KISSIMMEE - Clay High's boys wrestling still has four boys alive in the chase for gold at the Class 2A wrestling championships with Middleburg putting three and Fleming Island with two in contention for the very elusive state champion gold.

Clay, with six state qualifiers, moved Jacob Bucci at 120, Brady Glavin at 144, Drew Holmquist at 157 and Landon Martin at 175 into round two championship bracket contention with day one wins on Thursday. Bucci, Glavin and Holmquist all won with pins while Martin took a 14-0 major decision to advance.
For Middleburg, with five athletes advancing to the state meet, Nathan Harvey at 113, Wyatt Leduc at 157 and Porter Loveland won their first round matches to advance with all three winning by pins.
For Fleming Island, two of their three qualifiers; Sebastian Bonachea at 132, Laird Duhaylungsod at 157, both advanced into championship round two on Friday while 285 Kevin Reyes dropped into the consolations with a tough 4-0 loss in round one. Reyes won his consolation round opener with a pin to stay alive for a possible medal as a top six finisher.
Orange Park, also in Class 2A, had Terrion Butler as their only state qualifier with Butler losing his first two matches to end his chase at 190. Butler finishes at 29-9 under first year coach Tyler DeHart.
Staying alive in consolations which continue on Friday and Saturday was Clay's Vonte Burke at 126 who lost in round one, but won a 15-0 consolation first round match.
At 132, state runnerup last year Rylan Herrera withdrew due to injury before the event started.
For Middleburg, both Micah Thomas at 132 and Sean Blouin at 165 lost their two opening round matches and ended their seasons; Thomas at 45-19, Blouin at 43-21.
In Class 3A, Oakleaf put Connor Barnes at 113 and Bryant Taylor at 215 into the second round of championship wrestling with Barnes winning a 20-4 opener and Bryant winning a 6-0 match.
At 165, Ghais Cooper lost his opener, but won his consolation round opener by pin to stay in the medal chase.
For the Middleburg and Oakleaf girls teams; with four for the Broncos and two for the Knights traveling to Kissimmee, two time state 190 champion Cheyenne Cruce (34-3) won her championship round opener with a tough 1-0 win over Sunlake Paisley Murphy while, for Oakleaf, 135 second seed Kailani Barrientos (35-2) won her opener with a first period pin.
Cruce moves to her round two match against unbeaten Latoya Sylvestre of SOBR (25-0) while Barrientos will face North Fort Myers' Gabrielle Sergi (27-4).
Middleburg's Lily Bradshaw at 100, Sarah Walsh at 110 and Cyndi Almonte at all lost opening round matches with Walsh surviving round two to advance into a medal chase with a 30 second pin in her consolation opener. Bradshaw finishes at 34-18 with Almonte finishing at 14-22.
Oakleaf 145 Zoe Goode, in her first state meet, lost her two opening round matches to finish at 10-11 for the season.