Princeton freshman Mitzy Pineda spins behind her JJ Pearce opponent to earn two points for a takedown. The Lady Panthers won the team title at last weekend’s New Year’s Eve Scuffle, held at Frisco Emerson High School. Photo by Jerry Winfrey / C&S Media
By David Wolman
After concluding 2024 with a first-place team finish at the Prosper Eagle’s Nest Tournament, the Princeton girls wrestling team picked up where they left off to begin the New Year. The Lady Panthers racked up 504.5 points and got individual first-place finishes from Paris Kelleher at 145 pounds, Issobella Cook at 152, Rebekah Sorrell at 185 and Addy Smith at 235 to capture the team title at last weekend’s 4th Annual Ladies New Year’s Eve Scuffle from Frisco Emerson High School.
Kelleher went 5-0 and won all five of her matches by pin, none of which went the distance. She advanced to the 145-pound championship bout after pinning Melissa’s Tessa Tighe in the semifinals. In the final, she needed just 2 minutes, 31 seconds to record a fall of Frisco Lebanon Trail’s Emma Ward and earn a spot on the top of the medal stand.
Cook, meanwhile, won six matches and won another via forfeit to claim top honors in the girls’ 152-pound weight class division. She pinned Maia Hughes of Frisco Independence in the semifinals before outlasting Frisco Emerson’s Ava Parker by a 19-11 major decision in the first-place match.
Sorrell improved to 23-1 on the season after a dominant effort at the New Year’s Eve Scuffle. She went 4-0 with four pins. She advanced to the title bout after needing just 81 seconds to pin Gunter’s Luzcero Escalera in the semifinals and just 2 minutes, 32 seconds to record a second period fall over Maria Gonzalez of Clute Brazoswood in the first-place match at 185 pounds.
Smith picked up her 14th win of the season after she earned a first-period pin of The Colony’s Melek Moreles in the 235-pound first-place bout. Smith went 4-0 with four points during the two-day tournament.
Overall, it was a solid two days on the mat for the Lady Panthers, who had seven wrestlers finish in the top four of their respective weight class. In addition to first place finishes from Kelleher, Cook, Sorrell and Smith, Princeton got a runner-up finish from Rosslyn Pratt at 132 pounds, a second-place finish from Erin Marquez at 120 and a fourth place showing from Alexandria Ramos at 126.
Princeton’s first-place team finish at Frisco Emerson was also helped by Chloe Jimenez, who wrestled to seventh place at 107 pounds, and Brianna Tenpenny, who captured seventh at 165.
The success wasn’t limited to the girls’ side.
Princeton’s boys’ team, like their female counterparts, had seven wrestlers place in the top four, leading the Panthers to third place in the team standings with 460 points.
Breyton Kelleher spearheaded the Panthers’ efforts by going 8-0 with five pins to earn first place at 190 pounds. He capped off a perfect showing by doubling up Dallas Hillcrest’s Bryan Quezada by an 8-4 decision in the title bout.
Overall, the Princeton boys had three wrestlers compete in a first-place match. Josh Pineda was the runner-up at 120 pounds after he went 4-1 with two pins to earn silver. All seven matches that were wrestled by Austin Aparicio were decided by pin. Aparicio was on the winning side of six of those matches, including a third-period pin of Newman Smith’s Zion Brunner in the 165-pound semifinals. Aparicio lost to Clute Brazoswood’s Dominic Dice in the title match.
Timothy Knappenberger (third place, 120 pounds), Jeremiah Soto (third, 126), Gavin Chasteen (fourth, 113) and Nolan Christian (fourth, 138) all placed in the top four. Knappenberger defeated Frisco Emerson’s Joshua Strawn in the third-place match at 120 pounds, while Soto dominated in a 13-3 major decision win over Emerson’s Coleman Crump in the third-place match at 126.
Liam Baird (seventh place, 138 pounds), Kealin Wren (eighth, 215), Blaine Campbell (ninth, 126), Conner Nielsen (ninth, 144), Alexander Viera (ninth, 150), Mason Szabo (ninth, 285), Lucas Yost (10th, 144), Emilio Martinez (10th, 215), Nathan Garlow (10th, 285) and Yavier Santiago laboy (11th, 157) also competed for Princeton at the Scuffle.
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