Wrestling season is down for the count with the Pilot Point Bearcats’ lone representative, Eli Knoblet, finishing fifth at the UIL Boys Region 2-5A Regional Wrestling Tournament on Feb. 6 and 7.
Knoblet traveled to Dallas to face off with grapplers from 60 different schools at the Ellis Davis Field House, where the top four competitors in each weight class punched their ticket to the state tournament.
“I just couldn’t be more proud of him,” Reed Eichenberger, Pilot Point head wrestling coach said. “Our region has 60 schools in it, roughly, so to finish fifth in region-2 5A out of those 60 schools is tremendous.”
Knoblet opened the tournament on Friday by pinning his opponent Logan Collins of Killeen Chaparral and followed that performance with a win by decision, 11-5, over Chris Peters of Frisco Reedy.
The back-to-back wins put Knoblet in the quarterfinals against the No. 1 seeded and eventual Region-2 Champion Travis Ahrens of Frisco Panther Creek, who pinned Knoblet to take the win.
The loss in the quarterfinals moved Knoblet to the consolation semifinals, competing for third or fourth place on Saturday.
Knoblet opened Day 2 of the regional event battling the district champion Adolfo Moreno of Dallas South Oak Cliff, who took an early 6-0 lead, before Knoblet clawed his way back into the contest, cutting Moreno’s lead to 9-7.
Knoblet turned the tables on Moreno in the waning seconds of the match, coming close to pinning Moreno as time expired, but Moreno held on to win.
Knoblet won his next match, a rematch with Peters of Frisco Reedy, by decision, 14-7, but his day ended in the fourth-place match, where he was set to rematch Moreno, who won by no contest because he had already defeated Knoblet earlier the same day.
After finishing the year with a 20-8 record, Knoblet said he was proud of his showing this season.
“I had a pretty good performance, overall,” Knoblet said. “There are a few things I need to clean up. I got undisciplined in a few matches, but I thought it was a good performance and a tremendous improvement from last year.”
With the season at a close, Eichenberger said he was pleased with the improvement the Bearcats wrestling program showed in his second season at the helm.
“We had a tremendous amount of growth from where we started to where we finished,” he said. “We had higher numbers, and we had a higher total of matches that we competed in and more matches won. Then, to use Eli as an example, he was our regional qualifier last year and didn’t make it to Day 2, and this year, he’s there again, and he winds up fifth in the tournament with an opportunity to qualify for State. We had a tremendous amount of growth from everyone involved.”
Eichenberger also made sure to thank the Bearcats’ parents, the Pilot Point Booster Club and the Pilot Point community for their help and support.
