Hasse, Hines state champions, Osceola 4th in tournament

Osceola High School’s Cooper Haase (106) and Jaekus Hines (132) dominated their weight classes to win Individual state titles at the FHSAA Class 3A State Wrestling Championships last weekend at Silver Spurs Arena.

The Kowboys, who took one of their smallest contingents to the state tournament in recent memory, still made of the most of the opportunity. In addition to the state titles from Hines and Haase, Nolin Eaddy captured second in the 172-pound weight class and Dylan Ruiz also earned all-state honors with a third place finish at 220-pounds.

When points from Adriel Martinez (152) were added in, the Kowboys finished the twoday event with 97 points. That was good for a fourth place finish among the 56 schools that brought wrestlers to the tournament. As expected, South Dade (199) won the team championship for a seventh straight year; while state powers Miami Southwest (108), and Fleming (107) finished second and third respectively.

Haase ran his season record to 55-6 in his first year with the Kowboys varsity. He opened his championship meet with a technical fall and a second round pin, before earning a spot in the championship match with an 8-0 major decision over South Dade’s Adrian Morales. That win over Morales signified a significant turning point for Haase, who lost to Morales twice in December, including a 3-0 setback in the consolation finals of Osceola’s prestigious Knockout Christmas Tournament.

The victory set up a match against sophomore Christian Guzman (57-8), of Columbus. Haase took control early, but gave up a reversal at the end of the third period and led by just one point, 4-3. But that would be as close as Guzman would get. Haase dominated from that point forward, easily earning an 11-3 win.

“We knew Cooper was going to be outstanding wrestler eventually, but he really matured a lot quicker than any of us thought he would. In the month of February he took it to the next level,” Bird said. “Cooper lost twice to Morales in December and then came back and beat him 8-0 in the semis. In the championship match, he made one little mistake in the first period and gave up a reversal, but he set it aside and just went about his business:’

Hines wins his first state title after back-toback second place finishes. Ranked first in the state in Class 3A for most of the season, Hines faced little opposition in getting to the championship match, picking up three decisive wins including a second period pinfall over Cole Bosch of Olympic Heights in the semifinals.

That set up a championship match between Hines and South Dade’s Adrian Neco (68-21). Hines opened with a quick takedown on Neco and controlled him for the rest of the period to take a 2-0 lead. In the second period, he had a reversal and two quick takedowns to up his lead to 7-2. On the second takedown he eventually turned Neco and got the pin why five seconds remaining."

“It meant a lot to me after finishing second two years running; Hines said. “We worked all season on just getting better and better, and it paid off."

Hines’ brother, Malyke, won numerous state titles with the Kowboys, and now the brother tandem joins Pete and Fox Baldwin as brothers who have won state titles for Osceola High.

Osceola also a had a state finalist at 182-pounds, where junior Nolin Eaddy defeated South Dade’s Daniel Espinoza-Delgado (11-0), Hagerty’s Ethan Lopez (4-2) and Treasure Coast’s Marco Bragado (7-0) to reach the championship match against top-seeded and undefeated Jesse Martinez of Riverview (38-0).

Although Martinez dominated the match, 9-0, Bird noted that Eaddy,”Had an outstanding tournament.’’

In the consolation round, dual sport star Dylan Ruiz gave Osceola a fourth all-state selection with a thrilling 3-1 sudden victory over Gerald Greaves, of Dr. Phillips. It was an emotional win for Ruiz, who had lost a heartbreaking 5-4 decision to SeminoleSanford’s Jordan Smith in the second round.

Martinez (20-17) just missed an opportunity to get on the podium when he lost a third round consolation match to Wellington’s Justin Henry by a 9-8 score.

In addition to Kowboys, several other Osceola schools were represented at the Class 3A Championships. Celebration’s Kyler Prazler went 1-2 in the 113-pound weight class; and St. Cloud’s Caleb George (132) and Wilfredo Martinez (160) both went 0-2 in the state championships.