JACKSONVILLE - After clashing at the region duals championship wrestling championships a month ago with Clay winning into the state Final Four, Clay and Middleburg high both came home with Individual Bracket Tournament (IBT) wrestling district titles and will be looking around the Tallahassee Chiles gym on Saturday to see who will be the top team leaving Clay County to the FHSAA state championship meet in Lakeland on Thursday-Saturday, March 6-8.
"We put 14 guys on the bus to Lakeland and I think we have a pretty good bunch of guys that can make a dent at the state meet," said Clay coach Jim Reape, who has been in the Blue Devils wrestling room for over three decades and has a knack of being primed for the gauntlet of regions to state. "The formula is pretty simple; a couple guys get in final, maybe win one or two titles, and everyone else just gets team points. The thirds, fourths and fifths are what makes the difference at state."
For Middleburg, coach Coll Robertson has taken another monumental step in his transforming of the Bronco program from one that sends a handful of wrestlers to regions and a few to state to a team that battles the best with nearly a full team of competitors.
"These guys just got tired of being the one with a few guys going," said Robertson, who returned from Tallahassee Chiles with a district title over powerhouse Lincoln High, 248.5-210.5 with host Chiles third at 171.5. "We got four individual titles, six runnerups, one third and one fourth to send a huge team to regions. We get some big days by the guys who were in the top six and the whole score changes."
Both Clay and Middleburg, with a handful of athletes from Fleming Island, Orange Park and Ridgeview will travel to Tallahassee Lincoln for the region 1-2A championship on Friday-Saturday, February 28-March 1 for a shot to earn a top four finish and grab a ticket to the state championship meet.
For Clay, who was just half point up on Ponte Vedra prior to the finals were to starting; 193.5-193.0, the championship round proved fruitful with four titles; Benjamin Mitts (over Beachside), Jacob Bucci (over Ponte Vedra), Brady Glavin (over ED White) and Drew Holmquist (over Ponte Vedra) to thwart the Sharks' attempt at stealing away the district title.
"Benjamin Mitts and Drew Holmquist are going to be surprises when we get to regions and state," said Reape. "Both have worked super hard to be ready right now."
Bucci, a state runnerup last year, is set at 38-3 as a top contender with two first period pins to win while Rylan Herrera, also a state runnerup last year, lost a rugged match to Fleming Island's Sebastian Bonachea via a major decision 15-5.
"Both of those guys are very athletic, very intuitive on the mat," said Reape. "The Fleming Island guy is very strong for his size and Rylen may see him again at regions and also at state. We will work on our attack against him, but there are plenty of guys to look at before thinking about him."
For Robertson, who welcomed a second shot to face off with Clay guys, New Smyrna Beach is one of his targets to get filmed up on.
New Smyrna Beach won district 4-3A in convincing fashion with a 290-234 score over Winter Springs with St. Augustine a distant third at 147. New Smyrna scored seven district champions and had six runnerups and one fourth to send an entire team of top four finishers.
"And that's a tough district with Winter Springs," said Robertson. "The region should be fun."
District champions for Middleburg were Micah Thomas at 132, Daniel Raines at 150, Wyatt Leduc at 157 and Porter Loveland at 215. Runnerups were Jonathan Harp at 106, Nathan Harvey at 113, Terry Milam at 120, Christopher McKeel at 138, Sean Blouin at 165 and Destin Watson at 175. Missing from the lineup was 2024 state qualifier Gavin Fisher who had weight issues and was pulled from the lineup.
For Ridgeview, top four finishers and going to regions, were Chris Polk, third at 120; Dillon Kennedy, fourth at 126; Jason Barrett, third at 138; Samuel Constanza, third at 150; Gavin Emile, third at 157, and Garrett Davis, fourth at 285.
Fleming Island had seven top four finishers including district titles at 132 from Sebastian Bonachea, Laird Duhaylungsod at 150 and Kevin Reyes at 285. Top fours went to Jackson Linn (third at 126), Roman Ortez, second at 138; Tylr Frein, third at 157 and Zion Longmire, second at 175.
Orange Park had one district champion; Terrion Butler at 190 who pinned Noah Marsh of Ponte Vedra with six top four finishers; Elijah Grant, third at 132 (lost to Bonachea in semifinal); Keenan Freeland, fourth at 144; Moises Acosta, fourth at 157 (lost for third to Frein); Liam Saunders, fourth at 175, lost to Clay's Tison Rivers); Austee'n Mills, fourth at 175 (lost to Clay's Landon Martin), and David Teixeira, second at 285 (lost to Reyes in final).

2A rankings (via Kabra Wrestling, February 23)
Region 1-2A wrestlers listed

*106: CHS Benjamin Mitts, 18th; Gulf Breeze-Ryder Cohen 8th; Chiles-Jason Marsala 10th; New Smyrna Beach-Patrick Mayfield 21st; Beachside Andrew Arsenault 22nd, Deltona-Jovanni Carraturo 23rd
*113: MHS Nathan Harvey, 6th; Gulf Breeze-Garrett Ferguson 1st; Lincoln Joe Tucker 5th; Beachside Walter Howard 24th
*120: CHS Jacob Bucci, 4th; Gulf Breeze-Gavin Sammons 6th; Winter Springs-Zavian Chaves 7th; Lincoln-Juan Torres 17th; Ponte Vedra-Cash Trujillo 24th; Westside-Jacob Jackson 25th
*126: CHS Vonte Burke 7th; Lincoln-Zakary Jurado 4th; Ponte Vedra-Jaiden Zajni 6th; Winter Springs-Tyson Horel 12th; New Smyrna Beach-Devyn Hicks 13th; Gulf Breeze-Keegan Deeds 18th; Fort Walton Beach-Isaac Vosburgh 19th
*132: FIHS Sebastian Bonachea 2nd; CHS Rylan Herrera 3rd; MHS Micah Thomas 14th; Gulf-Logan Duncan 17th; Winter Springs-Rudley Villarreal 19th; Gulf Breeze-Leyton Collazo 21st; Lincoln-Luke Rodriguez 23rd; Choctawhatchee-Antona Daquep 24th
*138: FIHS Roman Ortez 19th; MHS Christopher McKeel 21st; RHS Jason Barrett 24th; Lincoln-Brady Jackson 4th; Arnold-David Crilly 14th; Ponte Vedra-Daniel DeAlmeida 17th.
*144: CHS Brady Glavin 7th; New Smyrna Beach-Jonathan Bruner 3rd; Pace-Maeson Otwell 4th; Seabreeze-Spencer Timm 8th; Ponte Vedra-Brody Hines 20th; Gainesville-Franco Macias 23rd; Gulf-Cameron Anthony 25th
*150: FIHS Laird Duhaylungsod 3rd; MHS Daniel Raines 9th; CHS Chris Graham 15th; Gulf Breeze-Gavin Cohen 2nd; New Smyrna Beach-Merrick Miller 8th; Chiles-Jacob Johnston 11th; Winter Springs-Ayden Keys 20th
*157: MHS Wyatt Leduc 3rd; CHS Drew Holmquist 5th; Fort Walton Beach-Landon Burbridge 10th; Choctawhatchee-Bradack Carroll 11th; Matanzas-Mason Obama 12th; New Smyrna Beach-Casten Thacker 14th; Chiles-Hayden Smith 17th
*165: MHS Sean Blouin 22nd; Niceville-Malachi Lewis 5th; New Smyrna Beach-Logan Daley 10th; Winter Springs-Luis Gonzalez 11th; Chiles-Cooper Hill 16th; Pace-Tagg Strickenberger 25th
*175: FIHS Zion Longmire 10th; CHS Landon Martin 11th; Niceville-James Opitz 7th; Ponte Vedra-Michael Aker 9th; New Smyrna Beach-Christopher Porter 12th; Winter Springs-Jeremiah Williams 13th; St. Augustine-Roy Fimender 23rd; Arnold-Brandon Walsingham 24th
*190: OPHS Terrion Butler 21st; Winter Springs-Jacob Rodriguez 3rd; Fort Walton Beach-Matthew Sinclair 5th; Gulf-Blake Flood 16th; Lincoln-Michael Stepien 19th; New Smyrna Beach-Landon Dickerson 22nd; Arnold-Tajay Richards 25th
*215: MHS Porter Loveland 3rd; CHS Aaron Stacy 6th; New Smyrna Beach-Kyle Nilsson 2nd; Ponte Vedra-Talan Babin 5th; Winter Springs-Marco Gonzalez 14th; Leon-Wynton Bowers 22nd; Mosley-Tristen Steele 23rd
*285: FIHS Kevin Reyes 4th; Lincoln-Ryder Luck 3rd; Mosley-Logan McAlister 6th; Fort Walton Beach-Eric Strouder 7th; Chiles-Ethan Toomey 9th; Winter Springs-Frankie Marquez 24th

District 3-1A
In district 3-1A, St. Johns Country Day School advanced two wrestlers to regions; Israel DeJesus, third at 120, and Howard Hill, second at 132. Hill was 2-0 to the final, but forfeited his finals match with injury.
In the team scores, host Episcopal won a 232.5-187.0 decision over Bishop Kenny.
The region 1-1A championship is at Bay High in Panama City on February 28-March 1

1A Rankings
*113: KHHS Atreyu Contes 23rd; Cocoa Beach-Anthony Acquafredda 3rd; Weeki Wachee-Nicholas Guy 8th; Zephyrhills Christian-Nadir Shalaby 10th; Space Coast-Zakary Cordova 17th; Merritt Island-Justus Giglietti 18th; Crystal River-Scott Knight 19th; Mulberry-Isaiah Bird 24th; Brooksville Central-Shane Parrott 25th

*132: SJCDS Howard Hill 10th; Wewahitchka-Jake Parker 3rd; Florida High-Jasper Croom 4th; Episcopal-Mikah Ikeda 8th; Menendez-Matthew Thorn 12th; Bishop Kenny-Ethan Warchol 13th; Wolfson-Tristan Martinez 14th; Baker County-Jonathan Walker 16th; Yulee-Lucas Flannery 18th

District 5-1A
In district 5-1A, Keystone Heights pushed two wrestlers to regions with Atreyu Contes finishing second at 113 and Mikey McCall finishing fourth at 138.
Region 2-1A is at Palm Bay on February 28-March 1.

District 1-3A

In district 1-3A, Oakleaf, fourth behind Tocoi Creek's 236-216 win over Fletcher, advances Connor Barnes at 113 and Bryant Taylor at 215 as district champions with the Knights also advancing Hardley Germain, third at 285; Ghais Cooper, second at 165; Cedric Harris, second at 157; Angel Rodriguez, fourth at 144 and Kellon Duncan, second at 138.

Oakleaf will  head to Lake Mary High School for their region 1-3A championship tournament on February 28-March 1.