By J. Daniel Pearson
For the News-Gazette

In perhaps the least surprising result of the season, the Osceola Kowboys sent 13 wrestlers to the finals and won nine individual titles in cruising to the 2013 Orange Belt Conference tournament championship at Gateway High School on Saturday.

In the finals, Ariel Dominguez got things going early for the Kowboys by pinning Jesus Reynoso of Harmony at the 1:00 mark of the first period to claim the 106-lb. championship. Dominguez went to 30-1 on the season with the win. St. Cloud's Joe McGinley scored a takedown with just 18 seconds left in his 113-lb. match against Osceola's John Locksmith to take a 5-3 decision.

Gateway, which was the only other school to claim more than one individual champion, got on the board as Alex Velez topped Osceola's Hakeem Butler, 5-2, to take the 120-lb. crown.

In the most entertaining match of the finals, OHS's Cody Dana conceded an escape to Harmony's Zac German to start the final period.  The escape ended up being the only point of the period, as German held on for a 9-8 win.  The match went back-and-forth throughout, with both wrestlers recording near falls and reversals that saw the match tied 6-6 after one period and 8-8 after two.

Osceola's Alex Tilford would dominate with a 12-5 win over Harmony's Angel Colemanares at 132, before Liberty's Egituoyo Eliangho would hold on at 138 for a thrilling 5-4 win over Osceola's Giovanni Bonilla.

From that point, the Kowboys would dominate by winning the next seven weight classes.  The wins included nationally-ranked Fox Baldwin running his season record to 36-0 with a dominating 20-5 majority decision over Gateway's Awtin Seward at 145-lbs..  Paul Zupofska took the 152-lb. crown with a first period pin over Harmony's Denzeli Browne. 

In the most highly anticipated match of the evening, Osceola's Spencer Lacey took down Gateway's Chris Vazquez with seconds remaining in the second period to take a 5-3 lead before holding on for a 5-4 win at 160-lbs.  "That was a big win for us," Osceola Head Coach Jim Bird said.  "Chris is an excellent wrestler and Spencer battled him all match."

Max Tilford (170), Jhalen Flanders (182), and Chris Pagan (195) kept the Kowboys winning string alive with three consecutive pins.  Pagan went to 32-0 this season with the win.

The 220-lb. match featured two more evenly matched wrestlers, with Osceola's Ben Cruz coming out on top of Harmony's Andrew Davis by a 4-3 count.  Winning 1-0 late in the second period, Cruz appeared to win the match with a takedown and a pin at the buzzer, but officials huddled and ultimately decided to rule Cruz had an illegal slam on the takedown.  Davis was awarded a point and the match continued.  Davis took a 3-1 lead with a reversal to start the third period, before Cruz was awarded a pair of points on stalling calls.  He would then get an escape with 30 seconds remaining and hold on for the win.

The 285-lb. class was the first that did not feature a Kowboys wrestler.  In that contest, Gateway's Woodly Deseme dominated St. Clouds Alex Southall for a 7-0 win. 

For the tournament, the Kowboys claimed nine titles to go with four second-place and one third place finish.  Gateway had two individual titles with four seconds and four thirds, while Harmony had a first, five second places and three third-place finishes.  St. Cloud had one champion, one second, and two third place finishes.  Liberty (1 champion, 49 points), Celebration (45 points) and Poinciana (20 points) rounded out the scoring.

"I thought we wrestled really well," Bird added. "It was our intention to use this meet as an opportunity to work from our feet and that's why we gave up a lot of escapes in the first period.  On the whole, I think our kids worked hard and took care of our business."

OHS won 10 of 14 matches at the JV tournament.