MIDDLEBURG - In the earliest of the post-season FHSAA boys wrestling district duals matchups, Middleburg High's Broncos upended Tallahassee powerhouse Lincoln High in dominating fashion with a 54-16 win to enter the district duals regional tournament in January as a top seed.
"I have to stop talking because I might cry," said Middleburg's young coach Coll Robertson, as his team battled with a program noted by a Hall of Fame coach Michael Crowder, a 25-year stalwart at the Lincoln program. "These guys have been together for the past three and four years with me and they have gotten better and better and they have gotten more confident that they should believe they can beat a team like Lincoln."
Lincoln, under Crowder, has traveled to the FHSAA state duals tournament for the past decade only to run into teams like Fleming Island in Class 2A after a jump from Class 3A the past two years with Final Four finishes in 2020 and 2019 and region final finishes against Fleming Island the past two seasons.
"I don't know about us having a big target on us because of this, but that's okay with me, let them come get us," said Robertson. "This team has earned this win. They want the big competition."
Robertson, in his short tenure at Middleburg, has slowly punched back against teams like Fleming Island and Clay taking their lumps but inch by inch seeing what it takes to beat one of the big boys.
In 2024, Lincoln finished 17th in the IBI state championship team scores with Middleburg tied for eighth.
"We are just tired of losing to them," Middleburg 165 state placer Wyatt Leduc who got a third-period pin. "We're coming this year. We got a strong lineup with guys who are hungry to win big matches."
Against Lincoln, Middleburg got hit with two losses in the first two matches; Nathan Harvey and Terry Milam at 120 and 126, before Oakleaf High transfer Micah Thomas, a state qualifier last year, blasted in and pinned Michael Davila in a thunderous first-period pin.
"I come in with a destroy attitude," said Thomas. "They moved their guy away from me so I went to take out their guy."
Lincoln responded with a win over 144 Christopher McKeel, also an Oakleaf transfer, in a high action 7-3 loss against state fifth placer Zakary Jurado before the Broncos rattled off nine of 10 wins in fashion; a loss at 285 for Joshua Harris against Lincoln state champion Ryder Luck.
"Our team plan was to pin out from 150 to 215 which is exactly what we did," said Robertson. "Keensdee Roseme was big for us at 190 with his win. He just returned to wrestling after skipping last year."
In the process, Middleburg answered with pins for wins from eight straight pins with Luck's pin before a pin by Middleburg's 106 and 113 combinations of Jonathan Harp and Gavin Fisher with Harp taking out top-ranked girls wrestler Sayuri Caceres with a buzzer-beater 8-6 win.
With Robertson having three returning from state finishes last season; Fisher at 106, now 113; Harvey, 113, now at 120 and Wyatt Leduc at 144, now 165, 2025 is all about putting the numbers to work.
"A lot of the guys we have this year just missed region or state last year and got the taste of what it takes," said Robertson, who plans on hosting region duals. "They came back to the room with some anger. I just unlock the door and they do the work."
At 215, Middleburg's Porter Loveland has been on a mission to get out of regions and get to state.
"It was part of my summer all summer," said Loveland, who is ranked No. 1 in Class 2A. "I hated not going to state last year. It's going to happen this year. We got more bodies in the room and that's more competition amongst ourselves."
One wrestler who came back to the wrestling room and was impressive against Lincoln with a third-period pin was a footballer Keensdee Roseme at 190, who wrestled as a freshman, skipped his sophomore year, and has returned with a renewed appreciation of the sport.
"It feels great being back on the mat," said Roseme. "I came back to help my football condition, but I think when I got on the mat, it all came back to me. My instincts were pretty solid."
Middleburg advanced to the finals match with Lincoln with a 78-6 win over Gainesville and a 58-21 win over Tallahassee Chiles.
In third place, Ridgeview beat Columbia 47-26, lost to Lincoln 55-24 then
beat Leon 57-24 for third place.
Against Columbia, Ridgeview got pins from Joseph Sneed 106, Parker Wernet 113, Samuel Costanza 150, Gavin Emile 157 and Bailen Culver 190. Sneed, Antonio Ashcraft 138, Costanza and Culver all won against Lincoln.
Against Chiles, pins came from Timothy Danz 126, Jason Barrett 132, Ashcraft, Emile, Ashton Glass 165 and Culver.

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Clay Bucci, Oakleaf Barnes win at Bobcat Round Robin

At the Bobcat Round Robin 2024 Invitational at Buchholz High School on Saturday, defending Georgia state 7A champion Camden County won with 51 team points with Hernando and Wiregrass Ranch second tied at 21 with Bartram Trail third with 20.
From the area, Clay finished eighth with Jacob Bucci getting an individual goal with a 12-0 major decision over Camden's Elijah Hattaway, a Georgia runner-up last year, at 120, and Vonte Burke finishing second at 126 to Bayshore's Broc Dahlin, a 106 state runner-up last year, with an 18-4 loss.
Benjamin Mitts at 106 was fourth, Brady Glavin at 144 was fifth with a quarterfinal loss to Camden state champion Hunter Prosen, Chris Graham at 150 was sixth, Drew Holmquist at 157 was seventh, Andrew Loveland at 165 was sixth, Tison River at 175 was seventh, Landon Martin at 175 was fourth and Aaron Stacy at 215 was fifth. Stacy's only loss was a pin to Middleburg's Porter Loveland.
For Oakleaf, 19th in team points, Conner Barnes won at 106 with a 19-4 tech win over Sarasota's Luke Ladle with Ghais Cooper second at 165 losing 7-2 to Camden's unbeaten Jamaal Coppedge.
Keystone Heights got 10th place from Atreyu Contes at 113 with St. Johns Country Day School's Howard Hill placing fourth at 132.

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MHS, OHS girls in top 10 at Ponte Vedra wrestlefest

Middleburg High's Cheyenne Cruce and Oakleaf High's Kailani Barrientos continued their dominant start of the 2024 wrestling season with individual titles at the Own the Ocean PV Girls Invitational girls wrestling tournament at Ponte Vedra High School on Saturday.
Cruce, the two-time defending state champion, won at 235 pounds, up from the last two years at 190, with three pins in a one-third period flat against team champion South Dade High School.
Barrientos, at 140, got three pins and an 18-1 tech fall to win her division with a third-period pin over Glynn Academy (GA)'s Marigona Lau. Lau was Georgia's 125 state champion last year.
South Dade won with an astounding 307.0 points with Osceola second at 177.5 and Harmony third at 131.5. Host Ponte Vedra was fourth with Middleburg sixth and Oakleaf seventh. Ponte Vedra was 10th at the FHSAA state meet last year with South Dade 11th. Middleburg was 17th.
For Middleburg's points, Sarah Walsh at 115 finished second losing to South Dade's Beyonce Espinosa 17-2 with Lily Bradshaw at 100 getting third beating South Dade's Lydia Gonzalez with a third-period pin.
Fleming Island had two athletes; Auryanna Phelps at 140 (Four wins) and Keightlyn Goodson at 170 (One win).
Orange Park also had two athletes; Mikayla Brunson at 120 (One win) and Zoey Fowler at 125 (Three wins)