GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Clay High Hall of Fame wrestling coach Jim Reape made a stunning return to the mat after a brief hiatus and got Blue Devil effort with a strong second place finish to Class 1A …
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GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Clay High Hall of Fame wrestling coach Jim Reape made a stunning return to the mat after a brief hiatus and got Blue Devil effort with a strong second place finish to Class 1A power Wakulla at the Border Wars VIII in the Florida panhandle’s Santa Rosa Beach High School.
Reape, who had semi-retired two years and gave the keys to the Clay wrestling room to long-time assistant Hunter Hill, stepped back into the head coach role after Hill’s family moved to Tennessee recently.
“I never left, just kind of hung around the wrestle room,” said Reape. “Most of the coaches knew I was still part of the program so it wasn’t not that much of a big deal.”
At the Border Wars event, Clay fought to a close second place team score with Wakulla through most of the tournament with a slight lead going into the championship rounds; 116.5 to 111.5 before finishing second to Wakulla at 181.5 to 171.0. Pace High was third at 146.0 with Class 3A power Osceola High fifth at 113.5.
“The team is young and we have some work to do,” said Reape. “Cale Hoskinson was sick, but he wrestled and won a tournament title. He’s an athlete.”
Individual champions for Clay were Maverick Rainwater at 113 and Cale Hoskinson at 170.
In the finals and finishing with silver medals were Ivey Gunner at 120, Luke Boree at 138 and Garrett Tyre at 220.
“Luke wrestled a 3A state champion in his bracket (Jaekus Hines of Osceola) and he had to up his game,” said Reape. “He had to step up against a quality opponent.”
Also wrestling were KJ Rheaume at 106 (8th), Dalton Huckleberry at 126 (5th), Thomas Viens at 132 (5th), Hayden Meszaros at 145 (6th), Aiden Mayo at 145 (3rd), Dominic Martin at 152 (3rd), Luca Fiannaca at 160 (6th), Ethan Larsen at 182 (3rd), JadonBell at 195 (7th), John Johnson at 195 (4th) and Ethan Daniels at 285 (4th).
At Ridgeview, the Panther Prowl feature mainly local teams with Wewahitchka High traveling in from the Panhandle as Bishop Kenny defeating Ridgeview for the final team crown with Orange Park third.
Fleming Island traveled to Camden County High, home of the defending 7A Georgia champions for the Camden Call Out, a non-scoring roundabout of some of the top schools in Georgia including Richmond Hill and Florida’s Tampa Jesuit.
Next up is the Danny Byron Invite in Osceola for most of the state’s 3A powerhouses including Fleming Island, Camden County (GA), Flagler Palm Coast, 2A champion Lake Gibson and 3A champion South Dade.
Oakleaf will host a duals Friday Knight Lights tournament on Friday with Orange Park and five area teams. Ridgeview heads to the Fernandina Beach Duals while Clay will go to Ponte Vedra High for a duals tournament.