Osceola High School has another state champion. Well actually three.
Sophomore Cooper Haase (120), senior Jaekus Hines (138) and freshman Gunner Holland (152) all took individual titles in the FHSAA Class 3A State Wrestling Championships held Mar. 5-6 at Osceola Heritage Park.
In all, the Kowboys had a sensational meet, as Anderson Heap (106) and Nolin Eaddy (195) came in with second place finishes as the Kowboys sent five wrestlers to the finals and racked up 126 points to finish fourth in the team championship.
It marked the 15th straight year the Kowboys claimed at least one state champion.
“It was a tremendous effort by everyone,” Head Coach Jim Bird said. “Having three individual champions makes it a really good year. I do feel sorry for Nolin though. He earned four trips to states and was a runner-up as both a sophomore and junior and I know how badly he wanted to win a championship in his senior year.”
Heap, a freshman, earned a trip to the finals by easily beating previously undefeated Patrick Jones, of Wellington, in the semifinals by a 13-0 score. But in the finals, he wrestled Christian Guzman (43-2) to a 2-2 tie after one period, but was turned and pinned in the second period to finish his season with a 35-3 record.
“Really good first season for Anderson,” Bird noted. “He was fearless all season and certainly didn’t wrestle like a freshman and is only going to get better from this point on.”
Haase, who won a state title as a freshman at 106, had a tough road at 120. He faced a defending state champion in Daniel Martinez (13-0) in the semifinals were he built and early 5-0 lead but had to hold on for a thrilling 7-6 win. He would then dominate in the finals building a huge 11-2 lead before pinning Venice’s Bryce Taranto to claim his second state championship.
“He (Martinez) is a really good wrestler,” Haase said of his semifinal opponent. “It was a tough match but once I got past him I felt pretty good about the championship match. I was able to execute my game plan in the finals and keep my goal alive of being a four-time state champion.”
Osceola would send its next wrestler to the top of the podium just 30 minutes later in the 138 pound weight class when Hines put on a dominating performance against South Dade’s Alex Couto, who came into the meet with a 50-4 record. Hines took an 18-5 major decision over Couto to cap off his career with a second consecutive state title. Hines, who recently signed to a scholarship offer with Appalachian State, finished his season with a 42-1 record with his only loss coming to a state champion from Georgia in a Holiday Invitational.
“Although he has had a great career, something seemed a little bit different with Jaekus starting with regionals. He looked like a man on a mission and certainly performed like that in the state tournament – dominating the competition,” Bird said. In addition to a pin in the quarterfinals, Hines outscored his other three opponents by a 52-6 margin.
Osceola picked up its third title at 152 when Gunner Holland defeated a regional champion in Alex Chitty of Palm Harbor, 3-2, in extra time. The two wrestled to a 0-0 standoff in the first period, while each wrestler registered escapes in the next two periods as the match was tied 1-1 after regulation. Neither wrestler could manage a takedown in the first sudden victory period. In the next 30 second period, which started with Holland on top, Chitty escaped to take a 2-1 lead and only needed to control Holland for 30 seconds in the next period for the win. With just four seconds to go, Holland reversed Chitty for the 3-2 win.
“I knew time was running out and I knew he was going to try to keep my right arm pinned in and I was ready for it,” Holland said. “I was able to hit a last second switch and get the reversal for the win.”
Every one of Holland’s matches in the state tournament came down to the wire, as he won 12-9 in the round of 16, 3-2 in the quarterfinals and 7-6 in the semifinals.
“Not really shocked Gunner won, because we knew he had a chance to be pretty good,” Bird noted. “He missed the first third of the season as he was playing football and then we were trying to figure his best weight class – moving him up and down. But once things were settled he just got better and better each week. He gained some confidence, developed a good game plan for this tournament and stuck with it,” Bird said.
In other state action, Harmony sent 10 wrestlers to the Class 2A Championship and ended up finishing sixth in the team race with 83 points. Five Longhorn wrestlers earned All-State honors as JC McNichols placed third in the 132 pound class, Fletcher Small (138), Juan Gomez (195) was fourth and Darren Davis (285) took fifth place.
