SHS: Mission Accomplished (Barely)

OK, so Saturday night's consolation round (for third/fourth place) and finals was not a thing beauty for
Hernando County teams.
Nevertheless, F.W. Springstead accomplished its main mission by collecting the Brooksville-Kiwanis Invitational team trophy
for a third straight winter by edging runner-up Lakeland-Lake Gibson, 252.5-227.5.
More importantly, it was how all the Hernando County teams fared late Saturday night that stood out at the conclusion of the
grueling, two-day, 27-team event held at the Michael A. Imhoff Gymnasium.
Springstead: flogged down the stretch
Sure, it was the Eagles' 13th team win across the past 21 years.
It also marked Head Coach Eric Swensen's 15th team title since he arrived at Mariner Boulevard campus five years ago. SHS
finished a collective 47-of-62 (76 percent).
Entering the consolation finals, however, SHS had machine gunned 43-of-49 individual opponents (88 percent) to all but secure
the team win.
But across the final two rounds, SHS was uncharacteristically unfocused bagging four wins in its final 13 matches to limp
home.
SHS' 13-man contingency (injured heavyweight Charles Oquendo did not compete) still managed to have a tourney-high nine
grapplers place (among the top four) while four others finished a win away from joining their teammates in the medal pool.
Nothing else magnified Springstead's situation than the finals where the Eagles collected three gold medals out of eight
bouts.
"We had eight in the finals," shrugged Coach Swensen attempting to remain positive about the Kiwanis meltdown down the
stretch. "At least we got there. There's a lot of people who wish they'd had gotten as far. We have extremely high standards,
but I think after the morning semifinals a lot of our guys were satisfied.
"We started off the finals OK with a couple wins, but we all knew who were wrestling," he added. "We knew it (the finals)
would be tough. But in some of our matches we got beat stupid. Little, silly things that we never do, we did tonight. That
bothers me."
What was the difference?
"We knew we'd be in a dog fight again with Lake Gibson," replied Swensen. "They're a quality team. I think we are a little
deeper right now. Individually, I was only satisfied with one guy, Kenny Cox. He's our tourney MVP. He scored points and
dominated a match like you're supposed to. I'm not taking away anything from Cody (Ross) or Richie (Bliss), but Kenny
dominated. The other two know they can wrestle a little better."

Eagles: nine placers, three champs

SHS was led by the first-time Kiwanis gold medal efforts by three underclassmen: sophomore Bliss at 103 pounds, freshman Ross
at 119 and junior Cox at 215.
Bliss, who came as the third seed, went 5-0 at Kiwanis with three pins.
Bliss opened the tourney by flattening NCT's Matt Henn in 32 ticks, Wiregrass Ranch's Kyle Koesling in 82 seconds and River
Ridge's Aaron Agazarm in 73 seconds.
In Saturday's semifinals, he decisioned Crystal River's David Vreeland before solving Lake Gibson freshman Brandon Jorge, 6-4.
In the finals, Bliss opened up a 4-0 first-period lead to never look back.
His finals match wasn't a thing of beauty - it was a tactical match.
"I just didn't want to mess up," explained the 16-year-old Bliss, who improved to 12-1 with nine pins this winter. "I thought
I wrestled pretty well until the finals. I beat a good kid in the semis.
"(In the finals) I heard the (Lakeland) fans cheering for him," he added. "After I got up, I admit, I kinda took it light. To
me this (gold medal) is big. Not bad for a guy who wrestled JV last year."
Ross went 4-0 with one pin for his initial varsity gold medal.
As the tourney's fourth seed, Ross opened by planting Belleview's Cody Casselman in 90 seconds before defeating Lake Gibson's
Austin Nesvacil, 3-1.
In the semifinals, Ross mangled Robinson's top seeded Chris Rollins via a major decision, 18-6.
Then perhaps the tightest finals' match, Ross edged Gulf's Anthony Ayers in the fourth overtime, 2-1.
Ross' 1-point escape with 2.2 seconds left dropped Ayers to 14-2.
"The last kid was really good," explained the 14-year-old Ross, who improved to 12-3 overall. "I couldn't do much on him
offensively. It came down to who was in better shape."
What was the difference?
"I know I didn't wrestle my best (in the finals)," commented Ross. "But I did listen to my coaches. Winning here is awesome.
And as a team, we just wanted to keep it (winning) going."
SHS silver medals went to sophomore Nick Soto (3-1) at 125, sophomore Shawn Landgraff (4-1) at 145, senior Thad Klenovich (3-
1) at 160, senior Jessey Lorentsen (3-1) at 171 and senior Scott Wern (3-1) at 189.
Lorentsen, Wern and Landgraff each recorded three pins before dropping their finals' matches.
Lorentsen and Klenovich were defending Kiwanis champions.
Rounding out the Eagle medalists, junior Thomas Ellerbee went 5-2 with three pins at 152 before finishing fourth.

NCT: best-ever finish

Like Springstead, each of Nature Coast Technical's 13 grapplers captured at least one win.
Like Springstead, NCT also achieved its main pre-tourney goal - finishing among the Top 10.
The Sharks went 26-25 overall, featuring 19 pins, to finished tied with host Hernando for seventh place with 103 points.
On the down side, of NCT's four grapplers who reached Saturday morning's semifinals, the only one to place was senior David
Simonson.
Simonson began his fourth varsity season as the school's career leader in wins (63) and pins (42). The 2008 state qualifier
went 4-1 with three pins at 119 to improve to 9-1 this winter with six pins.
Simonson pinned his first two opponents before Ayers blanked him via a convincing major decision, 8-0.
Simonson bounced back to pin Trinity Christian's Quincy Hoppel in 2:42 before edging the top-seeded Rollins, 1-0, to finish
third.
"I'm OK with third," acknowledged the 17-year-old Simonson. "I wrestled OK except for the semifinal."
What worked?
"I was more explosive and I was the first to get takedowns on all my matches but two," he added. "And I've gotten much better
on riding."
Despite Simonson's placing, NCT fifth-year Head Coach Mike Lastra wasn't in a celebrating mood.
"I thought overall we wrestled real well on Friday," examined Lastra. "Then we get four in the semis, that usually translates
to four medals and then we draw blanks down the stretch. It was real frustrating.
"Still, this was our best-ever finish here and we met our main goal (finish Top 10)," he added. "We just got to learn when
it's a two-day tournament, you've got to wrestle both days."

Leopards: four placers

Like Springstead and NCT, host Hernando High finished with an above slate at 24-22 featuring 12 pins.
Junior and 2008 state placer Daniel Pritz led the way for the Leopards with a second-place silver medal.
Pritz, who was a runner-up in 2007 at Kiwanis, captured his first four matches.
He opened by folding Sunlake's Luke Peterson, 18-5, bopped Gulf's Nick Calafiore, 11-2, before pinning Freedom's Trey Lawson
in 87 seconds.
In the semifinals, the top-seeded Pritz edged Central's Vince Ramirez, 3-2. Ramirez was 11-0 this winter before losing to
Pritz.
In the finals, No. 2 seeded Zack Boyer from Robinson held on for a 4-2 upset win.
HHS' other placers included senior James Davidson (4-1, third place) at 171, senior George Smith (3-1, fourth place) at 189
and freshman Zach Pritz (3-2, fourth place) at 140.
"I'm not OK with third," lamented the 18-year-old Davidson, who climbed to 12-2 with nine pins. "I wasn't shooting enough in
my semifinals. But I thought I wrestled pretty good the rest of the way. I mean, I pinned four kids, that's not bad. I feel
like I've come a long ways from last year."
"My first matches were my two best matches all year," commented the 15-year-old Zach Pritz. "Physically, I'm fine. I just feel
I came up a little short. I got to work harder in practice."
 Second-year HHS Head Coach Joe McLain thought his young squad fared OK.
"This was an extremely competitive tournament," remarked McLain. "I'd give our guys an average grade. The big thing was
everybody we had won at least a match. What was disappointing was we had one guy not make weight. But we're real young. We're
gonna make rookie mistakes. The thing we continue to stress is making improvements and we're doing that."

Bears: two medalists

A year ago at Hernando, Central High missed cracking into the Top 10 by one point finishing 23-22.
But saddled with a short-handed line-up (only 11 grapplers and minus state qualifier Danny May), the Bears regressed, going
18-22 overall -  finishing 16th with 60 points.
Ramirez and senior Wayne Snell each finished fourth at 135 and 125 respectively.
Snell finished 4-2 with two pins to climb to 10-6. He fell in the consolation finals to Belleview's Brian Mitchell via a major
decision, 18-8.
Ramirez finished 3-2 (12-2 overall) by dropping a 3-2 verdict to Daniel Pritz in the semifinals and forfeited to Belleview's
Sean Ferson in the consolation finals.
Senior and 2008 state qualifier Ken Supple finished a win away from the consolation round via a 4-2 slate, featuring a team-
high three pins at 130.

Past Brooksville-Kiwanis Tournament Champions
Year School    Points
2008 Spring Hill-Springstead  252.5
2007 Spring Hill-Springstead 228.5
2006 Spring Hill-Springstead 234
2005 Gainesville   243
2004 Bunnell-F. Palm Coast 209.5
2003 Brooksville-Hernando  203
2002 Tampa-Sickles  156
2001 Spring Hill-Springstead 179
2000 Spring Hill-Springstead 208.5
1999 Spring Hill-Springstead 209
1998 Lecanto   189
1997 Spring Hill-Springstead 252
1996 Spring Hill-Springstead 214.5
1995 Spring Hill-Springstead 241
1994 New Orleans, LA-Jesuit 226
1993 Lakeland Senior  173
1992 Spring Hill-Springstead 210
1991 Mechanicsburg, PA  178
1990 Spring Hill-Springstead 175
1989 Spring Hill-Springstead 206.5
1988 Spring Hill-Springstead 211.5
1987 Land O'Lakes   147
1986 New Orleans, LA-Jesuit 162.5
1985 New Orleans, LA-Jesuit NA
1984 Englewood-Lemon Bay NA
1983 Tampa-Leto   NA
1982 Brandon   206.5

27th  Brooksville Kiwanis Wrestling Invitational Team Standings:
PL  TEAM     CLASS PTS     
1.  Spring Hill-Springstead (SPG)    2A-5  252.5
2. Lakeland-Lake Gibson (LG)  2A-7  227.5
3. Tampa-Robinson (ROB)  1A-10  173.5
4. Tampa-Jesuit (TJ)   1A-9  147.5
5. Belleview (BELL)   2A-4  123.0
6. New Port Richey-Gulf (GF)  1A-6  116.5
7. Brooksville-Nature Coast (NCT) 1A-5  103.0
7.  Brooksville-Hernando (HER)  1A-5  103.0
9. Crystal River (CR)   1A-5  89.0
10. Land O'Lakes-Sunlake (SNL) 1A-6  86.5
11. Citra-North Marion (NM)   1A-5  78.0
12. Lecanto (LEC)    1A-5  74.5
13 New Port Richey-River Ridge (RR) 2A-5  72.5
14. New Port Richey-Mitchell (MIT) 3A-6  70.0
14. Dunnellon (DUN)   1A-5  70.0
16. Brooksville-Central (CEN)  2A-5  60.0
17. Tampa-Jefferson (JEFF)  2A-8  59.5
18. Wesley Chapel-Wiregrass (WG) 1A-6  54.0
19. Zephyrhills (ZEP)   1A-6  45.0
20. Winter Haven (WH)   2A-7  35.0
21. The Villages (VILL)   1A-5  30.0
22. Wesley Chapel (WC)   2A-5  26.0
23. Ocala-Trinity Catholic (OTC)  1A-5  19.0
24. Tampa-Freedom (FREE)  2A-8  17.5
25. New Port Richey-Ridgewood (RW) 2A-5  16.0
25. Hudson (HUD)   1A-6  16.0
27. Ocala-West Port (WP)  1A-5  15.0 

2008 Individual Results (Top 4 receive medals)
103 - 1. Bliss (SPG), 2. Brandon Jorge (LG), 3. Carpenter (GF), 4. Vreeland (CR).
112 - 1. Moodey (LG), 2. Boudreau (TJ), 3. Hynes (ZEP),  4. Portillo (BELL).
119 - 1. Ross (SPG), 2. Ayers (GF), 3. Simonsn (NCT), 4. Rollins (ROB).
125 - 1. Gonzalez (TJ), 2. Soto (SPG), 3. Mitchell (BELL), 4. Snell (CEN).
130 - 1. Burgess (BELL), 2. Cotrell (LG), 3. Sermons (WH), 4. Madden (WGR).
135 - 1. Boyer (ROB), 2. D. Pritz (HER), 3. Ferson (BELL), 4. Ramirez (CEN).
140 - 1. Brent Jorge (LG), 2. Kostakis (MIT), 3. Nichols (TJ), 4. Z. Pritz (HER).
145 - 1. Rex (LG), 2. Landgraff (SPG), 3. E. Williams (ROB), 4. Bassous (MIT).
152 - 1. Hawthorne (ROB), 2. Struble (LEC), 3. Jackson (GF), 4. Ellerbee (SPG).
160 - 1. Davidson (LG), 2. Klenovich (SPG), 3. Leone (DUN), 4. Vannata (RR).
171 - 1. Kuell (LG), 2. Lorentsen (SPG), 3. Davidson (HER), 4. Johnson (SNL).
189 - 1. Baker (SNL), 2. Wern (SPG), 3. Gandy (DUN), 4. Smith (HER).
215 - 1. Cox (SPG), 2. Brass (CR), 3. Pringle (NM), 4. Brosnan (MIT).
285 - 1. Benitez (ROB), 2. Velez (JEFF), 3. Cruz (CR), 4. Blackburn (BELL).

2008 Kiwanis Individual Awards:
Most Pins, Least Amt. of Time - Jarrett Baker (SNL) 5 pins: 12:18.
Fastest Pin - Brent Jorge (LK) - 12 seconds.
Outstanding Referee - John Gallico.
Outstanding Wrestler - Brent Jorge (LG).

2008 Finals Results:
103 - Bliss (SPG) dec. Brandon Jorge (LG), 6-4. 
112 - Moodey (LG) dec. Boudreau (TJ), 7-6.
119 - Ross (SPG) vs. Ayers (GF), 2-1 (4OTs). 
125 - Gonzalez (TJ) major dec. Soto (SPG), 10-2.
130 - Burgess (BELL) dec. Cottrell (LG), 11-5.
135 - Boyer (ROB) dec. D. Pritz (HER), 4-2.
140 - Brent Jorge (LG) pin. Kostakis (MIT), 0:43.
145 - Rex (LG) pin Landgraff (SPG), 2:34.
152 - Hawthorne (ROB) dec. Struble (LEC), 9-7.
160 - Davidson (LG) pin Klenovich (SPG), 3:25.
171 - Kuell (LG) dec. Lorentsen (MIT), 6-3.
189 - Baker (SNL) pin Wern (SPG), 5:10.
215 - Cox (SPG) major dec. Brass (CR), 13-5.
285 - Benitez (ROB) pin Velez (JEFF), 1:34.

2008 Consolation Finals
103 - Carpenter (GF) pin Vreeland (CR), 4:54.
112 - Hynes (ZEP) dec. Portillo (BELL), 10-3.
119 - Simonson (NCT) dec. Rollins (ROB), 1-0.
125 - Mitchell (BELL) major dec. Snell (CEN), 18-8.
130 - Sermons (WH) dec. Madden (WGR), 2-1. 
135 - Ferson (BELL) won by forfeit over Ramirez (CEN).
140 - Nichols (TJ) dec. Z. Pritz (HER), 7-4.
145 - E. Williams (ROB) dec. Bassous (MIT), 8-2.
152 - Jackson (GF) technical fall Ellerbee (SPG), 18-3.
160 - Leone (DUN) dec. Vannata (RR), 7-4.
171 - Davidson (HER) pin Johnson (SNL), 3:43.
189 - Gandy (DUN) pin Smith (HER), 2:05.
215 - Pringle (NM) pin Brosnan (MIT), 3:15.
285 - Cruz (CR) dec. Blackburn (BELL), 4-2.

Springstead Results
WGT Name   W L Pins PL 
103 Bliss, Richie  5 0 3  1st
112 Redman, Sean  4 2 2 -
119 Ross, Cody  4 0 1 1st
125 Soto, Nick  3 1 2 2nd
130 Huff, Devean  4 2 3 -
135 Colon, Sam  3 2 0 -
140 Zimmerman, Colton 2 2 1 -
145 Landgraff, Shawn 4 1 2 2nd
152 Ellerbee, Tommy 5 2 3 4th
160 Klenovich, Thad 3 1 0 2nd
171 Lorentsen, Jessey 3 1 3 2nd
189 Wern, Scott  3 1 3 2nd
215 Cox, Kenny  4 0 3 1st
TOTALS   47 15 26 -

Hernando Results
WGT Name   W L Pins PL 
103 Elicier, Nelson 1 2 1 -
112 Gunderson Brandon 1 2 1 -
119 Young, Jared  1 2 1 -
130 Malvesti, Shane 1 2 1 -
135 Pritz, Daniel  4 1 1 2nd
140 Pritz, Zach  3 2 0 4th
145 Day, Kenny  1 2 0 -
152 Morrill, Max  2 2 1 -
160 Roberts, Champ 2 2 1 -
171 Davidson, James 4 1 4 3rd
189 Smith, George  3 2 1 4th
215 Raney, Dakota  1 2 0 -
TOTALS   24 22 12 -

Central Results
WGT Name   W L Pins PL 
112 Merced, David  1 2 1 -
112 Supple, David  2 2 0 -
119 Cleveland, Josh 0 2 0 -
125 Snell, Wayne  4 2 2 4th
130 Supple, Ken  4 2 3 -
135 Ramirez, Vince 3 2 0 4th
145 Cadoret, Shaun 3 2 1 -
152 Kissam, Marcus 0 2 0 -
160 Redford, Matt  0 2 0 -
171 Jones, Kerry  0 2 0 -
285 Scott, Patrick  1 2 1 -
TOTALS   18 22 8 -

Nature Coast Results
WGT Name   W L Pins PL 
103 Henn, Matt  2 2 1 -
112 Forand, Tyler  3 2 2 -
119 Simonson, David 4 1 3 3rd
125 Cronin, Scott  2 2 2 -
130 Jackson, Jeremiah 2 2 0 -
135 Lambert, Mitch 0 2 0 -
145 McManus, Mack 1 2 1 -
152 McCabe, Ryan  2 2 1 -
160 McCarty, Luke 2 2 1 -
171 Gracteroly, Shayne 3 2 3 -
189 Greene, Rockkhem 2 2 2 -
215 Dampier, Chad 1 2 1 -
285 Caldwell, Sean 2 2 2 -
TOTALS   26 25 19 -