This past weekend, Springstead High School hosted its 20th Invitational meet, presented by Gators Dockside. The field was deep with teams from across the Tampa Bay area.
With 20 teams entered in the tournament, Springstead faced a tall task in coming away with a tournament victory, but was able to overcome the odds. The Eagles were able to score 191.5 points to clinch the tournament victory. The tournament lasted the course of two days, but was well worth it for a Springstead group that needed a little bit of a confidence boost after a disappointing showing down in south Florida a week and a half prior.
Springstead, who is apart of Class 2A-District 5, topped out a top five group which was rounded out with Dunedin, Ocala West Port, Lecanto and St. Cloud, respectively. Amongst the other area teams that also took part in the tournament was Dade City Pasco, Land O’ Lakes and Hudson. Pasco ended up taking sixth place overall. No other Hernando teams ended up being apart of the local tournament.
Springstead’s Christian Reynolds (220-pound) pinned Dunedin’s Adam Bouzoubaa to win out his weight class. Amongst others for Springstead whom were able to come away as winners were Dominic Nardini (106-pound), Joe Gallo (120-pound), Chris Morales (152-pound) and Dillon Housel (160-pound).
The Eagles have been the most dominant team within their own tournament as of the last 13 years, as Springstead has come out victorious 11 of those times. Springstead heads into the new year with some momentum as the regular season starts to wind down and head into districts, regionals and states. Despite the seemingly down season for the Eagles, Springstead remains one of the top clubs in Class 2A-Region 2.
District tournaments take place next weekend, with the following weekend resuming with regional action. The weekend of January 25th-26th will conclude with the state championships, which will take place at Osceola High School in Kissimmee.
Andy Villamarzo can be reached at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @avillamarzo.
