After the Christmas break, high school wrestling swings into full gear as all county schools participate in FHSAA District Dual meets this week.
The top two teams in each district meet will advance to the regional duals scheduled for the following week.
Harmony, which moved up to Class 3A this year, will be favored to win the District 9 meet hosted by Tohopekaliga Saturday. Freedom, Colonial, Cypress Creek, Oak Ridge and Boone round out the field. If the Longhorns are victorious, they will host the regional meet.
“It will be a good test for us,” Harmony Head Coach Vic Lorenzano said. “Freedom is always a tough team, Tohopekaliga has a full team and Boone always has some good kids. Our goal is definitely to win and get to host regionals at our place.”
Harmony currently has three undefeated wrestlers in J.C. McNichols (145 pounds), Nelson Toro (220) and Rey Ortiz (126) and should have the depth needed to possibly advance to the state dual championships slated for Osceola High School on Jan. 21-22.
“The duals championships are so different from the individual state championships in March,” Lorenzano said. “It’s certainly more of a team event, and one that requires not only talent but talented depth to compete in.”
In other districts, Celebration hosts the Class 3A District 5 meet on Wednesday. Poinciana and Osceola are also in that district. St. Cloud, Gateway and Liberty participated in the Class 2A, District 8 meet at Winter Springs.
“Winter Springs will definitely be favored to win.” St. Cloud head coach Mike Short said early in the week. “If we had a few more wrestlers to come out, I think we could have been competitive but when you have to forfeit two or three weight classes it’s tough to advance in a team event. We will go out and give it our best with our available roster.”
Long a wrestling powerhouse, Osceola has seen 16 different wrestlers win a total of 29 individual state championships over the last 15 years. Since a dual team championship tournament was added in 2018, the Kowboys have advanced to the state finals all four times – finishing second in 2020.
Osceola may struggle a little this year, as the team has lacked wrestlers in the three lightest weight classes.
“We have been grooming some younger wrestlers but with Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks it hasn’t been easy,” Kowboys Coach Jim Bird said. “Hopefully we’ll have some kids to fill those weight classes and we will see what happens.”
Osceola hosted the Knockout Classic last week at Silver Spurs Arena. One of the most prestigious individual tournaments in the United States, it featured 60 teams and a dozen wrestlers ranked in the top 20 in the nation.
Cooper Haase was the top finisher for the Kowboys as he took the silver medal in the 138-pound weight class, losing a close 3-1 decision to three-time state champion Tom Crook of Tampa Jesuit.
Haase – who’s already won two state championships in that same building — took major decisions over Columbus High’s Aiden Gasper (14-6) and Palmetto’s Demetri Zertopoulius (15-3). He then pinned Jensen Beach’s Jewell Williams in the quarterfinals before taking a 5-1 decision over Lassiter’s (Georgia) David Panone in the semifinals. That victory set up the match with Crook, who came into the tournament as the sixth ranked wrestler in the nation at 138 according to Trackwrestling.com.
“It was a tremendous overall performance by Cooper,” Osceola Coach Jim Bird said. “He put himself in a position to win against a great wrestler, unfortunately it didn’t work out. But the thing is you become the best by going against the best and for that reason it was a great experience for not only Cooper and our entire team.”
The tournament attracted some of the top wrestlers in the nation. Chase Horne of West Laurens (Georgia) remained undefeated on the season at 37-0 in winning the 285-pound championship. Horne is currently the third ranked wrestler in the nation at that weight class.
Matt Singleton, fifth-ranked nationally from Woodward Academy (Ga.), remained undefeated (30-0) in winning at 185. Woodland’s (Carterville, Ga.) Caleb Henson – who was the highest ranked national competitor in the event at No. 2 – swept through the competition to win his fourth consecutive Knockout championship, taking the title at 152. Henson joined former Osceola wrestler and current Lehigh University standout Malyke Hines as the only four-time winners of the prestigious event.
Jesuit was dominant in the tournament, winning the team championship with 205 points. In addition to Tom Crook, his brother Jack Crook won the 145-pound title; Braden Fasile was the 132-pound. champion, and Sergio Desiante was tops at 195. Roman Lermer took third at 113 and Josiah Jenkins was fifth at 182 for Jesuit.
