By MATMEN, Friday, 10:35 a.m.
PONTE VEDRA — The Battle of the Bridge just hits differently for Nease and Ponte Vedra.
For the St Johns Panthers, they led early but had to come back down the stretch, with a 15-0 run to put away the Sharks, 43-30, in a dual that was closer than the final score might otherwise have indicated Thursday night.
Nease (9-13) got out to a 10-0 start on bonus-point wins from Lucian Slayden (fall at 132) and Parker Stamschror (11-3 major at 138), but the Sharks (unknown record due to missing results) strung together 3 pins in a row on falls from Brody Hines (145), Shane Goetz (152) and Emmett Hoffman (160).
Nease regained the lead at 28-18 on pins from Alan Rivera (170) and Albio Jakupi (195), plus a forfeit win, but the Sharks were able to break back on top behind a forfeit win up top and Baxley Hines’ fall at 106, giving Ponte Vedra a 30-28 lead with three weights left.
From there, though, it was all Nease, as pins from Wyatt Balger (113) and Jaiden Zajni (120) clinched the dual, with Brady Stoutamire claiming a 4-0 win at 126 to close out the night.
With Thursday night’s win, Nease’s regular season is now complete. Ponte Vedra will be at Clay’s two-day Rotary IBT, starting today and concluding on Saturday.
Suwannee 78, Columbia 6: At Suwannee, on a jointly-scheduled Senior Night for both teams, the host Bulldogs ran out to their 44th dual victory of the season.
Six forfeit wins helped Suwannee (44-6), of course, but the Bulldogs also had pins from Eli Jolicoeur (106), Topher Pearson (120, Brody Boehm (126), Marshall White (145), Christian Socorras (152), Austin Howard (160) and Dustin Wood (170).
Columbia (4-18) got its lone points by fall at 138, where Jayden Thomas scored a quick pin.
Both teams will be in competition this weekend, with Suwannee going to Hudson’s two-day Cobra Duals on Friday and Saturday; Columbia will have a shorter trip to Chiles and its Timberwolf Duals XIV on Saturday.
New Smyrna Beach 56, Seabreeze 24: At New Smyrna Beach, the hosts won four in a row between 126 and 145 and another three at 170 through 195 to take the dual.
Richard Crunkilton (113), Samuel Larkin (132), Aidan Sutton (138), Derek King (195) and Braden Sullivan (285) all won by pin for the Barracudas (19-16), with Sawyer VanRider (182) taking a 15-0 second-period tech fall and Beau Laye winning by a 6-4 count at 126.
Seabreeze (5-14) got pins from William Sites (120), Aiden Hedge (152) and Pedro Sierra-Bonilla (220).
The teams will reconvene on Saturday, this time in Orange City at University’s hosting of the 5 Star Conference tournaments.
Paxon splits at tri-meet: At Florida Deaf & Blind (FSDB), Paxon split two duals, with a 43-27 win over the hosts and a 39-21 loss to St Augustine.
A report between the Dragons and Yellow Jackets has not been made available at time of publication of this recap; should that change, we will amend this portion of the story.
As for the Golden Eagles (2-9), Kyle Brown (120, pin & major), Louis Eckles (126, decision), Julian Lawson (170, pin) and Lindsay Francis (195, pin & decision) each were double winners. Justin Williams (113), Michael Gold (145), Brendan Lawson (152), Blake Brewer (160) each won by fall in the victory over FSDB.
Paxon’s regular season is now complete; St Augustine will be competing at Clay Rotary this weekend, while FSDB will compete in Mainland’s Battle for Daytona duals event on Tuesday.
Missing results: In addition to the FSDB-St Augustine dual, we are still waiting on a report on the Wekiva-Apopka dual contested Thursday night (we don’t require Thursday duals to come in until after the weekend is complete, though of course it is very helpful for the sooner the better). Should we receive that, we will add details on the dual to this roundup.
Results: Box scores for all reported Thursday duals can be found HERE.
North Florida Matmen 