A group of Timber Creek Wrestlers from both the girls and boys teams won medals at the 2021 State UIL Wrestling competition in Houston on April 24, 2021
All the Timber Creek Wrestlers placed in the top 6 of the state, with Tristan Winters placing 6th in the 220lb weight class, Patrick Procopio placing 6th in the 112lb class, and Emma Kistler placing 6th in the girls 138lb class.
The group included three state qualifiers and two state alternates, all of whom competed at the regional qualifiers in early April.
According to head coach Jayson Conger, the wrestling season has been very different from years past.
“The UIL pushed their season back 3 months, took their season away in December, gave it back in January, but cut down the type and number of competitions they could participate in and the number of qualifiers to the State Championships,” Conger said.
Despite those changes, the boys battled in their first tournament of the year and qualified 11 boys to regional while also winning the first Varsity Boys District Championship in Timber Creek history.
In the follow up tournament at regional, Tristan Winters and Patrick Procopio both made the regional championship match, but neither won the title in their weight class. Winters and Procopio now continue to the state level with fellow varsity boys wrestler Andrew Crissman along as a state alternate.
For the girls, Conger said the majority freshman team finished 5th at districts and sent 3 girls to regionals. Of those, Emma Kistler performed the best.
“[She] went into the tournament not ranked in the state and not seeded in the bracket. She knocked off the number 4 and 1 ranked girls in the region to make the Championship match,” Conger said. “In that match, she was bested by 1 point by the second-ranked girl in the state.”
Kistler and state alternate Frances Aghayere round out the five total wrestlers headed to the state meet.
Before a send-off for the group held early Friday morning, Conger told Timber Creek staff that he had confidence in his teams due to their dedication this year.
“They have never wavered and will not fail this weekend,” Conger said.
View a video of the send-off below:
View images of the send-off from The Creek Yearbook below:
