By MATMEN, Wednesday, 5 p.m.
1A-District 2 IBT
When & where: Thursday at Wakulla, 2 p.m. (weighin), 3:30 p.m. (wrestle).
Teams in the field: In addition to the host War Eagles, Florida High, Godby, Liberty County, Marianna and Suwannee are in the district field.
At stake: Top four wrestlers in each of 14 weight classes will automatically advance to the 1A-Region 1 tournament at Wewahitchka on February 24-25. 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: Wakulla.
Returning individual champions: Topher Pearson (Suwannee), Jay Brown (Liberty County), Caleb Orr (Wakulla, won in 2021 also), Brody Boehm (Suwannee, won in 2021 also), Austin McKinney (Suwannee), Wyatt Welch (Wakulla), Austin Howard (Suwannee, won in 2021 also), Xander Hawkes (Florida High), Collin Bishop (Florida High).
Synopsis: What this year showed us was that Suwannee was ready to seize control of the district, and they did during the duals series, not only winning it and the region title, but giving the eventual 1A dual state champion the best dual it got all weekend at state duals. The 1-2-3 Suwannee/Wakulla/Florida High punch should be the order of finish Thursday, and it could very well be a possible finish at Wewahitchka for regions as well. Liberty County will have some impacts down the road, but they should be fourth on Thursday.
State-ranked wrestlers (listed by weight class in ranked order) —
106: Jasper Croom (Florida High, 1st); Connor Brown (Wakulla, 4th); Eli Jolicoeur (Suwannee, 6th).
113: Justin Contreras (Suwannee, 6th); Anthony Fondo (Wakulla, 17th).
120: Topher Pearson (Suwannee, 2nd); Jay Brown (Liberty County, 12th); Troy Thaxton (Wakulla, 16th).
126: Brody Boehm (Suwannee, 3rd).
132: Caleb Orr (Wakulla, 14th).
138: Brady Jackson (Wakulla, 13th); Ayden Kirby (Suwannee, 19th).
145: Jae T Thaxton (Wakulla, 8th); Marshall White (Suwannee, 13th).
152: Austin McKinney (Suwannee, 4th); Nate Jacobs (Wakulla, 14th); Nicholas Roeder (Florida High, 19th).
160: Austin Howard (Suwannee, 3rd); Dean Wright (Florida High, 11th).
170: Dustin Wood (Suwannee, 12th).
182: Xander Hawkes (Florida High, 4th).
220: Kohl Pippin (Wakulla, 11th); Collin Bishop (Florida High, 12th).
Rankings from https://www.kabrawrestling.com/rankings/class-1a
North Florida Matmen 