WHS Girls Wrestling wins District 22-5A Title, 7 qualify for Region III Tournament

Feb. 2 the Waller High School (WHS) girls and boys wrestling teams competed in the District 22-5A wrestling tournament at Katy Taylor High School.
     WHS took three JV boys and two Varsity boys to the tournament and came away with four medalists. Freshman Dusten Alexander took second place at 145 pounds (lbs.) and has improved tremendously over the course of his first season. Chuck Tuck brought home a gold medal in the 180 lb. JV division.   
     “Chuck has really come on strong at the end of the season. Normally he is our laid back kid, but he has been working on being more aggressive on the mat. It has paid off with a nine match winning streak to end the season,” said Head Coach Jason Thurston. “District 22’s JV division is as tough as many varsity districts in the state, so this really shows the quality of the guys we put on the mat.”
     The Varsity division is the beginning of the road to the state tournament. Wrestlers compete individually against opponents in their same weight class and must place top two in the district to qualify for the regional tournament. WHS competes in District 22-5A with Strake Jesuit and all six Katy ISD high schools.
     Sophomore Joey “Popeye” Altimore competes in the 103 lb. division. Altimore drew a number three seed in the tournament and wrestled incredibly tough to earn wins against Cinco Ranch, Katy Taylor, and Katy. His only loss on the day came to state ranked Moses Park, a senior from Seven Lakes in the semi-finals. Altimore was leading the match 6-4 when Moses scored a pin in the second period. He qualified for the regional tournament as an alternate and brought home a bronze medal. 
     Eddie Brown, a star for WHS on the gridiron, wrestled his first tournament of the season due to recruiting commitments with football. Brown came in as a number six seed due to his record and scored first period pins over the number three seed from Katy and the number two seed from Seven Lakes, pitting him in the finals against John Gioffre of Cinco Ranch. Gioffre took fifth in the state last season and entered the final as the undefeated, un-scored-upon number one heavyweight wrestler in the state. Brown pushed the action for the majority of the match but lost on a late takedown that secured the 7-4 victory for Gioffre. Brown will enter the Regional tournament as a heavy favorite to possibly win a regional and state medal as an unseeded wrestler. 
     A wrestler must place in the top four at the regional tournament to qualify for state.
     Two weeks after winning the State Dual title, the WHS girls returned to the mat on a mission to take back the team district trophy from the rival Katy Tigers. WHS qualified six wrestlers out of 10 weight classes for the regional tournament, scoring a total of 129 pounds to edge the Tigers (121.5) for the team trophy. WHS had champions in senior captain Amanda Kelso (128), senior captain Whitney Disotelle (138), and junior Maegan Fellers (185). All three of these wrestlers will enter the Region III tournament as the number one seed.
     Disotelle, ranked number two in the state at 138 lbs., met third ranked Julie Stayton for the fifth time this season in the district finals. Each wrestler worked hard and in the end, Disotelle pinned Stayton to secure the district championship for the Bulldogs. WHS also had runners-up in sophomore Shelby Fellers (148), senior Courtney Bates (165), and senior April Parmigiani (215) All six wrestlers are ranked in the top four in the region and are expected to qualify for the state tournament to be held Feb. 22-23 at the Austin ISD Delco Center.
     Additionally, District 22 wrestling coaches vote each season for the Coach of the Year award. This season WHS Head Coach Jason Thurston was honored to be selected as the recipient of the award.