It was an emotional day at Berkner High School on Saturday with the Wildcats looking to defend their District 18 title.

Things didn’t start off very well for the Wildcats after senior Drew Llorett was disqualified from competing on what appeared to be a misinterpretation of the rules.

With an overall season record of 41-6, Llorett was heavily favored to win his weight class at the district meet. Seeded 6th in the region, Llorett had more than a fighting chance to advance to the state tournament, as well. The disqualification was made by the UIL after an anonymous complaint was filed by one of the district coaches.

The UIL ruled Llorett ineligible to compete in the 112 lb. weight class after dropping too much weight too quickly.

District coaches had the opportunity to allow Llorrett to move back up to the 119 lb. weight class and compete in the district tournament championship, but decided against it, effectively ending Llorett's career. We'll have more on this later.

The day's action got started early Saturday morning and didn’t wrap up until well after 6:00 p.m. By the end of the day, the ‘Cats had placed in 13 out of the 15 weight classes, with 10 LHHS wrestlers winning individual titles.

Earning an impressive 254 points, the 'Cats ran way with the win and pulled off a three-peat as District champs. Wylie finished a distant second place with 160 points.

Head Coach Pete Grieder can now stake his claim to an amazing 18 district titles in his 24 years of coaching the Wildcat wrestling team.

With the ‘Cats taking home 10 individual titles from this year’s district tournament, it’s hard to pick just one match to highlight. Each finals match had its own story to tell, but there was one huge performance that certainly deserves attention.

With the circumstances of teammate Drew Llorett’s disqualification in mind, Sophomore Nathan Schulman’s took the mat against junior John Thompson of Jesuit. The match was clearly one of the most anticipated match-ups of the finals.

Thompson entered the tournament the #1 seed in the 130 lb. weight class and was the overwhelming favorite to take home the title.

On the other hand, the Wildcats weren’t even sure if Schulman was going to be able compete in the tournament after suffering an injury in practice on Tuesday.

There's also more to the story than just Schulman against Thompson. Not unlike the rest of the Wildcat team, Schulman used the disqualification of teammate Drew Llorett as a motivating factor, especially in the finals.

“I have a ton of respect for John Thompson, he's an outstanding wrestler,” said Schulman. “But, I’ll be honest, seeing Drew standing there was huge for me."

“What happened to Drew was just plain wrong. After all he had been through, he was still there at the side of the mat supporting all of us. I wanted to win for him - I wanted to take the title for Drew."

After jumping out to an early 5-0 lead in the 1st period, it looked like Schulman had Thompson pinned but didn’t get the call (see picture #8 in the photo gallery). The near pin was a wake-up call for Thompson who quickly fought back and briefly took the lead at the end of the 2nd period.

However, Thompson’s lead wouldn’t last long as Schulman executed a reversal with just 2 seconds remaining the period, retaking the lead, 7-6.

Hanging on to a one-point lead heading into the third period, Schulman was on the brink of a major upset.