KEYSTONE HEIGHTS - Keystone Heights High wrestling is undergoing expansion each season with a full lineup in place this season despite its youth.

"We have a lot of seventh and eighth graders on our roster right now, but they are hungry to make the program grow more in the next couple of years," said Keystone Heights coach Shaun Goetzman, in his second year. "The program has grown for the past six or seven years and I want to continue that."
On Saturday, Keystone Heights traveled to Stanton Prep for the Stanton Invitational and finished seventh among 18 teams with 79 points with the winner, Tocoi Creek, finishing with 180 points with Vero Beach and Beachside in second and third at 177 and 170.5.
On January 6, at Riverside High's Marine Corps Challenge, Keystone Heights finished fourth behind Vero Beach, Riverside and Beachside with a 126-point total. Vero Beach won with 287 points.
"We know we are not in the league of the teams we are going up against, but the tournaments give us, first, mat time to see what we practice for, and, second, a chance to see what upper-level techniques other wrestlers use," said Goetzman, himself a New York state wrestler in his youth. "One thing these kids know is to not give up."
The top wrestler for Goetzman, with a 20-4 overall record, is eighth grader Atreyu Contes who finished as 106 runner-up at Stanton with an 18-7 major decision loss to Vero Beach's Matt Haake. Contes, who started wrestling just last year, commented that his past summer of camps and conditioning has made him better.
"I didn't know anything when I started in seventh grade, but I went to a lot of camps and clinics over the summer and learned a lot," said Contes, who 106 runnerup at the Marine Corps Invite at Riverside High a few weeks ago."I have a couple of pretty good moves that I can use on the mat and I watch a lot of the other matches while I'm at a meet."
Contes finished fifth at his district meet last year to miss the top four that advance to regions.
"If I knew then what I know now about the sport, I would have gone to regions," said Contes. "Hopefully, my learning will get me that spot this year."
Other top finishers at Stanton were sophomore Jared Goetzman (16-9 at 120) who battled back from a quarterfinal loss to win three matches before losing in the third-place match. Goetzman won the 120 individual title at Riverside with five wins and a finals pin.
Also in his third-place match at 132, junior Phoenix Contes (11-7) lost his quarterfinal match 8-1 to Tocoi Creek's Landon Caviness, battled back with three wins; two via pin, then lost to
Caviness a second time; this time in overtime. Contes was fourth at Riverside.
Others at Stanton were seventh grader Cason Burton at 106, who won three, lost two and missed his third-place match by one match; seventh grader Mikey Mccall at 113 who finished 2-2; junior Adam McGarvey at 126 who won three matches by first period pins before losing in the consolation semifinals; junior Ayden Graff at 132, who wrestled and lost by pin to Phoenix Contes in his first match; freshman Henry Carhuayo at 138 who won two and lost two and finished third at Riverside; freshman Seth Fernandez at 138, who was 0-2; freshman Arthur Durning at 144 who won two by pin and lost twice by pin and senior Marcellus Beem at 150 who won three by pin and lost twice. Beem was fifth at Riverside.
Also at Riverside were freshman Riley McGorty at 126 who finished third with five wins one one loss; freshman Arthur Durning at 144 who finished fourth and junior Alyx Nichols at 175 who was fourth.

Fleming Island fifth at Flagler Rotary

By Randy Lefko
Sports Editor

FLAGLER PALM COAST - Fleming Island wrestling took fewer wrestlers to the always tough Flagler Palm Coast Rotary Invitational to face off against some old rivals in Winter Springs, Flagler Palm Coast, Hagerty and Harmony; all 3A powers in the former days of 3A Fleming Island, now 2A-Fleming Island.
"2A or 3A or 1A, you still got to just wrestle," said Fleming Island coach P.J. Cobbert, who before the weekend was announced as a Florida Wrestling Hall of Fame selection for his near decade of north Florida dominance. "We wrestle our way no matter who is on the other side."
At Rotary, Fleming Island finished fifth with Winter Springs and company going 1-2-3 with Harmony High fourth. Oakleaf was seventh.
To highlight the firepower at Flagler, both Fleming Island and Winter Springs lost to the eventual Class 2A Duals champion during the Duals state tournament; Fleming Island in the state semifinal, and Winter Springs in the region semifinal. Flagler and Hagerty both made their region semifinals in Class 3A with Harmony making their region 3A final before losing to Wellington.
Fleming Island got one individual title to Matthew Newman at 113 (30-4, ranked fourth in 2A) with wins over Winter Springs and Harmony and a final pin over Jason Choi of Nease (23-5, 16th in 3A); with Jordan Mukaddam at 120 (34-2) and Chris Chop at 175 (33-6) both getting second in their weight classes. Mukaddam lost a 5-4 decision to Brunswick's Clayton Hicks (48-4, 6th at 113 in 6A in Georgia last year) with Chop losing a 14-7 decision to Elijah Penton of Winter Springs (36-5, 2A 170 state champion last year with 49-0 record). Penton, before Flagler, was ranked number one in Class 2A with Chop number two.
Oakleaf got an individual title to sophomore Sebastian Bonachea (20-1, ranked 3rd 2A) who won a 3-1 decision over Lake Brantley's Dario Duany (36-11). Oakleaf got seconds from Connor Barnes at 106 (22-8) and Ghais Cooper (18-5, ranked 13th 2A) losing by pin to Harmony's Shawn McCallister (33-1, ranked No. 2 in 3A).
Ridgeview, who finished 20th, got a sixth from Preston Lewis at 157,
and a fourth from Ray Goforth at 215 (24-3, ranked 5th 2A).

Middleburg second at Wakulla FCA

By Randy Lefko
Sports Editor

WAKULLA - With titles to Gavin Fisher and Wyatt Leduc and a handful of top finishers throughout, the Middleburg High wrestling team went to one of the hotbeds of wrestling at the Walkulla FCA Invitational and came home with a second-place finish to Wakulla.
Middleburg, ranked 14th in Class 2A team ranks, got the wins from Fisher (39-2, ranked 6th 2A) and Leduc (34-1, ranked 7th 2A) with Fisher winning with five pins and an overtime finals win and Leduc getting three pins, two major decisions and a 9-6 finals win.
For the Broncos team points, Dawson Brown at 106 was third with a semifinal loss to Fisher and a win by pin for third; Grady Woodard at 120 (42-5, ranked 5th 2A) lost an 18-9 major decision to Derrick Williams of Bozeman (27-1); Dylan Johns at 132 (29-18) finished second via a 16-4 major decision to Wakulla's Bricyn Kennedy (39-11, ranked 10th 1A); Sean Blouin at 144 was second with four wins; two by pin, before getting pinned in the final against Wakulla's Aaron Robinson (43-4, ranked 15th 1A); David Hall at 157 (24-10) finished third with a 22 second pin with four pins to keep advancing, and Emmanuel Cassan at 190 getting fourth.