By MATMEN, Sunday, 7:35 p.m.
NAPLES — The weekend’s Colby Singletary Memorial Invitational might have had the most elite field in the state this weekend, and there were a couple tournaments that had some very strong groups.
Two state dual champions were there — South Dade from 3A and Lake Gibson from 2A. Last year’s 3A state dual champion, Palmetto Ridge, hosted. Former 1A state dual champion Somerset Academy — a top-3 team lock in March’s state IBT — was there. 1A-Region 4 duals runnerup Mater Lakes Academy was there.
And Fleming Island, this year’s 2A state duals runnerup, was there. In that field, finishing sixth, with 153 points, doesn’t look like finishing sixth at most in-season tournaments does, particularly with four starters out of the Golden Eagle lineup.
The Golden Eagles had one finalist on the weekend — in a finals round that could have as many as 20 state champions in March — as sophomore Jayce Paridon reached the 126 championship match.
Paridon (2A-2nd), who went over the 200-career wins mark last weekend at state duals, was the third seed in the bracket; after a bye into the round of 16, he recorded a first-period fall over Barron Collier in that round, then teched Mater Lakes’ Ethan Tran (1A-4th), 17-0 in 5:10 in Friday’s quarters. That set up a rematch with Lake Gibson’s third-ranked Colt Brown, who’d beaten Paridon in overtime in the state duals final; this time, Paridon left no doubts, shutting down Brown’s offense in a 3-0 win. And that gave him another rematch in the final, this one a revisit of last year’s 2A-113 state-championship match with top-ranked 126 Maximus Brady of Mariner. While Paridon would record first takedown, something he did not get a year ago, Brady would rally with takedowns in the second and third periods for a 6-4 win.
The Golden Eagles got thirds from Matthew Newman (106) and Joshua Sandoval (182), along with fourths from Laird Duhaylungsod (120), Christopher Chop (160) and Walter Poe (195), all in loaded fields.
Complete results for the tournament can be found HERE. All rankings from https://www.kabrawrestling.com/rankings
North Florida Matmen 