By MATMEN, Wednesday, 5 p.m.
2A-District 3 IBT
When & where: Thursday at Westside, 10 a.m. (weighin), 11:30 a.m. (wrestle).
Teams in the field: In addition to the host Wolverines, Ed White, Englewood, Middleburg, Oakleaf, Orange Park, Ponte Vedra, Ridgeview, Riverside and Terry Parker will be in the field.
At stake: Top four wrestlers in each of 14 weight classes will automatically advance to the 2A-Region 1 tournament at Chiles 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: None; last year’s champion, Fletcher, was reclassified to 3A.
Returning individual champions: Grady Dolan (Ponte Vedra); Olleon Hickmon (Westside); Ja’Cory Martin (Westside); Thomas Jones (Riverside); Ion Hortinela (Oakleaf)*; Keon Barrientos (Oakleaf)*; Roman Polinsky (Oakleaf, won in 2021)*.
* — won 3A-District 1 titles.
Synopsis: Middleburg and Oakleaf were 1-2 during the dual series last month and both teams have only gotten more solid since then, though I do think Westside will close the gap on the Knights at least somewhat, thanks to shuffles into the Wolverines’ lineup compared to district dual and shuffles out of the Clay County Knights’ lineup. Middleburg will be the prohibitive favorite, with Oakleaf and Westside going 2-3; don’t be surprised, though, if Ridgeview takes a charge at the Wolverines for 3rd.
State-ranked wrestlers (listed by weight class in ranked order) —
106: Jacob Jackson (Westside, 12th).
113: Bryan Davis (Middleburg, 12th/13th); Shamar Jones (Terry Parker, 16th/17th).
120: Grady Woodard (Middleburg, 19th).
126: Dylan Johns (Middleburg, 17th).
132: Wyatt Leduc (Middleburg, 4th).
138: Olleon Hickmon (Westside, 13th).
145: Logan Moore (Middleburg, 7th); Ben Helton (Terry Parker, 14th).
152: Nathan Williams (Westside, 12th).
160: Trevion Sermons (Orange Park, 10th).
182: Ja’Cory Martin (Westside, 16th).
195: Isaiah Shevchook (Oakleaf, 4th).
220: Thomas Jones (Riverside, 4th); Tucker Cody (Middleburg, 15th).
All rankings from https://www.kabrawrestling.com/rankings/class-2a
North Florida Matmen 