Wrestling 20130111
Three weekends removed from the start of the state series, defending Class 2A state champion Springstead will journey 150 miles today to participate in the arduous two-day, 32-team IBT (individually bracketed tournament) at Bunnell-Flagler Palm Coast.
The huge mat event, the 27th annual Flagler Rotary Tournament, runs today and Saturday.
While the Eagles attempt to achieve what no other Sunshine State mat squad has ever done – capture the Flagler County event for a tournament-record fifth straight time – the county’s four other programs, Hernando, Central, Nature Coast and Weeki Wachee, will be gathered this weekend at the 10-team Combs Duals at Nature Coast.
Springstead arrives at Flagler fresh from its seventh straight Springstead Invitational title. This weekend will provide a much stiffer test than last weekend’s 21-team event.
The 32-team field is expected to feature: Springstead, Winter Springs, Jensen Beach, Jacksonville-University Christian, two-time Rotary champion Jacksonville-Bolles School, Jacksonville-Providence, DeLand, Crawfordville-Wakulla, Melbourne-Palm Bay, Orange City-University, Palm Coast Matanzas, Tallahassee-Chiles, Orange Park-Ridgeview, Daytona Beach-Seabreeze, Tampa Bay Christian Academy, Deltona, Niceville, St. Augustine, St. Augustine-Pedro Menendez, St. Johns-Bartram Trails, St. Johns-Creekside, Orange Park, Orange Park-Fleming Island, Palatka, Celebration, Green Cove Springs-Clay, Clearwater-Countryside, Gainesville, New Symrna Beach, St. Cloud, Titusville-Astronaut, and host and eight-time Rotary champion Flagler Palm Coast.
The event offers a plethora of the finest 1A-3A talent. Besides the assortment of talented Class 2A teams like Jensen Beach (fourth in 2A in 2012), and Ridgeview and Palm Bay (tied for eighth), there are outstanding 1A teams like Clay (state runner-up), University Christian (seventh) and Wakulla (10th).
But what separates this event from others is the assembled 3A heavyweights like Winter Springs (fifth) and Fleming Island (19th).
In particular are the Winter Springs Bears, who placed runner-up to the Eagles last winter by 123.5 points. They not only captured the 3A-District 2 title but followed by hoisting last season’s Region I crown.
Though four regional champions graduated, the Bears return four state qualifiers: seniors Austin Day, Johnny Morgan and Patrick Cobb, and junior Brandon Rod.
Add Brandon Staley, Jordan Tague and David Moodie to the mix and it’s easy to see why the Bears fared better (third) than Springstead’s eighth-place finish at Plant City-Durant’s Cougar Invitational last month.
Tourney director and Flagler’s first-year head coach Tom Bartolotta believe Winter Springs and Springstead have separated themselves from the rest of the field.
“Winter Springs and Springstead have the edge coming here,” explained Bartolotta, a former Flagler Bulldog grappler under Hall of Famer Steve DeAugustino, who relocated back to Florida after coaching in Macon, Ga. “I don’t see Springstead winning this like they did last year. With all the teams here, it’ll be very interesting.”
In the Eagles’ defense, Springstead entered Durant minus two state qualifiers: seniors Joe Russo and Stephen Pavao – who were both sidelined with the flu.
The Mariner Boulevard mat men will be making their fifth straight Flagler trek behind six returning placers including 2012 Flagler champions Pavao at 120 pounds and Russo at 152.
Junior Jordan Rivera, a two-time state placer, is also a two-time third-place medalist at Flagler.
Sophomore Michael McDonald placed runner-up at 113 last winter, while sophomores Matt Landgraff at 106 and Conor Ross at 170 placed third.
Ross, Landgraff and Rivera enter the meet tied for the county lead in victories (31).
McDonald and Rivera are tied for the county lead in pins (19).
On the meet’s degree of difficulty, Springstead’s first-year skipper Sal Basile did not mince his words.
“This one is right up there with Osceola (Knockout Christmas Classic two weeks ago) and Durant,” stressed Basile. “There are a lot of credentialed kids and great teams coming like Clay, Wakulla, Fleming Island, Jensen Beach and Winter Springs. It’s going to be a war.”
On the emphasis in the practice following the Springstead Invitational, “We’re trying to build on the momentum created last weekend,” explained Basile following his team’s fifth tournament title. “We still need guys to pull through. We’ve only got two meets left before districts.
“I thought we were getting ridden too long,” indicated Basile on an area of concern. “We really worked on the bottom position this week.”
On what it’ll take to earn a rare five-peat at Flagler, “It’ll take a total effort,” he said. “Our big dogs have got to be big dogs. They can’t just settle on playing fifth or sixth. This (tough competition) is exactly what we needed.
“You can’t fool the kids,” forecasted Coach Basile. “They understand the types of kids that will be at Flagler and then the following week at (Brandon’s) Ippolito. It’s a good steppingstone. It’ll give us an idea of where we’re at.”
As far as the team’s health, “Knock on wood, we’re as healthy as we’ve been all season,” said Basile, who’ll fill 13 weight classes this weekend – all but 132.
This weekend’s Combs Duals has morphed into a two-day event at Nature Coast. The first two Shark Duals in 2010-11 were one-day, six-team affairs. Last year’s tourney stretched over two days.
This weekend’s event features 10 teams in a round-robin duals format: Central, Hernando, Weeki Wachee, Dunnellon, Gainesville-Buchholz, Gulf Breeze, Lutz-Steinbrenner, Palm Harbor-University, Wesley Chapel and host Nature Coast.
Defending champion is PH-University. The Pinellas County Hurricanes solved Nature Coast in last year’s tourney final, 37-28.
Today’s action runs from 1 to 10 p.m. at the Nature Coast gymnasium. Saturday’s action runs from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
In 2010, Nature Coast won the inaugural event, but has placed runner-up each of the past two winters.
Over their past three dual-meet tourneys, the Sharks have fared exceptionally well posting a fine 15-2 (88 percent) won-lost slate.
“It’s a good mix of 1A, 2A and 3A teams,” indicated Nature Coast’s ninth-year skipper Mike Lastra, whose team enters with a county-best 13-4 dual-meet record this winter. “We’ve got a dominant team like Palm Harbor and we have a team with seven returning state qualifiers in Gulf Breeze. It should be a lot of fun.”
Nature Coast is expecting to bring in 17 grapplers. According to Coach Lastra, the Brooksville mat men will be without the services of senior heavyweight Anthony Siciliano, who’ll be out of town on a football recruiting trip.
Look for sophomore Dean Brooks to replace Siciliano in the starting lineup at 285.
The Sharks will call this weekend a success, “If we get better every match,” declared Lastra.
Senior Sean Nguyen, who missed last week’s Springstead Invitational due to a flu bug, is expected to compete at 106.
Nguyen, a 2012 state placer (fourth), is on the brink of setting two more school records.
The fourth-year starter arrives riding a 13-match winning skein. The school record of 16 wins in a row is shared by Carlos Carrasquillo and Greg Jarque III.
With eighth win this weekend, Nguyen would eap past Carter Bolesta’s school record of 133 career wins.
Nguyen (22-1) and senior Brandon Vovan (22-2) are tied for the team lead in victories.
Weeki Wachee, which went 1-6 at this tournament last winter, is coming off a 19th-place finish at the Springstead Invitational.
On this weekend’s Combs Duals, “We had 10 matches against Palm Harbor last year,” indicated a frustrated Hornet head coach Joe Felice. “And it took 16 minutes to finish. That’s a great team. And Gulf Breeze and Steinbrenner both have some good individual kids, too.”
On the Hornet’s focus, “We’ll compete against who we can,” shrugged Felice on his 11-10 squad. “If we don’t come ready to wrestle, it’ll be a long two days. We’ve got some talent; they’ve just got to put it all together. We’re doing the right things in practice; it just hasn’t translated to the mats yet.”
According to Felice, look for Weeki Wachee to bring “11-12 wrestlers. We’ll fill every weight class but 160 and 182.”
Injuries have sidelined a trio of starters: Andrew Vreeland, Timonte Hunter and Jake Wilson. This week, 285-pounder Anthony Vines will be a spectator after developing a skin condition following the Springstead Invitational.
Padilla (27-18 overall) at 113 and freshman Brandon Smith (25-8) enter the Combs Duals leading the Hornets in wins.
For the fourth straight winter, Central will return to this tournament. Central is a combined 8-11 over the past three seasons at Nature Coast.
Junior Jesus Nieves is coming off a solid 5-1 performance worth third place at 145 pounds at Springstead. Nieves paces the squad in wins (15).
Hernando arrives following last week’s 14th-place finish out of 21 teams at the Springstead Invitational.
The Leopards went 11-19 in Spring Hill with two placers: junior Jesse Gaudin (1st) at 220 and junior Brennan Ertl (3rd) at 152.
Ertl arrives with a team-best 23-5 slate followed by Gaudin’s 17-1 mark.
This weekend marks the first time the Purple and Gold have competed in this event.
Past Rotary Team Champions
YEAR CHAMPION
1987 Bishop Kenny
1988 Flagler Palm Coast
1989 Flagler Palm Coast
1990 Bolles
1991 Flagler Palm Coast
1992 Flagler Palm Coast
1993 Bolles
1994 Flagler Palm Coast
1995 St. Benedicts
1996 Flagler Palm Coast
1997 Bolles
1998 Brandon
1999 Flagler Palm Coast
2000 Clay
2001 University Christian
2002 University Christian
2003 St. Benedicts
2004 Venice
2005 Venice
2006 St. Benedicts
2007 Flagler Palm Coast
2008 Niceville
2009 Springstead
2010 Springstead
2011 Springstead
2012 Springstead
Past Rotary Outstanding Wrestlers
YEAR NAME SCHOOL
1987 Wayne Williams Flagler Palm Coast
1988 Guy Gatti Merritt Island
1989 John Willaims Bradford
1990 Chris Bono Bolles
1991 Chris Bono Bolles
1992 Wes Spencer Flagler Palm Coast
1993 Miciah Weatherly Bolles
1994 A]phonso Clark Flagler Palm Coast
1995 David Alrndeda St. Benedicts
1996 Rob Fries Flagler Palm Coast
1997 Jamey Stowell Bishop Kenny
1998 Jason Lambrecht Brandon
1999 John Solomon Tampa Jesuit
2000 Andy Blicker Suwannee
2001 Bryan DeStefano Suffern, NY
2002 Zac Tomlinson Flagler Palm Coast
2003 Levi Duyn Venice
2004 Willie Weber Flagler Palm Coast
2005 Tommy Colyard Satelite
2006 Jordan Gaudette St. Cloud
2007 Stephen DeAugustino Flagler Palm Coast
2008 Deron Carter Flagler Palm Coast
2009 Jacob Harmer Gainesville
2010 Pete Baldwin Osceola
2011 Nick Soto Springstead
2012 Jared Browning Jensen Beach
