Harmony, Osceola dominate district wrestling
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Led by state champions Ashley Aun (center) and Reese Butler (right center), the St. Cloud High girls weightlifting team had top 10 team finishes at FHSAA Class 3A State Championships at Lakeland Saturday. PHOTO/ST. CLOUD HIGH SCHOOL -
Harmony and Osceola (pictured) won their respective district team titles on Saturday and will send large contingents to regional competition this week.
St. Cloud High’s storied girls weightlifting program will need to find space for three more state championship medals in its trophy case.
At the Class 3A state weightlifting championships in Lakeland Saturday, the Bulldogs saw Reese Butler win traditional and Olympic tiles at the 199-pound class, while senior Ashley Aun took gold in the 110-pound traditional title and second in the Olympic. They were the Bulldogs’ seventh and eighth state championships in girls weightlifting.
Butler won the Olympic competition with a 365-pound total by five pounds over Dana Tolleson of Milton High School. With a total of 175 pounds on the bench and her 210 clean and jerk, she also easily won the traditional.
“Reese had a phenomenal meet,” St. Cloud coach Cory Aun said. “The way they had the meet set up they had all 10 weight classes going at the same time, making it difficult to have coaches present for every attempt. Not only did Reese had a fantastic meet, but I also have to give my assistant Dylan Hayes some credit because he was the one with her for warm-ups and her attempts.”
Butler was steady the whole meet, hitting eight of her nine lift attempts.
After getting third place in the 101-pound class last season, Ashley Aun reached the top of the podium with a 155 pound bench and 145-pound clean and jerk. Aun almost brought home double gold but missed her final attempt at 165 pounds in the clean-and-jerk.
“I was proud of her performance and her career,” Aun said of his daughter. “Ever since she was walking, she would use a pipe to imitate me lifting in my garage.”
Among other Osceola County lifters to reach the podium, Tohpekaliga’s Alexa Woodman was second in the Olympic event (340 pounds) and third in the traditional (350) at 139 pounds, She’s the highest-finishing Tohopekaliga girls’ lifter in school history.
St. Cloud’s Morgan Van Auken had a top 10 finish in the Olympic at 183 pounds (310 total).
Overall, Osceola County sent 16 lifters from five different schools to the state championship. St. Cloud led the way with seven qualifiers, Harmony four, Osceola and Tohopekaliga two and Celebration one.
“Overall, I thought we had a terrific meet,” Aun said. “Of our seven state qualifiers, Ashley was the only senior, so the future is bright.”
Pace High won both 3A team championships; St. Cloud was sixth in both disciplines.
Longhorns and Kowboys win district wrestling titles. Taking the first step to the state championship, both Harmony and Osceola dominated their = district tournaments and St. Cloud finished a surprising second in theirs.
In the girls’ Region 2 tournament Friday, eight Osceola County athletes qualified for the state tournament.
In Thursday’s District 2A-7 meet, host St, Cloud tied Auburndale for second place (145 points) and Gateway was fourth (134) behind dominant Lake Gibson.
Led by district champion Carter Rivera (106 pounds), St. Cloud will send seven wrestlers to next week’s regional championships at Brandon High School; Gateway sends seven.
Osceola (274 points) put on an awesome performance in the District 3A-5 tournament. Celebration was sixth (69) and Poinciana was eighth (47). The Kowboys posted 10 individual district champions: Adaias Ortiz (113), Taylyn Fisk (120), Isfandier Sharipov (132), Ehab Shalaby (138), Jayson Ortiz (140), Anderson Heap (150), Nathaniel Cabrera (157), Deacon DeLong (160), Gunner Holland (175) and Jaquille Knox (285).
Poinciana will send Alfred Saurez (3rd-106) and Noah Otero (2nd-165) to regionals and Celebration sends district champion Jorge Feliz (126), Sammy Nouaydi (3rd-132), Zach DeCesare (4th-138) and Austin Werner (2nd-144).
Osceola will host the 3A, Region 2 Championships starting Friday, when Harmony and Tohopekaliga send qualifiers to the Region 3A-3 meet at Seminole Ridge High School.
The Longhorns also dominated the District 3A-9 championship with 300.5 points; Tohpekaliga was fifth (130.5 points). Harmony posted nine champions and 13 qualifiers. Nathan Lytle (106), Tristan Horn (113), Max Butler (120), Carlos Rodriguez (132), Jeremiah Gomez (150), Shawn McCallister (158), John Fernandez (175), Seth Scutero (190) and Case Roberts (215) won championships; while Gabriel Nascimento (2nd-126), Carson Estrada (2nd-138), Christian Rodriguez (3rd-144) and Aiden Maldonaldo (4th-285) also move on for the ‘Horns.
Tohopekaliga had a solid performance, sending seven through to regionals – including district champion Nate Barrett (138).
In addition to the district meets for the boys, Osceola High School also hosted more than 50 teams for the FHSAA Region 2 Girls Championship. Ten Osceola County girls advanced to the state tournament at the Silver Spurs Arena Feb. 29-Mar. 2.
Two of those wrestlers will go to states as regional champions; Osceola’s Anoyah Whayne won the 100-pound class and Liberty’s Delialah Betances won at 120. Other county qualifiers included Celebration’s Alea Morales (4th-100); Osceola’s Paola Ramirez (2nd-115), Erica Hernandez (4th-140), and Lily Tucker (3rd-170); and Harmony’s Kiley Vinson (4th-135) and Emari Brown (2nd-190).
In the team standings, Osceola (94 points) was fourth, Harmony (53) was eighth and Poinciana (26) was 20th.
