Wrestlers stay sharp in Winter break tourneys
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Harmony’s Nelson Toro (top) works over Palatka’s Mikade Harvey in the 285-pound finals of The Hammer Tournament in Jacksonville. Toro won the match, 11-1. PHOTO/HARMONY HIGH SCHOOL
The FHSAA Duals district championships get underway this week for county wrestling programs. The Osceola Kowboys and the Harmony Longhorns will look to advance and repeat state tournament appearances.
The top two teams in each district will advance to regionals.
The state duals were created in 2018 as a way recognize teams with the best total team depth. Osceola has hosted all five previous state championships and will do so again on its campus Jan. 20-21.
Tohopekaliga will host Class 3A District 9 Duals on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. In addition to the Tigers, Harmony, Boone, Colonial, Cypress Creek, Freedom, Lake Nona, and Oak Ridge will participate.
Harmony, who has won the last three Orange Belt Conference championships, will be favored to advance, while Tohopekaliga will likely battle Freedom for the runner-up spot. Celebration hosted the 3A-5 meet this week (complete results at AroundOsceola.com) where Poinciana, Osceola, Bartow, George Jenkins, Haines City, Davenport Ridge and Winter Haven competed.
The Kowboys have won districts and eventually advanced to the state championship all five years. Harmony, who participated in Class 2A until moving up to 3A last season, is also seeking to advance to the state duals finals for a sixth consecutive year.
Gateway participated in the 2A-7 tournament last week at Lake Gibson but failed to advance. St. Cloud opted out of the duals series this year in order to participate in a holiday tournament in Palm Bay.
Osceola sent four wrestlers to the prestigious Powerade Holiday Tournament in Cannonsburg, Pa. last week. The event, which featured more than 60 teams, is considered one of the top holiday tournaments in the country and featured 50 nationally-ranked wrestlers. Three-time defending state champion Cooper Haase had a great tournament, where he made the finals in the 152-pound weight class.
Haase, ranked ninth nationally in his class, lost to fourth-ranked and top seed Ty Watters in the finals, 5-2.
“Cooper got caught early and fell behind,” Coach Rick Tribit said. “He was down by three points and had his choice to start the final period. We felt his best chance would be to start the bottom, get an escape and go for a tying takedown, but Watters did a great job and was able to ride him out for the entire period. Still it was a great tournament for Cooper.”
Anderson Heap (145), who won three times in the tournament, almost gave Osceola two wrestlers in the semifinals but he lost a controversial 7-4 decision to Cameron Catrabone (Williamsville, N.Y.) in the fourth round. “Anderson was on the tough end of a referee’s decision we didn’t agree with,” Tribit said. “His opponent went on to make the finals, so who knows where Anderson could have finished.”
Heap took a 5-1 decision over Smokey Mcclure (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.) in the seventh-place match. Evan Martinez (120) went 1-2 and Gunner Holland (160) went 2-2. Osceola finished with 44.5 points to finish in 39th place in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Harmony participated in The Hammer, a highly competitive holiday tournament hosted by Jacksonville Oakleaf High School. The Longhorns (193.5 points) had a strong showing, trailing only Fleming (313) for the team title.
Shawn McCallister (138 pounds) and undefeated Nelson Toro (285, 22-0) won individual championships. Toro recorded an 11-1 major decision over Fletcher’s Toby Matson in the championship match. McCallister was equally impressive, pinning his first three opponents before defeating Palaka’s Mikade Harvey in the finals 11-6.
In all, Harmony placed nine wrestlers in the top 5, including second-place Landon Davis (120) and Rey Ortiz (132).
At the Ship Duels in Palm Bay last week, St. Cloud got third place finishes from Luc Beaulieu (113), Nathan Huron (138), Aiden Johnson (185) and Andrew Colantanio.
