Sharks Collect First-Ever First-Place Mat Trophy

THE VILLAGES - There is a first time for everything.

For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it was winning their first Super Bowl in 2003 and for the Tampa Bay Lightning, it was winning the Stanley Cup in 2004.

For the Nature Coast Technical High School wrestling team, it was Saturday at the American Legion Wrestling Tournament at The Villages High School where the Sharks won their first tournament in the four-year history of the program.

With Jeremiah Jackson winning the 135-pound weight class along with 215-pound Brandon Nuby and heavyweight J.J. Baker each taking first place Saturday; the Sharks were able to beat seven other teams to take their first title.

"Oh, this is awesome," said Sharks Head Coach Mike Lastra about what happened. "It really is, these kids have put in a whole lot of work and deserve it."

Previous to Saturday, the Sharks best finish in a tournament came when they finished in sixth place at the Poinciana Tournament earlier this season.

But on Saturday, despite not having two wrestlers for the 112 and 152-pound weight classes, the Sharks had seven grapplers in the finals to help topple runner-up Dunnellon by 32 points.

While NCT has spent most of the year competing in larger Class 2A tournaments, Saturday was the first time the Sharks faced only 1A schools, most of whom also will be in the upcoming Class 1A, District 5 tournament this weekend at Citrus Springs Middle School.

"It's huge, we've been going to a lot of 2A tournaments this year," Lastra said Saturday. "We came out here and won by 30 points and that's big.

"Now we're missing (district rivals) Hernando and Citrus and they are two big guns in our district and everyone knows that. But our kids can compete this year, so we don't have till next year anymore."

Nature Coast won the individual tournament by scoring 195.5 points, besting Dunnellon by 30 points.

"I'm happy because we've worked harder this year, probably harder than we've ever worked before," said Jackson.

For Lastra, this season his club has mainly stayed away from the other 1A schools in his district. And he says there was a reason for that.

"We've improved a lot since the beginning of the year," said the fourth-year Sharks coach. "We kind of stayed away from the district teams on purpose. Now they kind of know who we are."

On Saturday night, the Sharks had more grapplers in a tournament final than they had in their previous four season.

Besides, the three wrestlers who won Saturday, David Simonson at 119 pounds, Brenton Nuby at 130, Matt Lambert at 140 and Shane Gracteroly at 171 pounds all were in finals.

"Our goal is a district championship and it's also to get 10 wrestlers into the regional," Lastra said. "If we can get our guys to wrestle like they did today next week in the district, we have a legitimate shot at winning it."