The Wrestling season is starting to gather steam this year as the varsity lineup has been finalized with the inter-squad wrestle-offs on the first of November.
Between the record number of students who have joined the program, and a new facility in the Dove Athletic building excitement is running high among the athletes and Coach Ryan Menard. With the whole team coming out on Wednesday to earn varsity spots or simply to show their skill at the JV level, hopes were high and performances were impressive. Opening up with the 106-pound weight class, Kingston Stephens ’26 won his varsity spot for the second year in a row, and the intense matchups lasted all the way to the 175-pound match between Trevor Leap ’26, and Jake Daboub 25′.
When asked what excited him most about this season, Coach Menard said “I’m looking forward to the growth and development of our younger guys! This season we have the most wrestlers in the wrestling program for the past 20 years. This is both exciting and promising for the future of the program moving forward.”
Asked about the competition for the rest of the year “I’m predicting an extremely tough district tournament with Rockwall, Heath, Highland Park, and Lake Highlands all having several returning region qualifiers competing again this season.”
Looking to the future, “I think some team goals would be to improve the number of regional qualifiers from last year and have some of the team qualify and place at the UIL 6A State tournament.”
With a roster now filled out, the Ranger Wrestling team looks on to its first event ready to take down McKinney Boyd and Frisco Wakeland on November 9th.
Stay tuned to the Roundup for more wrestling news
