By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Osceola placed third at the Rotary Club Flagler Palm Coast wrestling tournament last weekend as Tim Locksmith (125 pounds) and Pete Baldwin (145) earned tournament championships.

Locksmith (32-2), a junior, won the tournament’s “Most Falls” award after pinning three opponents and earning a technical fall against another.

Baldwin (39-0) extended his national career wins record to 309.

Six of nine Kowboys reached the medal round.

Kenny Martin (152) and Chris Pagan (171) placed third, Alex Rivera (130) was fifth and  Paul Zupofska (140) was sixth.

The JV team featured individual champion Ryan Osborn (135), runner-up Max Tilford (152) and fourth-place Hakeem Butler (119).

The Kowboys are at the Michael Hutchins Invitational Saturday at Bishop Moore.

Harmony also will compete at the Hutchins tournament after winning one match at the Falcon Invitational at Dunedin last weekend.

Horns Coach Chris Todd said his team didn’t wrestle its best at Dunedin and looks to rebound this weekend as it prepares for the upcoming district tournament at St. Cloud Feb. 5.

“Our good guys wrestled very well, but our young guys didn’t do so well and that hurt us,” he said. “That was our third weigh-in that week, and our guys looked tired.”

Alex Githens, one of the county’s best at 171 pounds, should return Saturday after an illness has kept him out of the lineup for three weeks.

“I doubt if he will be 100 percent, but it will be a good tournament to get his feet wet again,” Todd said.

Celebration placed 10th at the Palm Coast tournament last weekend as 119-pounder Josh Douglas (36-3) reached the championship round.

“It was a great effort in a field of 32 teams,” Storm Coach Vic Lorenzano said. “As a team, I think we wrestled pretty gritty. We won some overtime matches, came from behind to win some matches and finished above our seed in almost every spot.”

Heavyweight Alvaron Norena (24-7) and Curtis Temple (18-6) at 171 pounds placed fourth and Brandon Harris (18-6) was sixth at 215 pounds.

“Al placed fourth and had to beat some tough kids to do it,” Lorenzano said. “It propelled him to a No. 10 (state) ranking.”

Brandon Guerrero (215) won the JV tournament. Kody Haley placed third.

Celebration travels to the Tony Ippolitto tournament at Brandon this weekend.

Liberty’s Felix Betancourt (130) and Aric Fernandez (189) won championships at the Ron Peters Tournament of Champions at Lake Mary last weekend.

Freddie Ruiz (171) was fourth.