State meet begins Thursday at Silver Spurs
It was an outstanding weekend for the Harmony Longhorns wrestling team as they won a regional team championship, took four individual titles and will send seven athletes to the FHSAA Class 3A State Championship at Silver Spurs Arena.
The opening round for boys and girls begins Thursday just after noon following weigh-ins.
The Longhorns capped the 31-team Region 3 tournament Saturday with 164 points to edge second place Wellington (159) for the team title. Host Osceola (132.5) was third; Tohopekaliga (8th-86), St. Cloud (14th-48), Celebration (22nd-18) and Poinciana (27th-6) also competed.
“Really a tremendous day for our team and school,” Harmony coach Vic Lorenzano said. “Regionals are always going to feature a tough and talented field, but we came through with some really gritty performances.”
One of those gritty performances came at 132 pounds; Max Butler defeated Wellington’s Kai Benedett in overtime in the semifinals before dominating Boca Raton Community’s Javin Taylor in the finals, 18-10.
A familiar story, Harmony was extremely tough at the top of its lineup with four championships and a fourth in the lightweights. Tristin Horn, now 45-1, took out Olympic Heights’ Chris Schnobrick, 6-2, to win at 106 and Nathan Lyttle stayed undefeated (47-0) and should be the No. 1 state seed Thursday with a 10-2 major decision over Park Vista’s Nicolas Degrossi. Nevan Irving (52-7) earned Harmony’s other regional title with a fall over Freedom’s Nathan Fisher at 120.
“Nate’s always been extremely talented but he took his training to a new level in the summer, competing and training with and against some of the best in the nation,” Lorenzano said.
Lyttle said he was looking forward to the challenge of winning a state championship after finishing third as a sophomore.
“I’m pretty familiar with the guys I am going to see (at state), I wrestled a lot of them this season,” Lyttle said. “The goal remains the same, stick to the game plan, take one match at time.”
Longhorns Landon Davis (126), Christian Rodriguez (138) and Seth Scutero (190) all qualified with fourth place finishes.
Osceola, who did not have a regional champion the first time in recent memory, will send six to the Silver Spurs. Isfandier Sharipov (138), a defending state champion Ehab Shalaby (144), Nathan Cabrera (157) and David Yi-Sanchez (165) all won consolation finals for third-place finishes. They will be joined by silver medalists Deacon Delong (190) and Elijah VanSickle (215). Delong fell 5-3 to Jupiter’s Alex Davis after narrowly missing two potential match-tying takedowns in the final seconds; while VanSickle’s 2-1 loss to Colonial’s undefeated Logan Silva (40-0) came on a third period penalty point for stalling.
Sharipov and the other five Osceola qualifiers will attempt to extend the Kowboys remarkable streak of at least one individual boys’ state champion to 19 years.
Tohopekaliga’s Nathan Barrett (150, 33-2) claimed a regional championship with a 5-3 win over Viera’s Edwin Torres. They also had a finalist in Bryan Batles, who was pinned by Wellington’s Mac Andrews at 165. Those two, along with Juan Hildago (4th-157) will represent the Tigers.
St. Cloud will send two to states in Carter Rivera (3rd-113) and Eann Mesa (4th-215); while Celebration qualified Austin Werner (4th-150). The Bulldogs just missed a third qualifier when heavyweight Andrew Colantonio lost in the “blood round” in sudden victory overtime to Colonial’s Aiden Pizarro.
While those six schools were competing in Region 3A-3, Gateway sent a large contingent to Region 2A-2 meet in Brandon. Jason Perez (4th -113) was the lone Panther advanced out of the super tough regional that included state powers Lake Gibson, Jesuit and Brandon.
The FHSAA girls tournament will also occur starting Thursday at the Silver Spurs, and Osceola and Harmony send 10 qualifiers after last week’s regional meet.
Osceola’s Genesis Fuentes and Harmony’s Zahailey Caffrey could be on a crash course at 135 pounds. Osceola’s Paola Ramirez (125) and Denalie Dauphin (140) and Harmony’s Anniy Kiley Vinson (130) are regional champs. Osceola’s Erickz Hernandez (145), Aleah Morales (105), Lily Tucker (175) and Anniah Wayne (100) and Harmony’s Katelyn Holt (235) will also wrestle at the Spurs.
Ticket and other information can be found at www.FHSAA.com.
