By MATMEN, Friday, 5:30 p.m.
Wolfpack IBT
When & where: Saturday at Timber Creek.
Teams in the field: In addition to the host Wolfpack, area teams in the event include Buchholz, Evans, Horizon, Olympia, Oviedo, West Orange.
Out-of-area teams include: Cocoa, Cypress Creek, East River, Freedom, Lake Nona, Mt Dora, Sarasota Military, Sebastian River, Space Coast, St Cloud.
Defending champion: None. Last year’s champion, Hernando, is not returning.
Returning individual champions: Jedidiah Brown (Buchholz), Max Szabo (Buchholz), Kason Nichols (Buchholz), Caleb Dickerson (Sarasota Military).
Synopsis: This is looking like a much more wide-open team race than last year’s, in which three teams dominated the scene. This year, it looks like it should be a good fight between last year’s runnerup and third-place teams, Buchholz and Timber Creek, respectively. Freedom has several ranked 3A wrestlers as well, so they should be in the mix. Oviedo could be a top-3 team threat, as might East River and Mt Dora.
State-ranked wrestlers (listed by weight class in ranked order) —
106: Cole Webb (Cocoa, 1A-10th); Ernie Covert (Space Coast, 1A-14th).
113: Pedro Sifuentes (East River, 2A-6th); Nathan Varley (Sarasota Military, 1A-7th); Marlo Clark (Timber Creek, 3A-9th).
120: Jesten Conty (Freedom, 3A-14th).
126: Jedidiah Brown (Buchholz, 3A-13th); Raymond Cavey (West Orange, 3A-14th).
132: Cavarius Liddie (Buchholz, 3A-2nd); Michael Dupuy (East River, 2A-16th).
138: Jovan Vukajlovic (East River, 2A-18th).
145: Eric Aja (Freedom, 3A-4th); DJ Richards (Mt Dora, 1A-4th); Clayton Mitchell (Oviedo, 3A-15th).
152: Tyran Schanck (Evans, 3A-11th); Andrew Wittenberg (Timber Creek, 3A-13th); Caeden Hadry (Space Coast, 1A-15th).
160: Micah Wittenberg (Timber Creek, 3A-11th); Elijah Alvarez (Freedom, 3A-14th); Niko Huff (Sebastian River, 2A-14th); Anthony Dawson (Mt Dora, 1A-19th).
170: Max Szabo (Buchholz, 3A-10th); Kenneth Dean (Cypress Creek, 3A-11th); Mason Alsobrook (Space Coast, 1A-15th); Elijah Cherelus (Freedom, 3A-20th).
182: Allen Wasmund (Space Coast, 1A-9th).
195: Kason Nichols (Buchholz, 3A-4th); Caleb Dickerson (Sarasota Military, 1A-8th); Jaydon Sheely (Space Coast, 1A-11th).
220: Russell Fickett (Mt Dora, 1A-16th); Chase Eckman (East River, 2A-20th).
285: Peter Nesheiwat (Timber Creek, 3A-5th); Blake Shaffer (Cocoa, 1A-13th); Miguel Suarez (Mt Dora, 1A-16th).
All rankings from https://www.kabrawrestling.com/rankings
North Florida Matmen 