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Davis rifles Knockout Invite

Randy Lefko
Posted 1/5/17

KISSIMMEE – Fleming Island High School wrestling keeps inching closer and closer to the top tier of the state’s ranks and senior Jason Davis stamped his name as a legit title contender with a …

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Davis rifles Knockout Invite


Posted

KISSIMMEE – Fleming Island High School wrestling keeps inching closer and closer to the top tier of the state’s ranks and senior Jason Davis stamped his name as a legit title contender with a dominating performance en route to a first-ever individual title for Fleming Island High School wrestling at the annual Osceola Knockout Christmas Wrestling Invitational, a veritable Who’s Who Among Florida High School Wrestling.

Clay High senior Kurt Jackson was the lone Blue Devil to make the Knockout finals with a second place finish to 3A state champion Chei Hill of South Dade at 222.

“I got the best coach in the country and the best guys in the room to roll with,” said Davis, a third place Class 3A finisher last year. “I just have to stay focused on my task at hand and keep moving forward.”

Davis, who wrestled just two Florida wrestlers, opened with a 7-3 win over Region 1-3A’s Jessiah Contreras of Winter Springs before pinning against 3A-Wellington High’s Jake Pilat in 41 seconds in his second match. Against North Forsyth, Ga., wrestler Andy Leggett, Davis won 12-4, then major decisioned a second North Forsyth wrestler, Brantley Little, 11-2, before winning a 9-5 decision over Lee-Davis of Missouri wrestler Ned Anthony in the final.

“I think against the different styles of wrestling from around different parts of the country, my strength for my weight is the key to keep moving up in the brackets,” said Davis, who was third at 195 in Class 3A last year. “I’m getting more comfortable with my weight at 182 or 184 because my strength is starting to come back. I think I’m as fit as ever and faster on my feet.”

For the Golden Eagles team effort, a fourth place finish, the appearance of coach P.J. Cobbert’s boys on the state stage has been a result of some inward resolve.

“We showed today that we can wrestle move for move with the best guys in the state...to a point,” said a coy Cobbert about halfway through the quarterfinal matches that had seven Golden Eagle wrestlers. “We just have to get a little grittier in the tough moments of matches to swing the result toward us. We go toe-to-toe, but it’s little things that make teams like Camden and South Dade repeat champions.”

In those quarterfinal matches; Briar Jackson at 108, Deandre Demus at 122, Paul Detwiler at 154, Davis at 184, Ryan Smenda at 197, Brandyne Mackey at 222 and Jose Concepcion at 287, only Jackson, Davis, Smenda and Concepcion got wins to advance to the semifinals with Davis the lone finalist.

“That’s why they call it the death round,” said Cobbert. “You have to dig down deep somewhere and know you are going to face a pretty good wrestler from there on if you win. Some guys have the attitude to not let that get in their head, some don’t. That’s the difference to the gold medal any sport.”

Cobbert’s reference to Camden County, Ga, the twice Georgia state champions and South Dade, the three-time defending Florida 3A state champions (11 total titles back to 1995), was in part due to Camden County winning the overall team title with 259.5 points to South Dade’s 227 points. Southwest Miami finished at 143.5 for third just 3.5 points up on Fleming Island’s 143.0. In the next five, Winter Springs, the 3A runnerup to South Dade last year, took fifth at 122, with Flagler Palm Coast, another key district and region rival for Fleming Island, sixth at 115.5. Lake Gibson, St. Thomas Aquinas and Osceola finished out the top 10. Clay High School returning the Knockout lineup after a brief hiatus, took 12th.

“A pin here and there, a guy who maybe lost in quarterfinals that should have held on for another five seconds to win and we are right in the mix,” said Cobbert. “Some of the best matchups we saw today will be for region titles in two months and possible state medals. That’s how good the competition was here. We just got to get that grit to win.”

Smenda would finish third at 197 with a 3-1 win over 1A fourth place finisher Cam Brown of Florida High School.

Getting fourth place finishes; Jackson, Detwiler and Concepcion allsurvived strong consolation matches to end up in the consolation finals. Demus and Mackey both finished sixth.

Jackson, who has progressed at rocket pace since his transfer from Middleburg High, lost to South Dade’s unbeaten Bretli Reyna 12-3 in this semifinal and returned to finished fourth overall. Jackson eliminated Clay High’s Lou Gagliardo in the quarterfinal matrch 7-3 with Gagliardo wrestling back to a fifth place finish.

“Briar has made the transition from Middleburg wrestling to ours,” said Davis of his smaller teammate. “We wrestle tough for three periods and a possible fourth and he has taken up that extra conditioning necessary for that.”

Demus, at 122, faced off a second time against Flagler Palm Coast’s Michael DeAugustino, a key district and region rival that beat Demus at the Bill Scott Lyman Invite two weeks ago in that final. At Osceola, Demus pinned Clay’s Chris Merring, the 1A runnerup last year, before losing a 5-3 decision to DeAugustino.

“That’s going to be his guy at the season’s end,” said Cobbert. “Deandre is tough in the third period and that’s where he’s scored. He’s just got to control the first period scoring so he’s not having to reach for points.”

Detwiler lost 6-2 to South Dade’s Todd Perry, who beat Detwiler in the quarterfinal 4-3. Detwiler got a second win over Winter Springs rival Dmitri Alicia, the 3A 138 runnerup last year, with a 4-3 win in the consolation semifinal to set up an interesting region scenario later in the season.

At 287, Concepcion, who lost a tough 3-1 semifinal match to defending 3A champion Kyron Taylor of South Dade, would lose in a 3-1 sudden death overtime match to Miami Southridge’s Melchisedek Jeudy. Southridge was second to South Dade in 3A last year.

Mackey, down to 220 pounds after last year’s venture as a small 285-pounder, pinned 3A-Freedom’s Patchine Prophete in his second round match but lost an overtime 3-1 match to Sarasota’s Austin Gould to head to the consolation rounds. Mackey would win three matches before facing Gould a second time only to lose a second time 3-1 for fourth place.

For Clay, Jackson’s epic battle with South Dade’s defending champion at 195, Chei Hill, seemed all to be a battle of two athletically strong wrestlers both strong up top.

Ironically, at the opening whistle, Hill struck first with a lightning-fast ankle pick that felled Jackson to his back where Hill launched himself in position for the 19 second pin.

For Clay coach Jim Reape, the return to the Osceola lineup was sort of a test of readiness for his Blue Devil team.

“We knew coming in that this was going to be one of the strongest fields we might face all year,” said Reape. “Our guys got a good dose of 3A wrestling at its best and we will be able to assess the goods and bads from it for the rest of our season.”

After Jackson’s second place finish, Clay’s lineup had Gagliardo at fifth in 108 and Kaleb Collins at sixth at 197.