Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Texans dismantle Judson in first UIL wrestling match

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Friday, January 5, 2001

Texans dismantle Judson in first UIL wrestling match

By George Vondracek
Caller-Times
With six years of experience as a club team and one-plus years of competition as a sanctioned University Interscholastic League sport, Ray High School's wrestling program can't be classified as fledgling.
   Witness to that is Thursday afternoon's 66-17 throttling of Converse Judson, a District 31 match that was the first UIL-sanctioned wrestling match to be held in the city.
   Yet neither are the Texans the elite among the 165 other schools in the state that compete in the sport. But they're getting there.
   "Right now, we are at the point where if we're going to start growing, we've got to start getting some stronger competition," third-year Ray coach Ed Arvin said. "We're to the point where we have to get out and get some more competition in the area. ... If we're going to start competing at the state level, which is where we want to be, we've got to get some stronger competition."
   At one time, Ray had the lone wrestling program south of Interstate 10. Now, programs have popped up in the Rio Grande Valley, Beeville, Victoria and south of the Houston area. The Texans, Trojans, Vipers and Rockets comprise District 31.
   The Texans, 2-1 in district and 3-2 overall, got seven wins by falls in dismissing the Rockets, who are in their first season of competition. Jason Nunez and Juan Hernandez both posted their 10th wins of the year - eight of the former's wins have been by falls and seven of Hernandez's have been by falls, or pins.
   All of Judson's points came in walkover matches in which Ray had no competitors. The Texans also had three walkover wins.
   The Olympic-based event has been slow catching on in Texas, especially in the southern half of the state. Many equate wrestling to the entertainment-driven WWF and WCW. But Arvin said the quality of competition is improving, especially in light of Amarillo's Brandon Slay winning a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics in September.
   "Texas in general is behind most of the other northern states, the Iowas, the Oklahomas," Arvin said. "But we're seeing the quality of wrestling pick up. Every year I've been to the state tournament I've seen the level step up."


Staff writer George Vondracek can be reached at 886-3731 or by e-mail at vondracekg@caller.com

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