Featured Dual: Creekside gives Marabell win No. 300
Richard Marabell has been the only wrestling coach in Creekside’s 17 years. (Photo courtesy of Creekside wrestling)
BY BRANT PARSONS — No. 6-3A Creekside made sure the opening dual of the season was one to remember, topping No. 20-2A Ponte Vedra 48-18 to earn Coach Richard Marabell’s 300th dual victory at Creekside.
Marabell, who is one of three coaches entering the school year that have been coaching at Creekside since it opened 17 years ago, has earned all of his wins with the Knights.
“I’m excited about it,” Marabell said before the season. “It’s a milestone and I’ve been here since the beginning of the program and you just don’t see that happening many places these days.”
While 300 wins is a nice milestone, Marabell gives the credit to the kids who have been in the program and continued the tradition of always being a pretty good dual team.
“We’ve really tried to stay consistent and wrestle good teams,” Marabell said of the number. “We don’t try to inflate our numbers so it makes you feel good that we’ve been consistent in our winning too.”
On Wednesday night, Creekside showcased that consistency, winning 8 of the 12 contested bouts, even with two Top 4 wrestlers out until January.
Luke Manghisi (#21) started the night off with a tech fall win over Brody Hines (#16) at 144 pounds. Reed Anderson (150), Liam Downes (157), Will Porter (165), Jonathan Morrison (#7-175), Larry Mims (190), Gabriel Bartlett (215), Isaiah Lowe (285), and Luke Mims (106) followed to give the Knights a commanding 43-0 lead.
Matthew Kowitski (#17-113) scored a 5-0 decision at 113 pounds to kickstart three straight wins for the Sharks. At 120 pounds unranked Cash Trujillo edged 15th-ranked Santiago Carrion 9-7. Jaiden Zajni (#10-126) pinned Justin Umali (#14-126) to make the dual 43-12.
Stephen Carrion (#21-132) teched Poulo Milea (#8-132) 17-0 at 132 pounds and Ponte Vedra’s Daniel De Almeida (#11-138) finished the historic night off with a win by fall.
“We build our program around duals and if you have a pretty good dual team,” Marabell said. “The IBT successes will kind of happen itself because you’re already consistently winning.”
#6-3A Creekside 48, #20-2A Ponte Vedra 18
144: #21 Luke Manghisi (C) tech. #16 Brody Hines (PV) 23-7; 150: Reed Anderson (C) p. Blaydon Hines (PV) 1:28; 157: William `Liam` Downes (C) dec. Baxly Hines (PV) 6-0; 165: Will Porter (C) dec. Aryaman Singh (PV) 8-5; 175: #7 Jonathan Morrison (C) tech. Emmett Hoffmann (PV) 19-4; 190: Larry Mims (C) by FF; 215: Gabriel Bartlett (C) by FF; 285: Isaiah Lowe (C) dec. Robert Grieco (PV) 7-4; 106: Luke Mims (C) p. Enrique Santos (PV) 0:22; 113: #17 Matthew Kowitski (PV) dec. James Druda (C) 5-0; 120: Cash Trujillo (PV) dec. #15 Santiago Carrion (C) 9-7; 126: #10 Jaiden Zajni (PV) p. #14 Justin Umali (C) 5:28; 132: #21 Stephan Carrion (C) tech. #8 Poulo Milea (PV) 17-0; 138: #11 Daniel De Almeida (PV) p. Gabriel Bartlett (C) 2:09.
Brant Parsons is the founder and executive editor of Kabra Wrestling. He has been covering high school wrestling in Florida since 2004. He can be reached at brant@kabrawrestling.com.
