By MATMEN, Wednesday, 5 p.m.
2A-District 8 IBT
When & where: Thursday at Lyman, 2 p.m. (wrestle).
Teams in the field: In addition to the host Greyhounds, Deltona, East River, Edgewater, Horizon, Jones, Lake Buena Vista and Winter Springs will be in the field.
At stake: Top four wrestlers in each of 14 weight classes will automatically advance to the 2A-Region 2 tournament at Brandon 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: Winter Springs.
Returning individual champions: Pedro Sifuentes (East River); Ryan Phillips (Winter Springs); Elijah Penton (Winter Springs, won in 2021 also)#; Kevin Kerns (Deltona)*; Nathan Hatch (Deltona)*.
* — won 1A-District 6 titles last year.
# — won 2A-District 5 title in 2021.
Synopsis: Winter Springs will be the solid to overwhelming favorite to defend their district title; whether Deltona, which finished second in district duals, will be able to hold that spot in the IBT will be interesting. If the Wolves can get enough help for their returning district champs from last year, Deltona might have enough in the tank to hold off East River (and perhaps Lyman). If not, I sill suspect that East River would be the next team to step up to second, with Lyman most likely at the midpack mark for fourth; Horizon, the other area team in the field, has a shot for fifth.
State-ranked wrestlers (listed by weight class in ranked order) —
113: Pedro Sifuentes (East River, 6th).
132: Ryan Phillips (Winter Springs, 2nd); Kevin Kerns (Deltona, 11th); Michael Dupuy (East River, 14th).
138: Kyle Yasses (Deltona, 15th).
160: Ransom Randolph (Winter Springs, 5th).
170: Elijah Penton (Winter Springs, 1st).
195: Aiden Gatton (Winter Springs, 7th).
220: Donnell McCray (Jones, 13th); Frankie Marquez (Winter Springs, 17th).
285: Nathan Hatch (Deltona, 20th).
All rankings from https://www.kabrawrestling.com/rankings/class-2a
North Florida Matmen 