State tournament for boys and girls begins Thursday; Osceola County has 30 qualifiers
Osceola County will be well represented this weekend with 30 competitors qualifying for the FHSAA State Wrestling Championships, which runs Thursday through Saturday at the Silver Spurs Arena.
For the first time, the championships feature an official girls’ state tournament.
Harmony will send the county’s largest boys contingent with 10 qualifiers. The Longhorns made school history last weekend when they captured the Class 3A Region 3 championship, Harmony’s first regional title.
“It was a tough meet,” HHS Coach Vic Lorenzano said. “There were three teams that had a realistic chance to win the title. We knew it would be tight and then we had four kids who we thought would make it to the finals lose semifinal matches. All four rebounded in wrestle backs to finish third and score valuable team points. When things go wrong, we always emphasize that you deal with it and try for the next best thing and those guys did that.”
Three won regional champions: J.C. McNichols (138-pound weight class, 47-1 season record), Anthony Falotico (160, 28-5), and Nelson Toro (220, 44-2). Also qualifying via top four finishes in regionals are Landon Davis (106, 4th), Carson Estrada (120, 3rd), Rey Ortiz (126, 3rd), Shawn McAllister (132, 3rd), Kade Toner (145-3rd), Maverick Hauser (152-4th), and Caden Gayle (285, 2nd).
“J.C. has had a great season but last week in the district finals he had an incredibly tough match (with Freedom’s Eric Aja),” Lorenzano said. “J.C. came out and dominated his regional tournament, pinning four straight opponents, including Eric in the finals. We have a lot of ranked guys but Anthony is one who does not garner a lot of attention. I think he definitely sent a message with four pins and a championship at 160.”
As to what he looks forward to this week, Lorenzano says expectations are changing at Harmony.
“We graduated a bunch of kids that made the state tournament last year and yet we still qualified 10 this year. That says a lot about our program and establishes us in that group of elite state wrestling schools. So going out and doing our ‘best’ is no longer a goal. The challenge is bigger now. We want tournament wins, we want guys on the podium and we want to win state titles.”
Tohopekaliga sent eight wrestlers to the Harmony regional, and Jayson Ortiz (4th at 132) will wrestle at the Spurs.
Meanwhile, long time state power Osceola Kowboys will attempt to keep an impressive streak of producing at least one individual state champion for 15 consecutive years.
Finishing second in their regional meet, Osceola sends seven into battle this weekend, including regional champions Anderson Heap (126, 46-5 season record) and Cooper Haase (138, 54-3). Gunner Holland, who won a state title at 152 as a freshman, returns to states at 160. He finished second in regionals with a gut-wrenching sudden victory overtime loss to Palmetto’s Roman Garcia. George Duncan (170) and Elijah Vansickle (285) also placed second and will be joined by teammate Melvin Ewen (145, 4th).
“We had a tough regional but it pretty much went as expected. I thought we had a pretty good chance to get one more to states but he came up just short,” Coach Jim Bird said. “State will be a challenge for everyone. Every weight class is stacked with outstanding competitors. It should be an exciting tournament.”
Holland and Haase were state champs last year, and Heap made it to the finals. All three are competing in heavier weight classes this year attempting to keep the OHS champion streak alive.
Celebration and Poinciana also competed in the Osceola regional. Chase McBroom at 152 will be moving on for the Storm. McBroom, 38-8 on the season, finished second in his class – losing to Palmetto Ridge’s Carson Miller (47-4) in the final. Poinciana was expecting to advance Landon Trigueros (25-3), who won his first two matches in the tournament but then lost in the semifinals and then was disqualified in his consolation match.
Liberty, Gateway and St. Cloud all participated in the Class 2A, Region 2 tournament at Lake Gibson in Lakeland and both its representatives, Daniel King (4th at 220, 33-6) and Brainys Robles (2nd at 285, 42-2), earned state tourney spots.
The first girls’ tournament in FHSAA history will be a single classification tournament. Osceola County has 11 qualifiers.
Gateway sends four to the state meet: regional champ Emiliana Martinez (190, Josie Glass (3rd at 155), Lilly Yamber (2nd at 170) and Fredlina Jones (2nd and 235). Celebration will send regional champ Heyeni Costa (170). Osceola will have three representatives in Stacy Pule (2nd at 105), Kellina Mack (3rd at 126) and Cathia Timas (2nd at 140). Poinciana advances Ivanis Pimentel (4th at 140) and Kaylee Collado (2nd-145) and Tohopekaliga sends Angela Banegas (3rd at 105).
Find ticket information at www.FHSAA.com.
