Davis captures state weightlifting title; ‘Horns, Kowboys win team wrestling districts

It was a week of triumph and disappointment as FHSAA post-season action continued this week in basketball, weightlifting, wrestling and soccer for select county teams.  Here is a look around the county:

GIRLS WEIGHTLIFTING: The FHSAA Girls Weightlifting Championships were held last weekend in Lakeland and Osceola County walked away with state champion and several all-state performers.

St. Cloud’s Abigail Davis was the gold medalist state champion in the 110-pound weight class, winning the traditional event with a bench press of 165 and a clean-and-jerk of 145 for a total lift of 310.  She edged teammate and silver medalist Kaitlyn Gallagher-Perez by 20 pounds in her weight class.  The duo also earned all-state honors in the Olympic competition (clean-and-jerk/snatch), as Perez took second and Davis finished fourth in that event. To earn all-state, lifters had to place in the top six in their weight class. 

Ashley Aun earned double all-state honors in the 100-pound weight class, placing third in the traditional and fifth in Olympic style.  Celebration’s Yomileany Lopez just missed double all-state honors at the 190-lb. weight class, as she made the podium with a sixth place finish in the Olympic style event but just missed all-state honors in the traditional with a seventh place showing.

Also earning all-state honors in the Olympic style 3A meet was St. Cloud’s Layla Lara, with a sixth place finish in the 119-pound weight class and Celebration’s Fabianna Millan, who took fifth in the 154-lb. Olympic event.

St. Cloud placed in both team events, finishing in fourth place in the traditional and sxith in the Olympic. Pace won the traditional team title, Winter Springs was 3A Olympic team champion.

“It was not a great day for us,” Bulldogs coach Cory Aun said.  “We simply did not hit the lifts we have been hitting all year.  There were a few issues with the equipment used, but we have no excuses. We’re happy that we went 1-2 in the traditional at 110, but we felt we had at least two other chances to win a state championship and we just missed on the lifts that we have made most of the season.”

BOYS BASKETBALL: Harmony, the only boys’ county team to advance past districts, saw its season come to end with an 86-49 road loss to state power Lake Worth (22-1) in the quarterfinal round of the Class 7A Region 2 Tournament.  Hedrens Bartheles and Anthony Coby led second-seeded Trojans with 16 points each as the Longhorns fell behind early and could never challenge.  Still it was an outstanding season for Harmony.  Led by seniors Caden Scarborough, Miguel Tirado, Rafael Balines, and Teancum Paxman, Duke Leonardo’s Longhorn squad won the school’s first ever district championship and posted the 20-win season in school history – finishing at 22-6.

BOYS WRESTLING: Both Harmony and Osceola opened bids for the FHSAA State IBT Championship by hosting districts at their respective schools and both came away with team championships.

The Kowboys hosted the District 3A-5 meet and tallied 263.5 points to easily get by George Jenkins (208) for the team championship.  Poinciana (134.5) was third and Celebration (82) was fourth.

The top four finishers in each weight class advance to next week’s regional meets.  The Kowboys are sending 13 through to regionals including nine district champions in Talyn Fisk (113-pound weight class), Evan Martinez (120), Isfandier Sharipov (126), Anderson Heap (145), Cooper Haase (152), Deacon Delong (160), Gunner Holland (170), Bryan Gari (182) and Jomar Sanchez (195).

Poinciana sends nine through, including the champion of the 106-pound weight class Landon Trigueros; while the Storm will send a contingent of four to regionals, including champion Zachariah DeCesare (132).

Over at Longhorns gym, Harmony (238.5) and Tohopekaliga (191.5) gave the county a 1-2 team finish in the eight team meet.  Harmony will send 10 through to regionals, including district champions Tristan Horn (106), Landon Davis (113), Rey Ortiz (132), Shawn McCallister (138), Carson Estrada (145), Antonio Falotico (160) and Nelson Toro (285).  Toro remained undefeated on the season, running his record to 38-0.

Tohopekaliga sends 10 wrestlers to regionals, including district champions Regie Cuesta (152), Luis Rosario (182) and Chris Luyanda (190). 

Gateway (136) and St. Cloud (96) finished in third and fifth place behind champion Lake Gibson (314) at the Class 2A, District 7 meet in Lakeland.  Led by second place finishes by Aiden Cooper (195) and Elijah Abreu (285), the Panthers are sending eight to next week’s regional meet; while the Bulldogs send four through including second place finishers John Fernandez (182) and Nathaniel Huron (132).

GIRLS WRESTLING: Last Friday, 49 schools gathered in Kissimmee as Osceola High hosted the Region 2 Girls Wrestling Championships.  The top four girls in each weight class advanced to the state championship at Silver Spurs Arena on March 2-4.  The host Kowboys (160.5) finished second to state power Freedom (192) for the team championship, Gateway (82.5 points -6th place), Harmony (34.5 – 13th), St. Cloud (26 – 24th ), Poinciana (8- 39th), Celebration (7- 41st) and Tohopekaliga (6- 43rd) also participated.

Osceola advanced six wrestlers to the state championships, including Regional Champions Kealoni Vega (35-1) at 100-pound weight class, 125-pound champion Kiera Suro (19-7) and Cathia Thomas (41-11), the winner at 140.

The Panthers advance four to the state championship, including Emiliana Martinez – who took 3rd at 155.  St. Cloud only had one wrestler in the meet but Emiliana Brown easily advanced to the state championship by capturing a regional title at 155.

BOY’S SOCCER: The lone remaining Osceola County boys’ soccer team was eliminated last Thursday night when Celebration fell on the road in the Class 7A, Region 2 Final to top seed Boca Raton, 2-1.  Still it was another outstanding season for the Storm, as they finished 14-3-1 with an Orange Belt Conference and District Championship to their credit, as well as another deep run into the state playoffs.

Celebration allowed just 11 goals on the season in 18 games, as standout goal tender Christopher Hernandez recorded 11 shutouts on the season.  Senior Julio D’lima led the team with 10 goals, but the Storm had a balanced attack as 13 different players registered goals for the season.

In the regional championship game, Celebration fell behind 2-0 before Anyelo Costellano connected to make it a 2-1 late in the contest.  The Storm could not get the equalizer, however, as the game ended.

Unfortunately an ugly incident occurred after the game. “One of their players kept making obscene gestures to one our players, who was exhausted and lying on the field in close proximity to their bench. After he did it a third time our player responded by going over to their bench and pushing the player who was making the gesture,” Assistant Coach/Storm Athletic Director Chad Boudreaux said.  “Unfortunately things escalated when players from their bench and students in the stands started joining in the melee and our players tried to respond.

“Coaches and administrators on both sides were finally able to restore order, but their fans were blocking the entrance to our bus.  Fortunately deputies from Palm Beach County got our buses moved to another entrance and we were able to leave without further incident.”

Boudreaux added that he was upset that a news report the next day quoted several Boca coaches and administrators laying the entire blame for the incident on the Storm team.

“That sort of upset me because while it is true that we had one player make a mistake by responding inappropriately to an obscene and unsportsmanlike gesture, they were the team that ended up having a semifinal home game taken away for a lack of institutional control and they were the ones that had five players suspended for the next game. We were not totally without blame but they certainly need to own up to their part of the incident too.”

Boca Raton lost that moved semifinal game, 1-0, to East Ridge.