Over the weekend, Weeki Wachee High School hosted 17 schools for the first wrestling tournament of the season. Zephyrhills Christian Academy took the top spot while the Nature Coast Sharks placed the highest amongst local participating high schools at fourth. Weeki Wachee (6th), Springstead (7th), and Central (17th) also participated in the tournament.
Nature Coast Wrestling Head Coach Mark Murray was pleased with his team’s performance on Friday and Saturday, and Kaden Etheridge’s 2nd place finish was roughly what he expected from “one of the top 150-pound wrestlers in the state,” Coach Murray noted. The two-time state qualifier’s close battle against an athlete who placed in states (Hutchins) was encouraging.
Though he would like to see some more physicality from his athletes moving forward, the head coach is optimistic about the “direction we are headed in,” he continued. Nature Coast’s individual results from Trackwrestling.com are below:
Kaden Etheridge – 3-1 – (150 weight class) – 2nd Place to Zephyrhills’ Aiden Hutchins (MD 9-0)
Zackary Myers – 5-2 – (106 weight class) – 4th Place to Venice’s Dylan Vu (Fall 4:01)
Dylan Balukonis – 3-2 – (165 weight class) – 6th Place to Hudson’s Jason Peterson (Fall 2:22)
Jeremiah Rodriguez – 1-2 – (175 weight class) – 6th Place to Forest’s Uriah Fackler (Dec 6-0)
Riley Darby – 2-2 – (190 weight class) – 4th Place to Sunlake’s John Murphy (Dec 6-2)
Brayden Barrett – 3-2 – (190 weight class) – 6th Place to Forest’s Ellis Lawson (Fall 2:49)
Zackary Selback – 3-2 – (285 weight class) – 6th Place to Springstead’s Jaiden Dukes (Fall 4:04)
“Kaden performed extremely well at the Weeki Wachee tournament this week,” said Coach Murray. “He placed and performed like I thought he would. He’s one of the top 150-pound wrestlers in the state. Kaden has worked very hard in the offseason and has done everything he needed to do to come out of the gate first [in the] tournament and dominate. There were some very good wrestlers in his weight class at this tournament, and I expected Kaden to compete with them […]”
“The championship match with [Hutchins] was a tough battle of top tier high school wrestling skill at 150 pounds,” Coach Murray continued. “Kaden did a good job of defending while on bottom. I was excited to see Kaden attack with his leg riding on top and was close to turning [Hutchins]. […] Both wrestlers are very talented. I’m really proud of Kaden and his performance.”
Weeki Wachee Results:
Ricky Bowermaster – 2-1 – (144 weight class) – 2nd Place to Zephyrhills’ Talon Maple (Fall 2:58)
Jashaun Contegiacomo – 3-1 – (215 weight class) – 3rd Place over Dunnellon’s Lucas Matassini (Injury 0:00)
Nick Guy – 3-1 – (113 weight class) – 3rd Place over Merritt Island’s Justus Giglietti (Fall 1:155)
Ricky Corbett – 4-1 – (150 weight class) – 5th Place over Forest’s Skylar Hackle (Dec 2-0)
“If you talk to Ricky and Nick, they want to be state champions,” Coach Felice continued. “They work to be state champions. They put in the hard work every day. That is what they want to achieve. They want the ultimate goal that every kid starts in competitive sports for is to win it all […] I think we are doing that. We have a schedule to [face top competition], and the kids are motivated and ready to try to win.”
Springstead Results:
Kaleb Johns – 3-1 – (215 weight class) – 2nd Place to Merritt Island’s Dominick Smith (Dec 8-1)
Amir Hussein – 3-1 – (113 weight class) – 2nd Place to Venice’s Niccolo Pellicano (Fall 1:37)
Giovani DeLape – 3-1 – (126 weight class) – 5th Place of Sunlake’s Zeke Johnson (Fall 2:56)
Jaiden Dukes – 3-1 – (285 weight class) – 5th Place over Nature Coast’s Zackary Selback (Fall 4:04)
“I was very disappointed in this team’s performance overall,” said Springstead Wrestling Coach Mike LaRocca. “We are a better team than what we put on display. Weight management was disappointing, especially from key wrestlers.”
“Amir was a huge bright spot, but I don’t think he’s showed his best. He still has more. In his finals match for a first-time kid, he was probably nervous but it’s coachable to correct. In fact, a lot of things that didn’t go the way I wanted are all coachable. Kaleb Johns second place finish was disappointing, but he will get his wrestling legs back soon. He’s been off the mat the last four months, so it totally throws a kid off.”
Central Results:
Wilberto Luna – 2-2 – (157 weight class) – 6th Place to Dunedin’s Garry Woessner (Fall 3:00)
This is my second season rebuilding the Central Wrestling Team as the head coach,” said Central Head Coach Donald Duncan. “Last season we had 7 of the 14 varsity spots filled, this season we have 11 spots filled so we are growing.”
Two of Coach Duncan’s athletes are in their second years with the program as well: Christopher Merrit (165 weight class) and Wilberto Luna (157 weight class). Merrit was “under the weather,” but their coach was pleased with their skills considering the athletes’ ages.
Many of the Bears’ other players had not played until last weekend’s tournament including Sophomore Austin Reaper (215 weight class, 2 wins), Junior Shane Parrot (113 weight class, 1 win), and Freshman Aiden Wilson (120 weight class). Coach Duncan was “impressed” with the fight of his guys and feels they “will make some waves” moving forward as they continue to learn.
The Weeki Wachee Invitational was a great opportunity for in-county squads and others from around the state to get quality experience against challenging opponents. Teams like Coach Felice and the Hornets will look for their players to end their bouts strong and “finish the job” when they have the advantage in the future.
