, including three state qualifiers from last season, Alyssa Reyes, Tyler Stewart-Rokosz and Abigail Mendoza. Mendoza is only a junior, and her goal is to make it back on the state podium like she did freshman year when she finished fourth and ended the year with a (32-7) record.
"This year I feel like we groove a lot better. This year we made a lot more connections," Mendoza, 100 lb. wrestler, said. "We did a lot more team building kind of things at the beginning of the season, so I feel like that made the bond stronger with the team and all of that. Hopefully I can go back on the podium at state, but definitely technique wise also. Just not looking so much at the outcome, just improving my performance and technique."
The UIL district 15-5A competition begins next Wednesday at Carroll High School with the champions to be crowned on Thursday.
