By MATMEN, Saturday, 11:15 p.m.
OCOEE — The final regular-season IBT of 2022-23 in the Matmen coverage area closed out on Saturday, as Ocoee staged its 6th Annual Ocoee Mat Classic.
Out-of-area teams crowded the top five in the event, as North Ft Myers held off Vero Beach by a single point, 155-154, for first place. Locally, West Port was the top coverage-area team, taking sixth with 91 points.
West Orange tied for eighth, with 83 points, while the host Knights were T-10th with 82. West Nassau (12th, 74 points), Evans (13th, 65), Wekiva (T-15th, 53), Apopka (17th, 41), Horizon (19th, 38), Winter Park (20th, 24) and Bolles (21st, 22) rounded out the local participation in the 22-team field.
Four area wrestlers won titles, as the hosts’ Keniel Carrasquillo (220) and Deandre Scott (285), West Port’s Mathew Pishotta (106) and West Nassau’s Nolan McKelvy (182) all went home with gold hardware.
Pishotta pinned his way through the 106 draw out of the second-seed position, with falls over Wekiva (2:42, quarters) and Ocoee (5:00, semis) to face Vero Beach top seed Gregori Rodriguez in the final, where he won by fall in 3:28.
McKelvy (7th-1A at 182) was the next local champion later in the final round. He pinned his way into the final, with falls over Ocoee (1:33, rd of 16), Horizon (:51, quarters) and over Jones (2:33, semis) before shutting down the offense of Tohopekaliga’s Luis Rosario (13th-3A) in a 6-0 decision.
That left the pair of Knight bigs at 220 and 285, starting with Carrasquillo (15th-3A). He pinned his way into the final, with falls over Wekiva (6:00, rd of 16), Evans (1:30, quarters) and Jones (3:32, semis) before facing previously-unbeaten Frank Cornelison (16th-2A) of North Ft Myers in the final, pushing through a 5-4 win.
Scott (7th-3A at 285) bookended a 6-0 quarterfinal win over Jones with pins over North Ft Myers (3:24, rd of 16) and Gateway’s Elijah Abreu (3rd-2A, fall time 1:59) in the semis before taking on region rival Jermael Paul of Evans, who’d knocked off state-ranked Jaquan Jean of Vero Beach (18th-3A) by a 3-2 count in the quarters, in the final. Scott then earned his third pin of the day with a fall over Paul in 5:29.
Local wrestlers reaching the final were West Orange’s Giordanny Perez (120) and Raymond Cavey (126), West Port’s Jhusthino Miranda (138) and David Hill (160), as well as Evans’ Tyran Schanck (145) along with Paul.
Perez pinned his way into the 120 final, with falls over Apopka (rd of 16), Sebastian River (quarters) and Celebration (semis) before falling to former University Christian state placer Egan Gustilo (5th-3A at 113), now at Tohopekaliga, in a 19-6 finals loss. Cavey (14th-3A at 126) opened with a 4-3 win over West Nassau’s Blayden Tharpe (9th-1A) and then took pins over Dunbar (quarters) and Sebastian River (semis), but couldn’t get out against Lake Highland’s Clinton Plotner, falling by a 1-0 decision.
As for the West Port finalists, Miranda took pins over Gateway (quarters) and Dunbar (semis) at 138, but couldn’t push past Tohopekaliga’s Jayson Ortiz (11th-3A), falling by 4-3 decision. At 160, Hill took pins over West Nassau (rd of 16) and Colonial (quarters), winning by first-period injury default over Vero Beach’s David Benjamin (16th-3A) before a loss by fall (:51) in the title match against Lake Highland’s Marrion Nelson.
Schanck (14th-3A at 152) powered through decisions over North Ft Myers (rd of 16), Tohopekaliga (quarters) and Wekiva’s Seth Galvin (14th-3A at 145, 6-2 win) before falling to Lake Highland’s Jack Desena, 4-2.
Results for this tournament can be found HERE.
North Florida Matmen 