By MATMEN, Thursday, 12:30 a.m.
District 1 Girls IBT
When & where: THURSDAY at Wewahitchka, noon (weighin), 2 p.m. (wrestle) (all times Central time).
Teams in the field: In addition to the Lady Gators, the following teams are assigned to this district: Bay, Bozeman, Chiles, Choctaw, Crestview, Florida High, Ft Walton Beach, Gulf Breeze, Lincoln, Marianna, Milton, Mosley, Niceville, North Bay Haven, Pace, Rutherford, South Walton, Tate and Wakulla. Not all of these teams will have representation in Wednesday’s event.
At stake: Top four wrestlers in each of 14 weight classes will automatically advance to the Region 1 tournament at Matanzas on February 18. Additional fifth- and sixth-place wrestlers at each weight may be selected to advance as additional region qualifiers to fill out the region bracket. Those wrestlers are selected via an FHSAA schematic.
Defending team champion: Wewahitchka.
Returning individual champions: Sigrun Metzger (Crestview); Freydis Metzger (Crestview); Lahela Grady (Tate); Ashley Shaw (Chiles); Holly Sanders (Lincoln); Jaylyn Middleton (Florida High); Henlee Haynes (Mosley); Alisa Miller (Rutherford).
Synopsis: I had really thought this district would be wide-open, even at this late date, but it would seem that the more weights you can cover with your lineup, the better off you’ll be in the team classifications; given that, I suspect that Lincoln might very well go home with the team title. Gulf Breeze and Crestview will be in the mix, North Bay Haven and Milton could be in the mix, and Mosley could get a shot in the arm with its fullest lineup available. So if Lincoln fills 12 weights or more, look for the Lady Trojans; if not, the star power Gulf Breeze and Crestview might carry the day.
State-ranked wrestlers (listed by weight class in ranked order) —
100: Sayuri Caceres (Lincoln, 7th); Camdyn Elliott (Gulf Breeze, 10th); Alexis Brown (Milton, 17th); Hayden Hauck (North Bay Haven, 18th); Isabella Wall (Niceville, 19th).
105: Helena Alcantar (Gulf Breeze, 6th).
110: Sigrun Metzger (Crestview, 6th).
115: Freydis Metzger (Crestview, 10th); Lily Powell (Gulf Breeze, 12th).
120: Lahela Grady (Tate, 17th).
125: Ashley Shaw (Chiles, 11th).
130: Aireaana Gavere (Milton, 8th).
135: Holly Sanders (Lincoln, 13th); Jaylyn Middleton (Florida High, 14th).
140: Kiiaana Gavere (Milton, 5th).
170: Henlee Haynes (Mosley, 2nd); Cadee Lyons (Chiles, 4th).
235: Alisa Miller (Rutherford, 12th).
All rankings from https://www.kabrawrestling.com/rankings
North Florida Matmen 