JENSEN BEACH — A pair of district dual champions within the coverage area got re-acquainted with the IBT format this weekend at Jensen Beach’s annual Cradle Cancer two-day event.
Flagler Palm Coast, with 189 points, finished third and Apopka, with 171.5, tied Osceola for fifth in the 22-team tournament.
Charlotte, with 271.5 points, outdistanced the hosts (218) for the team title, with Wellington fourth at 182.5.
Below follows a summary of top-six individual performances from the Bulldogs and Blue Darters in each weight class, where applicable:
120: Flagler’s Kole Hannant (12-2 as reported) won the title out of the fourth seeded position. After a bye into the round of 16, Hannant pinned his way through the bracket, with Friday pins over Ft Pierce Central (1:51, rd of 16) and Wellington (:49, quarters). On Saturday, Hannant pinned the top seed from Jensen Beach in 3:53 in the semis. That got Hannant to Charlotte’s 2nd-seeded Patrick Nolan in the final. Hannant scored twice, taking a 4-0 lead before falling Nolan in 3:05 for the title. Apopka’s Tamarion Kendrick (3 seed going in) was third, with three Friday wins (forfeit/TF/sudden victory decision) before falling, 5-3, to Nolan in the semi. In the consis, Kendrick won by fall over Wellington and then found a takedown in overtime for a 5-3 win over Jensen Beach to take third.
126: FPC’s John Hald was sixth and a quarterfinalist, with two Friday first-period pins before falling in sudden victory, 10-8, to Wellington, the eventual 3rd. In the consis, Hald won by fall twice to secure a podium space, taking decision losses (10-3 in consi semis and 7-6 to Ft Pierce Central in the fifth-place match) from there.
138: Apopka’s Rocco Vargas was fourth and a quarterfinalist, with a bye and front-side pin before falling to the eventual runnerup from Charlotte. In the consis, Vargas strung together three pins to reach the third-place match, but then couldn’t find any offense against the hosts’ Jewell Williams, falling by a 2-0 count to take fourth.
145: Flagler’s Felipe Costa was third and Apopka’s Bonosky Fidel fourth, with Costa winning by sudden-victory takedown for a 6-4 decision. They also met in Friday’s quarters, where Costa (front-side major) took a 9-4 win before falling to the eventual champ by pin in the semis. Costa then took a 10-4 win over Wellington in the consi semis to get the rematch with Fidel. For his part, Fidel had two front-side pins and then had three consi-side wins to get all the way back to the third-place match.
152: FPC’s Brendan Buckles was sixth, with a loss by fall in a pigtail match to the 2 seed that eventually wound up fourth. Buckles had to fight through four rounds of consis to get back to the podium, with three pins and a major, before falling to the eventual 3rd, 3-1, in the consi semis. Buckles then medical-forfeited the fifth-place match.
160: Flagler’s Bryce Dodge was second and Apopka’s Ransom Randolph third, with the pair meeting in the semis and Dodge taking a 12-6 win in that round. Earlier, Dodge, the 2 seed, had two front-side pins; after the semi, Dodge forfeited to Osceola’s Gunner Holland in the championship match. Randolph had two bonus-point wins to get to the semis, adding two more in the consis, with a pin and a 12-0 major over Port St Lucie in the third-place match.
170: FPC’s Blane DeFord was fourth and Apopka’s Malik Nicholson was sixth. After a bye into the round of 16, DeFord had a pin and quarterfinal win by injury default, but then fell in Saturday’s semis to the hosts’ Nate Sopotnick, 13-6. DeFord would take down Nicholson, 4-2, in the consi semis, but never held a lead in the third-place match against Osceola, falling by a 5-2 count. After a bye, Nicholson had a front-side pin before losing by fall to Osceola in the quarters. Nicholson then won twice in the consis to secure a podium space.
182: Flagler’s Marcelo Gonzalez, the top seed, had four pins and a 3-1 semifinal win over Jensen Beach to claim the Bulldogs’ second individual title. Gonzalez picked up three Friday pins over Osceola (:53, rd of 32), Port St Lucie (1:13, rd of 16) and South Fork (:40, quarters). After his only six-minute match of the tournament, Gonzalez falled Sebastian River’s Jonathan Tumblin in 3:47, needing just one takedown to seize control and, later, the fall.
195: FPC’s Garrick Schwartz was fifth and a semifinalist. On the front side of the bracket, Schwarz had two decision victories after a bye, but then lost by fall to the eventual champion from Palm Harbor University in the semis. After falling by sudden victory to Treasure Coast in the consi semis, Schwartz pushed past Port St Lucie in another tight match, 4-3, to claim fifth.
220: Apopka’s Ralph Sanchez won the Blue Darters’ only title of the day, going 4-0 on the weekend. Sanchez, the 2 seed entering competition, had a bye into the round of 16, and took pins over Benjamin School (1:14, rd of 16) and Flagler’s Ethaniel Laupepa (1:00, quarters) to get to Saturday. In the semis, Sanchez shut out Okeechobee’s Jose Monroy, 10-0, to get to the final, where he was finally scored upon. There, against Osceola’s Jomar Sanchez, Ralph Sanchez had a first-period takedown and second-period escape, with those being enough for a 3-1 win and title.
285: Apopka’s Tanner Reynolds took third and was a semifinalist, while teammate Zaire Warner was sixth. Reynolds had a bye into the quarters, where he won by first-period fall, but then lost by fall to the eventual champ from Ft Pierce Central in the semis. Reynolds falled Warner in the consi semis and then pinned Osceola (2:25) to take third. As for Warner, he had a front-side pin before falling, 9-7, in the quarters to the eventual 5th from Port St Lucie. Warner then had two consi-side pins to take a podium spot, but lost by fall to Port St Lucie again in the fifth-place match.
Complete brackets from the tournament can be found HERE.
MISSING: If you’re reading these recaps and you see that your team isn’t being written about as we go through the middle third of the regular season, it’s due to results gone missing. Go to our SCHEDULES page; if your team is listed as PENDING for a given event on a given day, I didn’t get results. I’ll still take them, at any time; coaches all have my work email.
North Florida Matmen 