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Infection KO's Pasco's Jimenez

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 17, 2008

LAKELAND - Although Pasco's Vidal Jimenez made it to the fifth/sixth-place round, he could not finish the tournament after trainers diagnosed him with a staph infection in his left leg.

Staph, also known as staphylococcus, can cause skin irritations, which can swell and redden, inflame connective tissue or, in an extreme case, enter the bloodstream and affect organs.

Following the initial diagnosis, Pasco coach Mark DeAugustino pulled him from the tournament following Jimenez's loss in his match for a shot at third place. DeAugustino took him to Pasco Regional Medical Center, where it was determined the infection was cellulitis, which can either be topical or spread to the tissue. According to DeAugustino, Jimenez had a less aggressive version and could have wrestled.

While Jimenez was being evaluated in the hospital, the match for sixth place was given to Live Oak Suwannee's Merritt Burrus via injury default.

When the medal ceremony took place between matches Saturday night, Jimenez was there in street clothes to accept his medal for sixth place.

YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE: Three Tampa Bay Christian eighth-graders found their way to the medals podium. Rossi Bruno stood at the top after winning the Class 1A 103-pound state title, while teammates Clark Glass (119) and Kyle Koziel (140) joined him. Glass, the 1A 103-pound champ last season, placed fourth, while Koziel took fifth.

Bruno, Glass and Koziel were three of only seven eighth-graders to qualify for state, all of whom qualified in 1A. Five of the seven placed, including Tampa Prep's Tyler Liberatore, the 1A 112-pound champ.

TWICE AS NICE: For the first time in his six years, Robinson coach Tommy Montero had two wrestlers place. Ellis St. John (189) and Zach Boyer (130) each placed sixth in 1A.

Alonso and Bloomingdale each had two placers in 3A - Tony Milanes (103; sixth) and Kendall Ivy (189; sixth) for the Ravens, and brothers Austin (130; third) and Chris Figari (140; fourth) for the Bulls.

In 2A, Armwood had two in James Gray (103) and Leroy Minley (130), who each took fifth. In 1A, Jesuit had three in Chris Kavouklis (189; third), Ben Reid (152; fifth) and David Gonzales (125; fourth), while Tampa Prep's Wes Jarrell (160; sixth) joined Liberatore to give the Terrapins two.

DON'T STOP: In his first two matches, Ridgewood senior Dean Stupar left nothing to chance, crushing Naples Palmetto Ridge's Thomas Gayer 15-2 and Fleming Island's Mark Cornett 18-1. He lost to Brandon's Terry Dawson in the semifinals, but went on to win his final two to place third.

"I couldn't just stand idle, so I just came out here, wrestled as hard as I could and did the best I could under the situation," said Stupar, who finished sixth as a sophomore and didn't qualify last season.

DO BETTER: The one thing that reverberated in Travis Tindell's head for the past three days was to do better than last season's fifth-place finish. The Hudson senior did that with his third-place 1A heavyweight finish Saturday.

"It was a lot more pressure and I just thought about last year how I took fifth," said Tindell, who went 5-1 at the tournament and finished the season 37-2.

"I was just like, 'I got to do better. I got to do better. I can't do worse, I can't.'"

Eddie Daniels, Adam Adkins

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