El Dorado’s boys wrestling team will have a tough act to follow after the girls brought home three regional titles last weekend.
On Saturday, the Wildcats will compete in the 5A South Boys Regional Meet at Hot Springs Lakeside.
Weigh-in is at 8 a.m. with wrestling set to begin at 9 a.m.
The Wildcats have a quartet of wrestlers who will be seeded for the event.
Chase Shults will be the No. 2 seed in the 138-pound weight class. His first match will be against Sylvan Hills’ Ryder Hopper. Hot Springs Lakeside’s Daniel Armstrong is the top seed.
Richard Diaz is seeded third in the 120-pound division and he will take on Hot Springs Lakeside’s Diego Boag in his first match. Little Rock Christian’s Logan Perrone is the No. 1 seed.
El Dorado also has two wrestlers who are seeded fourth in Winston Williams and Evan Criss.
Williams, who will be competing in the 190-pound division, faces Texarkana’s Alex Sexton in his first match. Hot Springs Lakeside’s Jonathan Eye is the top seed.
Criss, who is in the 175-pound weight class, takes on Jacksonville’s Torrence Trotter in his first match. Hot Springs Lakeside’s Brody Luke is the No. 1 seed.
“I think all of four of them have got a great chance to make state,” El Dorado coach Alex Townsend said. “I think we’ve got a couple of other guys that have a chance to make state that weren’t seeded. Jackson Pagan was just on the outside of getting seeded in his, Landon Basinger just dropped down a weight class. He had been wrestling up about 10 pounds. I think he has a shot to make some noise too. Aidan Johnson was just on the outside looking in at being seeded for his as well. If Grayson Finch has a good weekend, he’s got a shot to do it too.”
The Wildcats have had two weeks to prepare for the regional, and Townsend said their preparation was the same as it was for the girls.
“Last week was all about the girls,” Townsend said. “Some of our older guys worked with some of those girls. I believe Grayson and Chase worked with Destinee (Smith) and Katelyn (Hayden) at times.
“Richie and Jackson worked with Maddie (Aguiluz) at times to prepare her. The guys have had two weeks off, and the focus of this week was fitness before tapering more to a focus on technique and refining heading into the weekend.”