PONTE VEDRA BEACH — There’s a little less than six weeks left of wrestling season left to go.
But although Tuesday was a bright, shiny day in northeast Florida leastways, the Nease wrestlers didn’t see any shadows at home, rallying from a 24-6 deficit to force criteria against a short-handed Bartram Trail team, ultimately winning by a 40-39 count thanks to having more forfeit victories in hand.
The Bears (21-10) got out to that start behind back-to-back-to-back-to-back max-point wins from 285 through 120, including pins from Ryan Piersza (285), Travis Tagarelli (113) and Mayhem Woolsey (120).
But Nease (10-12) would fight back, closing the gap to six on two forfeit wins. Bartram would get the lead back out to double digits behind a 16-11 win at 138 for Preston Pena and fall from Grady Hutchinson (145), and the St Johns Panthers would answer with three wins between 152 and 170, with pins from Chad Severt (160) and Peter Simon (170), as well as a 7-1 win from Anthony Tanza (152).
Aydan Nguyen would take a fall at 182 for Bartram Trail, forcing Nease to pin to force criteria. That, Kobe Ross would secure in the second period at 195.
Nease is off until Thursday, when the Panthers travel to Mandarin for an away dual. Bartram Trail is now off until the 3A-District 1 IBT at Oakleaf on the 20th.
A boxscore from this dual can be found HERE.
Still waiting on: A report from the scheduled tri-meet at Crestview, at which Milton & Tate were scheduled to attend.
