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Turnaround begins at War Eagle gym

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By MARTY MILLER, Hernando Today correspondent

Published: December 5, 2007

KISSIMMEE - In previous years, Nature Coast Technical's Head Coach Mike Lastra normally has had just six or seven wrestlers instead of the normal 14 most teams bring to most tournaments. But this year, things have finally started to improve for the Sharks and Saturday was a prime example of it.

NCT had three wrestlers make the tournament finals in their respective weight classes as the Sharks finished sixth place, a school best, in the War Eagle Classic Wrestling Tournament held at Poinciana High School in Kissimmee.

With Matt Lambert at 145 pounds, Rockkheem Greene at 189 and J. J. Baker at 275 all placing second, the Sharks ended up with their best finish ever in a large tournament.

And the good thing for Coach Lastra and his team is that this year, the Sharks actually have enough depth to have someone in all 14 weight classes, something they didn't have even a year ago.

"We wanted to finish in the top five and we were there for most of the day before coming in sixth," said Lastra. "But overall, we got three people in the finals and we got four guys to the medal round and that's a first for us. Today was the best finish we've ever had in a regular season tournament."
Space Coast won the 16-team individual tournament with 214.5 points while Bayshore came in second with 204. Auburndale was third with 172.5; Tampa Bay Christian Academy came in fourth with 145 followed by Lakeland-Kathleen at 128.5 and NCT, which had 128 points, placed sixth.

"We're getting better and I think it may take us until January to jell as a team," said Lastra. "We're getting a lot of football players to come out for the team. We've got 39 wrestlers and those are the kind of numbers Springstead gets. But with the help of my assistant coaches, we've been talking a lot of football players into coming out for wrestling this year. Now we have a full team and that's how you compete with other schools."

Lambert leads

Lambert, a senior, made the finals Saturday before losing in the finals to Xavier Londono of Space Coast. Earlier he pinned Austin Ferrell of Bartow in 49 seconds, then decisioned Zach Johnson of Auburndale, 8-4, before earning a decision from Lucas Lopez of Bayshore in the semifinals.

"He's a kid who's all heart," said Lastra about Lambert. "He's never made regional or anything like that, but we think this year will be his break through year. And he had to wrestle two weight classes higher Saturday and in the finals he wrestled a qualifier for the state and he stayed with him the whole way."

The most surprising thing that happened to NCT came at 189 pounds, where Greene, a first-year junior, finished second in his first tournament ever.

"He's one of those football guys we talked into coming out for wrestling," said his coach. "He's only practiced a week and a half and he hardly knows any moves, but he's going to be a good wrestler later."

Greene earned three pins on his way to the finals. First he pinned Luis Lino of Poinciana in 4:09, then he pinned Justin Hall of Harmony in 3:45 before getting a place in the finals with a pin of Brad Rozier of Bayshore in 55 ticks.

Going into the weekend, Coach Lastra believed that heavyweight J.J. Baker would make the finals and he did.

Baker, a senior who is another one of Lastra's football/wrestlers, pinned Kaden Grigson of Astronaut in 1:04 in the quarterfinals before flattening Jon Nelson of Space Coast in the semifinals in 40 seconds before he got pinned by Steven Rodriguez of Harmony in the finals in 2:21.

Along with the three Sharks who made the finals, NCT got a third-place finish from David Simonson at 112 pounds.

Overall, the Sharks ended the day with a collective 21-22 won-lost record with 17 pins, which according to Lastra was their best finish ever as a team.

"I think by January we should be a decent team and by the time districts come, I think we'll be able to compete with most of those teams," Lastra said.

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