By MATMEN, Thursday, 4:30 p.m.
District 5 Girls IBT
When & where: Friday at Ocoee, 1 p.m. (wrestle).
Teams in the field: In addition to the Lady Knights, the following teams are assigned to this district: Apopka, Colonial, Dr Phillips, Edgewater, Evans, Horizon, Jones, Lake Buena Vista, Leesburg, Olympia, South Lake, Wekiva, West Orange, Windermere & Winter Park.
At stake: Top four wrestlers in each of 14 weight classes will automatically advance to the Region 2 tournament at Freedom on February 17. 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: Dr Phillips.
Returning individual champions: Victoria Ceballos (Dr Phillips); Ava Ceballos (Dr Phillips); Shelby Sherman (Apopka); Samantha Sherman (Apopka); Grisbet Guzman (South Lake); Zoe Williamson (South Lake); Jade Noble (Horizon); Amy Etienne (Dr Phillips); Emily Riveira (Dr Phillips); Jada Jones (Apopka); Aliyah Gonzalez (Winter Park)*.
* — won District 6 title last year.
Synopsis: With a fuller lineup this year, I am projecting a new champion in the district, as I expect Apopka to take the title. They’ve got the powerhouses in their lineup; their only thing slowing them down a year ago was a lack of numbers. That’s not the case this year. Dr Phillips doesn’t have quite the same lineup of a year ago, and we are still waiting for the next Lady Panther to step up and provide lockdown points in virtually all situations, but it’s still a very good team, definitely good enough for second. Question is who’s next after that? I am thinking it might be Colonial or Jones, but each team will have some chances to move wrestlers out.
State-ranked wrestlers (listed by weight class in ranked order) —
100: Hananeel Gregoire (Apopka, 12th); Ava Ceballos (Dr Phillips, 14th); Jazmine Villicana (West Orange, 20th).
105: Aliyah Gonzalez (Winter Park, 4th); Victoria Ceballos (Dr Phillips, 12th); Haley Harvey (South Lake, 20th).
110: Shelby Sherman (Apopka, 7th).
125: Samantha Sherman (Apopka, 7th).
130: Shamari Smith (Apopka, 18th).
135: Nehemie Gregoire (Apopka, 6th); Grisbet Guzman (South Lake, 19th).
140: Jessy Jarret (Dr Phillips, 13th).
145: Zoe Williamson (South Lake, 7th); Jade Noble (Horizon, 12th).
170: Amy Etienne (Dr Phillips, 10th); Amari Etienne (Dr Phillips, 16th).
190: Jada Jones (Apopka, 2nd); Emily Riveira (Dr Phillips, 10th); Ramiyah Steele (Wekiva, 15th).
235: Yami Herring (Jones, 17th); Barbara Fernandez (Winter Park, 18th).
All rankings from https://www.kabrawrestling.com/rankings
North Florida Matmen 