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Young at Heart

1A-5 WRESTLING

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Hernando High junior Daniel Pritz, a 2008 state placer, grimaces during one of his many takedowns during Saturday night’s convincing 13-5 major decision over Lecanto’s Sam Arcadipane at 135 pounds at the Storm Center at Citrus High. Pritz’ 28th straight win improved his 2008-09 won-lost record to 34-2 and 104-26 lifetime. Pritz joined teammate James Davidson and Citrus High’s Craig Barker as repeat 1A-5 individual champions.

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By TONY CASTRO SPORTS EDITOR

Hernando Today

Published: February 8, 2009

INVERNESS - There was a certain amount of expectation going into Saturday's 9-hour, 10-team, Class 1A, District 5 Wrestling Tournament at Citrus High.
Though no one captured its 36th straight district title like state juggernaut Brandon High did Friday in Polk County.
The host Golden Hurricanes, under Head Coach Mike Porcelli, took a business-like approach in Saturday's meet.
The 'Canes, who came in with a meet-best 14 wrestlers, walked away with meet-high 13 advancing to Feb. 13-14's Class 1A, Region II Tournament at St. Augustine-Matanzas High.
CHS spread the wealth by capturing five-of-seven individual titles besides winning 5-of-6 consolation matches for third place.
Most importantly, the young Citrus High squad (sporting only three seniors) never trailed on Saturday amassing 235 points - surpassing runner-up Brooksville-Hernando's 142-point total.
The district title is the Hurricanes' fourth straight. The lone repeat champ for the hosts was senior Craig Barker at 119. Barker, who lost the district championship as a freshman, has reeled off three crowns since.
Rounding out the event, Nature Coast Technical had a long day. On the plus side, NCT did advance six of its nine grapplers to regionals.
On the down side, the three Sharks who reached Saturday night's finals lost as did 2-of-3 grapplers in the consolation round. NCT unexpectedly limps into regionals finishing seventh in 1A-5 with 86 points.
NCT advances six next week including: sophomore Tyler Forand at 103, senior David Simonson at 119, junior Scott Cronin at 125, freshman Mitch Lambert at 135, senior Matt Lambert at 145 and freshman Jeff Gilbert at 215.
Forand, Simonson and Cronin each lost in Saturday night's finals.
Gilbert earned third place by pinning Hernando's Dakota Raney in 4:25 while the Lambert brothers each dropped their consolation matches to finish fourth.
"From the outset, this wasn't our day," lamented NCT's fifth-year Head Coach Mike Lastra, who prior to the event hoped the Sharks would be in contention for the 1A-5 title or at least second place. "I don't know what we did to upset the gods of wrestling.
"Once we came in with nine guys, the guys were down," he recalled. "We left something like 70 wins at home. That really hurt our lineup. Shayne (Gracteroly) wasn't allowed to wrestle (infection), Rockkhem (Greene) had an ACT Test issue that conflicted with the tournament and David (Simonson) had a weight class issue - that I take full responsibility for. That one is on me. I learned a lot today. It was very frustrating.
"If you would have told me on Wednesday, we'd come to Citrus and get sixth place or worse, I would have told you 'You're crazy!', added Lastra. "But that's what happened. Fortunately, we're still taking 6-of-9 guys and next week we'll start with a clean slate."

Leopards : 9 advance

The Leopards, who finished second in this event for the seventh time in the past 13 seasons, had four grapplers reach the finals.
All season long, the Purple and Gold's most experienced grapplers consistently led the way while its less experienced grapplers struggled to win a match here and there.
All told, HHS won 21-of-35 individual bouts at the "Storm Center" and had 10-of-12 wrestlers win at least one match.
But on Saturday, the younger wrestlers began to step up and seemed to inspire the older kids.
For instance, freshman Jared Young arrived at districts towing a 7-24 won-lost mark.
The 14-year-old Young sparked the Leopards behind an amazing 3-1 run to place third at 119 pounds. His two-point near fall with eight seconds left in the consolation round to edge Crystal River's Tyler Walters capped an epic ebb-flow match, 12-11.
"I tried harder today than I ever have," explained the first-year grappler Young, who according to their teammates inspired everyone else by selling out. "Normally, I get real nervous before I get out there and yeah in some of my regular season matches I did not try as hard to fight as I did today. My last match (versus Walters) was the best match I've ever wrestled."
What's the goal next week?
"Like always I want to have some fun," he smiled. "But I want to win, too."
Despite coming in with a losing record, junior Dakota Raney went 2-2 at 215 to place fourth. Ditto for senior Kenny Day, who went 1-2 at 152, to also finish fourth.
Seniors Brandon Gunderson at 103 and George Smith at 189 each went 2-1 to place third.
"Our younger guys wrestled better than expected," summed up HHS Head Coach Joe McLain. "Bottom line, we've got nine advancing, including some guys that we did not think they would."
Overall?
"Overall, we had a good day," said McLain sporting a broad smile. "It was great for our morale. I've never seen the team bond as much as we did today. Watching the younger guys win was a huge motivator for Hernando wrestling."
Biggest surprise?
"It's got to be Jared (Young), Dakota (Raney) and Kenny (Day) all winning matches to advance," replied McLain. "It was one of those days where everything seemed to click for us. Maybe the stars were in alignment."

HHS: 3-of-4 champs

Inspired by their younger teammates, HHS pushed four into Saturday's finals and captured three bouts and nearly took a fourth.
Senior Max Morrill at 145 came up a little short. In a weight class that had only five participants, Morrill, a 2008 state qualifier, reached the finals by toppling NCT's Matt Lambert, 4-1.
In the finals against top seed, Lecanto senior Steven Struble recorded a takedown in the final 10 seconds to edge Morrill, 6-4.
HHS claimed three first-place blue ribbons featuring junior Daniel Pritz at 135, freshman Zach Pritz at 140 and senior James Davidson at 171.
Like Citrus High's Barker, Daniel Pritz and Davidson earned back-to-back district championships.
Daniel Pritz, a 2008 state placer, opened the meet by planting Crystal River's Dakota Thompson in 74 seconds for his 15th pin of the season.
In the next round, the top-seeded Pritz earned a forfeit over Dunnellon's Jason Bivens.
In the finals against Lecanto senior Sam Arcadipane, Pritz reverted to a formula three-time HHS state champion Addison Chipoletti utilized. Pritz took Arcadipane down over and over and would let him up, en route to a dominating 13-5 major decision.
Behind his 28th straight win (his last loss was in the Kiwanis Inv. finals to Tampa-Robinson's Zach Boyer, 4-2), Pritz improved to 35-2 on the season and 104-26 lifetime ranking 13th all-time at HHS. With four more wins, he'll surpass two more Pritz brothers, Stephen (105) and Robbie (107).
Was it harder to repeat this winter?
"No, not really," shrugged the 17-year-old Pritz, who is 9-1 lifetime in districts. "It was kinda the same. The last kid (Arcadipane) pushed me. I got a good 6-minute match in."
Is Pritz where he wants to be going into regionals where he is a defending champion?
"Yeah, definitely," Pritz replied. "But I'm not in perfect shape yet. My goal is the same, I going in to win it."
And the team?
"It was impressive today," smiled Pritz. "Jared (Young) lifted everybody up. He definitely pumped me up. Man, if he can fight that hard, so can everybody else. No one expected us to take nine people to regions, but we are."
In the Pritz family, Daniel held the freshman record for most wins in a season (25) until this winter.
Zach Pritz set two family standards on Saturday.
First, he became the fifth Pritz brother to win a district championship by going 3-0.
Just as important, Zach's trio of wins pushed him to a Pritz-record 32-8 won-lost slate.
The top seeded Zach Pritz opened the meet planting Crystal River's Angel Colon for his 15th pin in 3:04.
Next, he fashioned an 11-2 major decision over Lecanto's Jason Roberts.
In the finals, he blanked West Port's third-seeded David Detwiler, 4-0. So in three matches, he permitted two points.
Why the success?
"Since we last wrestled two weeks ago, we've been going extra hard at practice," explained the 15-year-old Zach Pritz. "That extra work really paid off. I wasn't nearly as tired as I have been in the past. I wrestled nearly my best."
How difficult was it securing his first district title?
"I was in better shape going in and I have worked hard enough to win this," said Pritz. "I needed it (conditioning) because that last guy was real strong."
And the team?
"Jared (Young) and Dakota (Raney) wrestled awesome," said Pritz. "No one expected them to advance. That's on them. They earned the rite (to go)."
Davidson thought this season's path to the blue ribbon was less bumpy than last winter.
And why not?
Davidson matched Dunnellon's champ Mike Leone at 152 and Citrus High freshman champ at 285, John Dreggars, by going 3-0 with three pins. Davidson now has a personal-best 24 pins on the season.
Davidson opened the meet by planting West Port's Marcus Scott in 3:18. Next, he folded Lecanto's Erik Miner in 1:58 before solving The Villages senior Sean Carver in 5:30.
The trio of wins upped Davidson's record this season to career-best 36-3 overall and left him one win shy of the coveted 100-win plateau at 99-29.
Was repeating as champ tougher this time?
"Actually winning for the first time last year and beating (Citrus High's) Joe Conway was tougher," said the 18-year-old Davidson, a three-year starter at HHS. "The difference this year is I've really worked on my endurance; I think my record shows that. And realizing that this is my senior year and this is it has motivated me."
And the team?
"I'm so proud of the team and especially our younger guys and how they stepped up," remarked Davidson. "We've improved so much from the beginning of the season. I think we're peaking at the right time."

2009 Class 1A-5 Wrestling Tourney Team Standings
PL School Pts.
1. Inverness-Citrus (CIT) 235.0
2. Brooksville-Hernando (HER) 142.0
3. Crystal River (CR) 108.0
4. Citra-North Marion (NM) 107.0
5. Lecanto (LEC) 99.0
6. Dunnellon (DUN) 86.5
7. Brooksville-Nature Coast (NCT) 86.0
8. Ocala-West Port (WP) 31.5
9. Ocala-Trinity Catholic (OTC) 27.0
10. The Villages (VILL) 21.0

2009 Hernando's Class 1A-5 Individual Results
Wgt Name W L Pins PL
103 Gunderson, Brandon 2 1 2 3rd
119 Young, Jared 3 1 2 3rd
130 Malvesti, Shane 1 2 1 -
135 Pritz, Daniel 3 0 1 1st
140 Pritz, Zach 3 0 1 1st
145 Morrill, Max 1 1 0 2nd
152 Day, Kenny 1 2 1 4th
160 Day, Blaine 0 2 0 -
171 Davidson, James 3 0 3 1st
189 Smith, George 2 1 1 3rd
215 Raney,Dakota 2 2 1 4th
285 Worsley, Tim 0 2 0 -
TOTALS 21 14 13

2009 Nature Coast's Class 1A-5 Individual Results
Wgt Name W L Pins PL
103 Forand, Tyler 2 1 2 2nd
119 Simonson, David 2 1 2 2nd
125 Cronin, Scott 1 1 1 2nd
130 Richardson, Steven 2 2 2 -
135 Lambert, Mitch 2 2 1 4th
145 Lambert, Matt 1 2 0 4th
160 McCarty, Luke 1 2 0 -
215 Gilbert, Jeff 2 1 1 3rd
285 Jarque, Greg 0 2 0 -
TOTALS 13 14 9

Class 1A-5 Tournament Finals
103 - Vreeland (CR) dec. Forand (NCT), 5-0.
112 - Martin (CIT) dec. Surber (CR), 10-5.
119 - Barker (CIT) pin Simonson (NCT), 2:44.
125 - Hoppel (OTC) won by injury default Cronin (NCT).
130 - Toles (CIT) pin A. Arcadipane (LEC), 3:21.
135 - D. Pritz (HER) major dec. S. Arcadipane (LEC), 13-5.
140 - Z. Pritz (HER) ec. Detwiler (WP), 4-0.
145 - Struble (LEC) dec. Morrill (HER), 6-4.
152 - Leone (DUN) pin Musto (CIT), 1:38.
160 - Zukley (CIT) dec. Delgado (DUN), 10-3.
171 - Davidson (HER) pin Carver (TV), 5:30.
189 - Gandy (DUN) pin A. Zukley (CIT), 1:41.
215 - Brass (CR) pin T. Pringle (NM), 0:29.
285 - Dreggars (CIT) pin M. Pringle (NM), 3:45.

2009 Class 1A-5 Tournament Consolation Finals
103 - Gunderson (HER) pin Norman (CIT), 4:24.
112 - Patterson (DUN) pin Bautista (OTC), 2:58.
119 - Young (HER) def. Walters (CR), 12-11.
125 - Nolen (CIT) pin Jordan (CR), 1:49.
130 - Hurst (NM) pin Cioffi (DUN), 2:50.
135 - Hopkins (CIT) major dec. Mitch Lambert (NCT), 13-2.
140 - DeCarlo (CIT) pin Roberts (LEC), 4:03.
145 - Whitton (CIT) dec. Matt Lambert (NCT), 11-6.
152 - Kinsel (NM) major dec. K. Day (HER), 12-0.
160 - Sblano (LEC) pin Leon (NM), 2:32.
171 - J. Liptrap (CIT) pin Miner (LEC), 4:09.
189 - Smith (HER) dec. Epps (NM), 1-0.
215 - Gilbert (NCT) pin Raney (HER), 4:25.
285 - Cruz (CR) pin Shumate (LEC), 3:13.

Sports Editor Tony Castro can be reached at 352-544-5278 or online at acastro@hernandotoday.com.

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