Hernando breaks through for first region duals title
BY BRANT PARSONS — No. 7 Hernando has reached the regional final in every year of the state duals series only to fall short of a region title.
On Friday, the Leopards used a late rally to beat No. 9 Palm Bay 33-31 to win the 1A-2 region duals championship and get that elusive title.
“We knew this year was our year to finally make a push to get past this,” head coach David Pritz said. “We’ve been here every year and we get beat every year in this round but we’ve been wrestling confident all year and we’re super excited.”
Trailing 22-6, Hernando won five straight matches, with four of the matches coming by pin.
Savannah Valle (106) started the run by scoring a fall with 30 seconds left in her match and Vitaliy Boyer (126) finished a run of pins with a win in overtime.
“The difference was two of our youngest kids getting pins for us,” Pritz said. “(Boyer) was a JV wrestler most the year and we had to put him in the starting line up and (Valle) is on our girls team and I bumped her into our stating line-up.”
Kyle Pearson (113) and Jordyn Valle (120) also scored wins by pin in the run, which was started at 285 pounds by Devin Williams.
James Gadson (145) started off the match with a decision win for Hernando and James Garrett (160) added three points to the team total.
Nathan Furman (152), Brycen Turner (170), Elliott Bell (182), Octavion Osby (195), and Christopher Brunson (220) all scored wins for Palm Bay to build their lead, but only two were by fall.
With Hernando up by 11 with two matches to go and the Pirates needing two pins, Roman Maldonado scored a 6-2 win over Kenneth Pritz, which sealed the history-making win for the Leopards.
“You need to pin and not get pinned and early in this dual we were pinned some,” Pritz said. “Last year I think we got beat because we didn’t coach guys enough I don’t think about not getting pinned.”
“It’s a fine line because you don’t want to tell a kid they can’t win the match, but you have to know you can’t get pinned and our guys fought hard.”
Hernando 33, Palm Bay 31
106: Savannah Valle (H) p. Anthony Hughes (PB) 5:30; 113: Kyle Pearson (H) p. Ashton Owens (PB) 4:42; 120: Jordyn Valle (H) p. Landon Stewart (PB) 1:08; 126: Vitaliy Boyer (H) p. Raymen Jackson (PB) 6:16; 132: Roman Maldonado (PB) dec. Kenneth Pritz (H) 6-2; 138: Ronald Theilacker (PB) by FF; 145: James Gadson (H) dec. Avery Jackson (PB) 7-4; 152: Nathan Furman (PB) p. Jackson Dodge (H) 1:28; 160: James Garrett (H) dec. Zach Emery-Foster (PB) 8-1; 170: Brycen Turner (PB) maj. Julius Eltzroth (H) Maj 12-1; 182: Elliott Bell (PB) dec. Morgan Johnston (H) 10-6; 195: Octavion Osby (PB) p. Jayshawn Nantce (H) 4:50; 220: Christopher Brunson (PB) dec. Colton Ashworth (H) 10-4; 285: Devin Williams (H) dec. Leonard Christian (PB) 6-0.
