- April 26, 2024
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Flagler Palm Coast won its third district dual title on Dec. 13 at DeLand. The Bulldogs defeated Lake Mary (41-25), DeLand (48-28) and Gainesville Buchholz (40-37) to win the District 2-3A dual championship.
FPC will travel to Creekside High School on Jan. 11 to try to advance to the state dual tournament for the second time in three years. The Bulldogs will meet District 1 runner-up Bartram Trail, while Creekside and Buchholz will meet in the other Region 1-3A quarterfinal. The two winning teams will face off for a spot at the state tourney, which will be at Osceola High School in Kissimmee on Jan. 19-20.
The Bulldogs qualified for the regional round for the fifth time. Four FPC wrestlers went 3-0 in DeLand: Toryion Stallings (132 pounds), Kelton Howard (165), Ethan Laupepa (215) and Melique Joseph (285).
Freshman Trey Twilley (126), Carson Baert (144), Gleb Serebrinnikov (157) and Brandon Calidonio (175) each went 2-1.
FPC coach David Bossardet said the title dual with Buchholz was even closer than the score indicated. The Bulldogs were behind for most of the match.
The dual started with the 120 pounders, and the Bulldogs lost five of the first six matches. A 13-1 major decision by Serebrinnikov and pins by Helton, Calidonio, Elijah Dorman (190), Laupepa and Joseph clinched the title. FPC lost the final two matches at 106 and 113.
Joseph, a junior who joined the team this year, sealed the victory.
“He did really well for us,” Bossardet said. “He’s new. He just decided to come out for wrestling and I like what we've seen out of him so far.”
Bossardet said his team could have wrestled better, so there is room for improvement in the next round.
“We did OK. There are some matches there that we would have liked to maybe wrestle a little better,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on.”
Buchholz’s Cavarius Liddie won the Class 3A state championship at 132 pounds last season. He wrestled at 144 and 150 pounds at the district duals, handing Baert his only tournament loss at 144.
While Liddie, ranked second at 138 pounds, could be in a different weight class if the teams meet again, Bossardet doesn’t believe in moving his wrestlers around.
“Our guys are our guys and we’re going to put them out there at their weight,” he said. “Whether it’s a brand new guy or a returning state champ, I’m not a fan of shuffling guys around to try to help the team out. I believe in our guys, but that being said, we’re going to have to wrestle the best we have up until this point in the season.”
But while titles are on the line, Bossardet said, there are still over two months left in the season.
“Winning a regional dual title in January isn’t our goal,” he said. “Our goal is March 2 at the state tournament. But if we’re wrestling Jan. 11, we’re wrestling to win, so we better be ready to go.”
FPC’s girls wrestling team, ranked fifth in the state, finished fifth at the 55-team Let Freedom Ring tournament in Orlando last weekend. Ana Vilar won the 130-pound title. Jocelyn Johnson placed third at 100 pounds. Gabby Jones (155) and Alexa Calidonio (190) placed fifth, and Alicia Vilar was sixth at 140.
After starting out with another killer schedule, Seabreeze's girls soccer team has gone 2-0-1 in its last three games to even its record at 4-4-1.
The Sandrabs’ four losses were to teams with a combined record of 33-3-4. Two of those opponents — Bartram Trail and Creekside — are ranked among the top 10 in the nation.
Since losing to undefeated Montverde Academy on Dec. 4. Seabreeze defeated Flagler Palm Coast 4-1, tied New Smyrna Beach 1-1 and beat Spruce Creek 3-1.
Six different Sandcrabs scored goals in those games with Kylie Watson scoring two goals against FPC and Olivia Chase scoring twice against Creek.
FPC’s girls soccer team (6-7-1) has lost five in a row since losing leading scorer Savannah O’Grady for the season to a knee injury. The senior scored 11 goals before injuring her knee against Matanzas on Dec. 5.
The Bulldogs trailed Lake Mary 1-0 at halftime on Dec. 15 before the Rams, who are 10-0-2 and ranked ninth in the nation, added three more goals in the second half for a 4-0 win. FPC goalkeeper Natalie Neal had 17 saves in the game.
The Bulldogs were not only missing O’Grady but were down six other players. They brought up four JV players for the game and were already playing seven freshmen, FPC coach Pete Hald said.
Hald, who is in his 33rd season as the Bulldogs’ coach, has 525 career victories. The Bulldogs are scheduled to host Jacksonville Mandarin on Friday, Dec. 22.
FPC’s boys soccer team won its fifth game in a row, 7-0 against Mount Dora on senior night, Dec. 19. The Bulldogs improved to 8-3. They are off until Jan. 4 when they visit Mainland.
Freshman Henry Robinson Jr. scored 30 points to lead the Matanzas boys basketball team to a 64-60 victory over St. Augustine on Dec. 14. The Pirates (2-7) snapped a six-game losing streak.
Tariq Shakir and Rya’sir Jefferson added 11 points apiece for Matanzas.
Matanzas’ girls wrestling team is ranked seventh in the nation in the National Girls High School Early Season Team Rankings, compiled by a committee representing USA Wrestling, FloWrestling and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Pirates, who won the state championship last season, moved up from No. 13 in last season’s final rankings.
The Matanzas girls weightlifting team improved to 6-1 with a 62-26 victory over Father Lopez on Dec. 14. Ryann Parkinson (101), Addison Hoeini (119), Emily Warren (139), Sarah Sanchez (154), Rilee Whitmore (169) and Alicia Natichione (199) all won their weight classes for the Pirates. Whitmore, who owns five school records, lifted a meet high 340-pound total, while Sanchez hoisted a 295 total.
The Matanzas boys soccer team’s six-game unbeaten streak was snapped with a 4-2 loss to Jacksonville Wolfson on Dec. 18. The Pirates (6-4-1) were scheduled to play at Menendez on Dec. 20 in their final game before the break.
