Mostly Cloudy, 61°
Weather sponsored by:

Broncos inch past Raiders

MHS: Five district champs

Randy Lefko
Posted 2/24/16

JACKSONVILLE – Buoyed by five individual champions led by state placer Jonathan Shoen, the Middleburg High Broncos wrestling team wrested away a district 3-2A title from defending champion Orange …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Don't have an ID?


Print subscribers

If you're a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one.

Non-subscribers

Click here to see your options for subscribing.

Single day pass

You also have the option of purchasing 24 hours of access, for $1.00. Click here to purchase a single day pass.

Broncos inch past Raiders

MHS: Five district champs


Posted

JACKSONVILLE – Buoyed by five individual champions led by state placer Jonathan Shoen, the Middleburg High Broncos wrestling team wrested away a district 3-2A title from defending champion Orange Park High at Saturday's first step to the state meet at Terry Parker High School in Jacksonville.

"We finally crossed that bridge of always being second best in the tournaments," said Middleburg High coach Richard Wetherill. "We had some good efforts by our returners and some surprises from our newer guys. I hope to get four or five to the state meet."

Shoen, a sixth place state finisher last year, blasted through his bracket to a pin over Ridgeview High's Daryn Tucker to return to region play next week in Tallahassee.

Tucker, a Panther senior, highlighted a resurrgence of the Ridgeview High wrestling program after a few years of difficulties with coach challenges and the hiring of first-year coach Bryson Barker, also a coach at Lake Asbury Junior High School.

"The rebuilding process has begun for the Ridgeview wrestling program and this is definitely a turnaround from the past two years," said Bryson, who qualified nine wrestlers to Friday's region 1-2A championship tournament at Tallahassee Chiles High School. "We qualified nine for regionals Saturday with nine being the total number the last two years. Our fourth place finish was the school's highest in four years."

In the district 3-2A team scores, Middleburg topped the field with 160 points over Orange Park's 141 and Ed White's 135 with Ridgeview fourth with 102 points.

Middleburg finished with five champions with senior Robert Sheridan winning 7-6 over Orange Park's Dean Ganci at 106; freshman Briar Jackson beating Frank Sawyer of Orange Park 5-3 at 113; senior Dylan Rosetti beating Orange Park's Jeremiah Watson, a senior, 6-5 at 126; Shoen over Tucker at 170 and senior Ammon Meeks winning 8-2 over Ed White's Avery Wilds at 285.

"Jon had some weight management issues and we had to address those when we got to the gym, but he recovered and still was able to wrestle strong," said Wetherill, of his two state meet returners; Rosetti and Shoen. "Dylan looked technically sound, but we have to get him in state shape as he has had minor injuries most of the year. If we can wrestle Dylan into shape this week in practice, he should be able to use his skills to get to state again."

Middleburg's region invites also went to Austin Benton, third at 120; Storm Mercando, fourth at 132; Cody Eastwood, second at 152; Bryan Heflin, second at 182 and Kurt Jackson, second at 195.

Orange Park, under first-year coach Justin Daniels, came home with three champions and 10 region qualifiers with state placer Marcus Reid, a junior, beating Justin Trinh of Ridgeview 5-1 at 120; sophomore Saeid Ejmali winning his first title over Trevor Belden of Ridgeview 17-12 at 132 and junior Natorian Lee winning 5-3 over Sergio Jordan of Ed White at 160 heading up the Raider scoring. The rest of Orange Park's qualifiers were Dashner St. Vilus, third at 138; Reed Danielson, fourth at 170; Ben Elliot, third at 195, and Deon Williams, fourth at 285.

Ridgeview's qualifying nine include Hunter Click, third at 106; Tanner Belden, third at 126; Nick Robinson, third at 145; Steven Richardson, fourth at 152, and Brandon Wilkerson, third at 220.