By MATMEN, Monday, 9:45 p.m.
HUDSON — In a typically-marathon duals season for Suwannee, the Bulldogs’ season finale wrapped up with a need to take down a familiar foe to have a shot at first place in the two-day Cobra Duals at Hudson HS.
In the final round, Suwannee defeated Wakulla by a 43-24 count, which forged a three-way tie between the Bulldogs, War Eagles and Braden River, all of which had gone 7-1 in the tournament.
The tiebreaker came down to point totals, with Suwannee declared the team champion based upon that criterion.
Earlier in the tournament, Suwannee (51-7 in duals) defeated Zephyrhills (76-6), River Ridge (54-27), Anclote (72-6), Admiral Farragut (72-6) and Mitchell (63-12) on Friday. In Saturday’s rounds, the Bulldogs defeated Hollins (54-27), but lost in criteria to Braden River (37-36, by virtue of fewer forfeit wins). That set up Suwannee v Wakulla in the last round; the War Eagles had defeated Braden River earlier in the tournament.
The Bulldogs had four wrestlers go 8-0 on the weekend, as Justin Contreras (113, 6 pins & decision), Topher Pearson (120, 3 pins & 3 decisions), Austin McKinney (152, 6 pins) and Dustin Wood (170, 5 pins) all won eight matches.
Eli Jolicoeur (106, decision), Brady Boehm (126, 3 pins & major*), Marshall White (145, 6 pins), Austin Howard (160, 7 pins) and Benjamin Lewis (182, 6 pins) all were 7-1, while Torynn Johns (195, 4 pins) turned in a 6-2 weekend.
Wakulla (16-6 in duals) also defeated all teams put in front of it before the final round; War Eagle results were not available at press time.
Both teams will wrestle again this week, with Wakulla traveling to Lincoln on Wednesday; Suwannee will make the drive to Englewood on the Sunshine Coast to compete in Lemon Bay’s one-day Ryan Bidwell Memorial tournament. Last year, that event employed a mixture of formats, some weights contested in roundrobin fashion, others in IBT brackets.
Reported dual results for Saturday’s event can be found HERE.
North Florida Matmen 