Somerset Academy built an early lead after the first day and cruised to its second Class 1A state wrestling title in two months.
The Pembroke Pines school held an 84.5-77 lead over Palm Bay in the individual wrestling tournament after the first day at Osceola Heritage Park Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee.
Somerset went on to capture the FHSAA Class 1A state title on Saturday night with 196 points, while American Heritage-Delray was third with 130.5 points and Cardinal Gibbons was fifth with 97.
“This is tremendous,” said Somerset wrestling coach Joe Blasucci. “It was our goal all year. We wanted to win districts, regionals and state in the state duals, and we did and then we wanted to win districts, regionals and state here. It is an extremely humbling experience. This is tough to do. It is not easy to do this and they wrestled their butts off.”
Led by state champions eighth-grader Christian Fretwell (106 pounds), eight-grader Elvis Solis (120), senior Chase Gillis (138), eighth-grader Bas Diaz (145) and senior Darian Estevez (152).
Estevez improved to 42-1 with an 11-2 majority decision in the 152-pound division over freshman Omer Barak (American Heritage-Delray), who fell to 34-11 with the defeat. He was also instrumental in the Panthers capturing the Class 1A Dual State Wrestling Championship at Osceola High School in Kissimmee in late January.
“This was a huge year,” Estevez said. “We had an opportunity, and we took it. We all realized this was our chance to do something special…something the school had never done before.”
“I have been dreaming about this since I started wrestling when I was 4,” said Fretwell, who improved to 46-4. “I just put in the extra work and it paid off.”
Gillis improved to 41-6 with a 10-2 majority decision over Cardinal Gibbons senior Tyler Cabral (23-2).
“This is everything,” Gillis said. “I have been coming to this arena my whole life and watched my brother [Rodney] win a state championship in 2013.
Diaz (17-2) avenged his regional final loss to Mater Lakes’ junior Benjamin Rogers in the Class 1A 145-pound match, winning 3-2. He repeated as state individual champion.
“I just went back, so what I did wrong and trained to fix it,” Diaz said. “It’s great to win back-to-back state championships.”
Cardinal Gibbons sophomore Nicholas Yancey also won a state title as he completed a perfect season at 24-0 by winning his 113-pound match, 3-2 in double overtime and handed Palm Bay senior Tyler Perrow his first loss in 36 matches.
“It was a close one,” said Yancey, who took fourth at state last year in the same weight class. “This is pretty big. It is a feeling that I never felt before. Last year I didn’t have the confidence that I do now. I guess it was like a switch turned on. I knew when the season started that I was going to win state.”
Two wrestlers from Broward County — Coral Springs Charter School senior Terrell Taylor (160 pounds) and St. Thomas Aquinas senior Michael Moss (182 pounds) — suffered their first losses of the season in their championship matches.
Taylor (29-1) fell to Clay senior Cale Hoskinson (42-2) 9-3 in the Class 1A tournament, while Moss lost 7-3 to Winter Springs junior Dylan Deal (27-9) in the 3A tournament.
“I am very, very happy,” said Moss, who didn’t expect to reach the finals in his first state tournament. “I wish I had won, but I am definitely not upset. In my other three years, I always had some kind of injury and this year it clicked for me. Every day of quarantine last year I trained. I bought mats and a dummy and just kept getting better.”
Solis defeated Cardinal Gibbons junior Mathew Palermo by technical fall in the 120-pound weight class.
American Heritage-Delray junior Joseph Nicolosi (33-3) dropped a 9-5 decision to Lemon Bay junior Lance Schyck, who remained undefeated at 39-0 in the 182 pound division in the 1A tourney.
Mater Lakes junior Ethan Vergara pinned Somerset Academy junior Matthew Jimenez in 5:59 of their 285 pound Class 1A championship match.
St. Thomas Aquinas was 17th with 32 points in the Class 2A competition, while Wellington (33) and Palm Beach Gardens (30) finished 13th and tied for 15th respectively in 3A.
Local wrestlers from Broward and Palm Beach counties who also placed at the state tournament were: Third place: Sophomore Patrick Jones (Wellington, 106 in 3A); Senior Skyler Caban (Somerset Academy, 132 in 1A); Senior Vincenzo Napolitana (American Heritage-Delray, 138 in 1A); Junior Daniel Korchensky (Cardinal Gibbons, 160 in 1A); Senior Aiden Alexander (Jupiter, 220 in 3A); Fourth place: Junior Andrew DeSola (American Heritage-Delray, 126 in 1A); Junior Rafael Romero (American Heritage-Delray, 145 in 1A); Sophomore Danny Diaz (Somerset Academy, 170 in 1A); Senior Sean Concepcion (Somerset Academy, 182 in 1A). Fifth place: Junior Peyton Vargas (Cardinal Gibbons, 106 in 1A); Senior William George (Palm Beach Gardens, 160 in 3A). Sixth place: Senior Elijah Ortiz (Palm Beach Gardens, 126 in 3A); Junior Jaeden Kinlock (American Heritage, 195 in 1A); Junior Chase Thompson (American Heritage-Delray, 220 in 1A); Senior Mason Powell (Wellington, 285 in 3A).
