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Sunlake Sends 7 To Region Tournament

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By EDDIE DANIELS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

DADE CITY - In wrestling, as with life, there is such a thing as stage fright. But at Sunlake, the Seahawks appear to have bathed in a potion, warding off the unkind nervous reaction.

Sunlake, in its first season, advanced seven wrestlers into Friday and Saturday's Class 1A-Region 2 tournament in Avon Park and finished fifth in the eight-team 1A-District 6 tournament on Saturday at Pasco.

Devon Johnson (152) was the squad's lone district champ, followed by Luke Peterson (125) and Jarrett Baker (189) as runners-up. Tyler Crawford (112), Sean Hart (119), Nick Stanger (145) and Jordan Myers (215) each finished third.
Stanger opened up the district tournament with a victory, but lost his next match, sending him into the consolation rounds, where he won his final two matches for third place.

"Today was pretty good," said Stanger, a sophomore in his first season wrestling. "It started off rough, but you just have to put that behind you and take it one match at a time and keep going hard."
Stanger likely spoke for all of his teammates when he contemplated whether he would be in this position when the season began.

"Did I think I was going to get to where I'm at now? I had hopes," he said. "This is where I wanted to be and I want to go further. Being first-year varsity and a captain, I'm loving it."

COMEBACK KID: During the weekend of the Sunshine Athletic Conference tournament, Pasco's Vidal Jimenez just wasn't himself. The senior, who wrestled up a weight class at 112 pounds and finished sixth in the tournament, got down on himself and contemplated ending his season.

"It was real hard," Jimenez said Saturday after winning the 103-pound district title. "At one time last week I was kind of quitting on myself and Coach Mark DeAugustino and my mom gave me support. If it wasn't for that support, I would have quit."

Had he quit, it would have washed away a senior season - just his second overall - that witnessed him win the Edward Goodpaster Invitational, finish second in the Heart of Dixie Wrestling Classic in Birmingham, Ala., and possibly qualify for the state tournament for a second consecutive season.

"Going up to 112, I was 6 pounds under them," Jimenez said of the SAC tournament. "I wasn't wrestling really hard, but when I did wrestle, I was better than them."

GIVE AND TAKE: Zephyrhills' Nick Hynes employed a common strategy Saturday on his way to the 1A-District 112-pound title. Give his opponent, Gulf's Jean Ayala, an escape and take him right back down - again and again. The tactic worked as Hynes collected a 15-10 decision.

"I'm good at takedowns and I just knew I had to keep on taking him down to get my points, scoring points during the match to keep up," Hynes said.

Hynes, who went 2-2 as a freshman at the state tournament last season, sports a 31-9 record this year and is itching to get back to Lakeland to become a state placer.

"It's a lot of hard work, but when it's all said and done, it's worth it," he said. "Practice is hard, but eventually you come to the top."

GIFT OF VICTORY: Pasco's Ray Perez gave himself a pretty decent 18th birthday present Saturday - a district championship. Although there was cake waiting for him, it's likely Perez would have settled for the fact he's one step closer to Lakeland.

BIDDING HIS TIME: Hudson 171-pounder Devin Brown has been challenged once this season. That came in a loss to Mitchell's Jessey Lorentsen at the Hernando Kiwanis tournament in December. Since then, the junior has been waiting for the rest of the pack to catch up.

"I'm not worried about any matches until the second day at state," he said.

Despite the sparse amount of competition, he has yet to get complacent and admits his goal is to finish top three in the state. His other motivation comes from Coach Dana Bentley.

"Coach threatened me," Brown said, grinning. "I mean, you see the way he screams when someone loses. Especially when you have to ride with him and he's sitting there all angry. Not pretty."

Coaches wanting to add their team's information to the weekly Wrestling Notebook can submit their entries to Eddie Daniels by calling (813) 948-4214 or e-mailing edaniels@tampatrib.com.

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