Junior Dylan Rowling took fourth place at the state wrestling meet, Feb. 19-20.

“I thought that in Dylan’s case, being able to place fourth at state was exceptional he was able to move upon last year’s performance and any time you have growth in an athlete,” coach Kevin Carter said. “As a coach you’re really routing for them.”

Rowling, who competed in the 160 weight class, went 3-1 the first day of competition. Rowling won his first match over Klein’s Devin Top 8-5, but lost his second match to Amarillo’s Jose Taylor. Rowling then won his third match 12-8 over Katy Mayde Creek’s DeMichael Franklin to stay alive in the tournament. The junior won his final match Friday over El Paso Coronado’s Cross Wamock 13-3 to guarantee a spot in the top six.

“It felt good [to make the podium],” Rowling said. “This is what I’ve been aiming for since freshman year and so it was nice to see all the work paying off.”

Rowling, who had advanced to the state tournament three years in a row, had never made it past that fourth match on the first day. The junior would go on to win his first match Saturday 7-1 over Katy Cinco Ranch’s Cody Koger to advance to the third place match. He lost the final match to Westlake’s Anderson Salisbury 4-2 to finish fourth in state.

“It went well, this is about how well I expected to do, actually I wanted to get third at state or in the finals however well but I expected to place this year,” Rowling said. “It went pretty well after Christmas break, there was like a month period where I didn’t wrestle because I injured my knee and so I think that kind of impacted how well I did at state, but I was able to bounce back and get fourth.”

Rowling was one of three wrestlers who competed at the tournament in Houston at the Berry Center. Senior Sergio Garza and junior Noah Martinez all participated, with this being the first year Garza qualified for the state tournament.

“The experience of going to state for the first time, you know I am a senior so it was a good way to go out before graduation, go out and give it you’re all put everything on the mat,” Garza said.

In the 120 weight class, Martinez won his first match Cypress Creek’s Tommy Martin, but lost his next two matches to end his tournament run.

“My wrestling season didn’t go the way I expected it to be I ran into some knee problems throughout state,” Martinez said.

This was Martinez’s third year to qualify for state.

“Going to state was not much of a change really from the last two years,” Martinez said. “It still feels great going to state. It’s great to know I can make it that’s about it.”

The wrestling program has had athletes advance to the state meet five years in a row.

“Overall for the season, to get our team to place third at district and have top five at regionals and have a state qualifier was an exceptional year,” Carter said. “Our plan for next year is to continue to recruit and build our numbers, upgrade our schedule and build a philosophy that’s routed in the right mental attitude, if we can do that then we’ll expand upon what we did this year.”