LAKE MARY — Matmen has received several addenda to duals where girls competed head-to-head prior to boys’ varsity competition. We’ve gotten girls’ varsity duals before — but not many.
But a girls’ varsity dual with nearly all weights covered, and nine contested matches? Not sure we’ve seen one of those before.
On that basis alone, everybody benefited from the staging of Tuesday night’s dual between the host Lady Rams and University (Orange City). But the numbers seemed to bear that out as well in Lake Mary’s 48-30 win.
The Lady Rams (1-0) had the fuller lineup, and used it to best advantage, with just one uncovered weight Tuesday. Sarah Cutter (120), Jocelyn Mery (130), Olivia Boni (145) and Tayla Sutton (190) all won by falls.
Take the forfeits out of the equation, and the Lady Titans (0-1) had the majority of contested wins, with five falls in all. Jaelyn Sunseri (110), MaryEllen Wingate (135), Bryanne Kaminsky (140), Saelie Perez (170) and Larea Rodriguez (235) all took pins for University.
Both teams will reconvene on Saturday, this time at Freedom’s Let Freedom Ring IBT.
Ed White 42, Englewood 36: At Englewood, the Jacksonville city rivals had a dual that oscillated wildly, with runs by both teams, before a win by injury default in the final match of the night ended things somewhat anti-climatically.
Three forfeits pushed Englewood — which opened its dual season Tuesday — to an 18-0 lead, but Ed White (1-1) used a pin from Joshua Ethridge at 126 and a forfeit to cut that lead to six. Back-to-back Rams pins from Kyndall Ealy (138) and Ke’Eric Merrell pushed Englewood’s back out to 30-12.
The Commanders strung together four max-point wins in succession, including pins From Julien Holt (170), Xavier Wimmer (182) and Marcus Bradley (195) to forge their first lead of the night. At 220, after nearly being pinned himself, Englewood’s Malik Neely was able to turn from the bottom and collect the fall, tying the dual at 220. However, a scoreless first period at 285 ended with an innocous knock to the head, leading to an injury-default win, and resulting dual win for his team, to Ed White’s Alex Benitez.
Ed White goes right back on the mats Wednesday night at Riverside; Englewood has not submitted a schedule at this time, so we don’t have a direct link to a next date on the Rams’ calendar.
Villages 55, Forest 24: At Villages, Forest got in a quick look at its dual lineup prior to Thursday’s FHSAA district-duals tournament at Buchholz.
The Wildcats (0-1 in duals) got back-to-back-to-back wins from 113 through 126, with pins coming from Aydan Ruano (120) and Brent Ryals (126), both in the first period; elsewhere in Tuesday’s in-school dual, Cane Fernandez (285) also won by first-period fall.
In addition to Thursday, Forest will go back to Villages on Saturday for that team’s Amanda St John Memorial Holiday tournament, a one-day IBT.
Union County 74, Turner County GA 6: At Ashburn GA, the visitors romped to the dual win against the short-handed Rebels.
Aidan Hancock (106), Logan Johnson (144), Colin Hadlock (165) and Ephraim Frometa (285) all won by pin for the Tigers (3-4), with Kale Waters (113) taking a 19-3 TF win and Trenton Klein (175) winning by 19-12 decision.
Weight classes in the middle were slightly different, as Georgia is using new NFHS classifications.
The Tigers will go to Columbia’s one-day Tiger Duals event on Saturday.
Baker County 57, Palatka 23: At Palatka, the visitors got out to a 24-0 start and never looked back, holding a double-digit lead the rest of the dual.
Rasean Rayam (160), Jonathon Walker (126), Gavin Sparkman (138) and Sabastian Overland (145) all took pins for the Wildcats (11-2), with Taz Kinghorn (120) adding a 10-2 major.
Palatka got pins from Kason Bradford (220), Braxton Stewart (285) and Ishmael Foster (132), with Mikade Harvey (152) taking a third-period tech fall win (18-3 in 4:31).
Baker County will be at Creekside’s Super 8 Duals on Saturday, while Palatka will return to competition with next week’s Hammer Invitational at Oakleaf on December 22.
THANK YOU TO: Trackwrestling reports by Union County, Lake Mary girls and Villages. Thanks to the coaching staffs at Englewood and Ed White for having me out (check out our photo gallery on Facebook, will soon go up on Instagram). Thank you to Palatka for submitting a scoresheet upon request to us. We can’t fully report on your kids without your help.
Missing duals: While we did receive a final score for the Lake Brantley/Apopka dual, we are still looking for match-by-match results. We also need a scoresheet from Olympia’s home dual with Colonial. We will update upon receipt of those two scoresheets.
RESULTS: For the boys’ duals, results can be found HERE. The Lake Mary-UOC girls’ dual match-by-match results can be found HERE.
North Florida Matmen 