Softball, flag football, track boys volleyball and weightlifting — something for everyone
Pick a spring sport and you will state championship playoff action in full swing this week. That action includes half of the public schools in Osceola County that still have teams or individuals alive in competition.
In flag football, Harmony (17-1), the top seed in Region 4A-3 Class 4A, Region 3, continues its march to a possible Final Four appearance when it hosts Palm Beach Gardens on Monday at 7 p.m.
Paul Strauch’s team earned the spot in the regional semifinals with a convincing 34-0 win over Cypress Creek in last week’s quarterfinals; while Palm Gardens escaped with 21-20 win over Celebration. With a win Monday, Harmony would host the winner of Wellington and Fort Pierce Central in a regional championship game Thursday.
With an 18-0 win over Gulf last Thursday, Gateway (12-3) advanced to the 2A-3 semifinals. The Panthers face a huge task in front of them Monday, as they travel to Tampa Robinson (17-1), the five-time defending state champions.
Softball regionals start on Thursday. St. Cloud won a district championship with a dramatic 2-1 win over Harmony and is seeding third in Region 7A-2. The Bulldogs (17-10) will host local rival Tohopekaliga (11-5) at 7 p.m., led by two-time county Player of the Yeat Addison Felblinger.
Harmony (11-12) was ranked high enough after a tough schedule to earn an at-large regional bid and plays at Boone on Thursday. Those two teams squared off in the season opener, with the Braves defeating the Longhorns, 6-4.
Individual state champions will be crowned this weekend in both track and field and boys weightlifting.
Led by coach Cory Aun, St. Cloud, the long dominating weightlifting team in the county, will send nine competitors in the Olympic division (snatch plus clean-and-jerk), including Brayden Politano (119-pound weight class), Ayden Lopez (119), Jayden Green-Alemany (129), Jason Isaraphanich (139), Santos Torres (139), Jaden Perez (183), Gilbert Chase (199), Tyler Hartman (219), and Mauricio Cuello-Vega (238). Harmony will have three competitors: Benjamin Ngo (154), Barry Bryce (169) and Mekhi Ealy (unlimited); while Poinciana has Anthony Gonzalez (119) and Jean Lauger (139).
In the traditional (snatch plus bench press), Lopez, Green-Alemany, Isaraphanich, and Perez were all double qualifiers for St. Cloud; while Bulldogs Deme Holligsworth (154) also qualified. Celebration will send Matt Murawsky (169) and regional champ George Taruru (219).
The top six finishers in each weight class earn medals, and Aun is hopeful he will have as many as five medalists, and believes Green-Alemany has a shot to reach the top of the podium.
The University of North Florida will host the FHSAA Class 3A (Friday) and Class 4A (Saturday) track championships this weekend. Osceola County will be well represented in both meets as Gateway (in Class 3A), Celebration, St. Cloud and Osceola (4A) all had automatic qualifiers via top two finishes during regional competition this weekend at George Jenkins High School in Lakeland.
St. Cloud middle distance runner Kyla Perez (800), triple jumpers Korbyn Jones (Osceola) and Melina Figueroa (Gateway) are all headed to state as regional champions. Perez won the 800 meters (2:16.90) and will be joined by Celebration’s Evelyn Juden (2:17.57), who took the other automatic berth with a second-place finish. Jones won the 4A regional title in the triple jump (38-9 ½); while Figueroa was the 3A champion in the same event (37-5 ¼).
Gateway saw Ethan Antle and Maxwell Garcon qualify in two field events each with second place finishes. Antle advances in the pole vault (13-3 ½) and javelin (166-5); while Garcon took second in the long jump (23-2) and triple jump (48-3 ½). St. Cloud had a two-event qualifier as Denzel Hawkins will make the 4A state meet in the 110 (14.65) and 400 (56.23) hurdles with second place finishes. Other automatic qualifiers from Osceola County included Gateway’s Sarah Diaz in the pole vault (9-4 ¼) and Osceola’s Nicole Oliveira in the long jump; her leap of 19-2 ½ broke an 18-year-old OHS record.
On Monday, several other Osceola County athletes could join the field when final at-large spots are sorted out. On the girls side, pole vaulters Sophia Meadows (Celebration) and Brooke Bonesteel (St. Cloud); Osceola’s 4x100 relay team, Kowboys long jumper and triple jumper Cheyenne Pryce, Tohopekaliga high jumper Sanaa Charles, and Gateway hurdler Figueroa hope to make the field.
In boys track, the 4x800 relay teams from St. Cloud and Gateway; the 4x400 team from Celebration, and Gateway’s Anderson Olea (3,200 meters) and Garcon (high jump) are also candidates for at-large bids,
Unlike other sports, at-large qualifying can be accomplished for performances at select meets during the year and not just regional competition.
In baseball, Harmony’s run came to an end with back-to-back shutout losses to Vero Beach (7-0, 1-0) in a best-of-three series this past weekend. Indians pitchers Nate Downey and Brandon Walker each pitched complete-game shutouts.
“We knew they had an outstanding pitching staff and they certainly had that on display,” Harmony coach Heath Williams said. “We had some discussions on how to set up our pitching staff for the weekend and we let that first game get away from us. Still credit to Vero, they are going to be a tough out for anyone.”
Harmony’s boys volleyball team will play in the Region 3A-2 semifinals Tuesday after a five-set victory over Celebration on Thursday. The Longhorns (21-3), ranked No. 21 in the state across all classes, play at Horizon (24-3), the No. 5 ranked team, at 7 p.m.
Finally, congratulations are extended to Harmony wrestler Nathan Lyttle, who went 4-0 to win a Puerto Rico national championship over the weekend in the 20-U competition A three-time member of the national team, Lyttle will represent his county at the 20-U World Championships this summer in Slovakia.
