BY GENE NARDI
Last Saturday, Wellington High School hosted a dual championship meet that brought together some of the best grapplers in the state.
Six schools participated in the one-day event: Wellington, Riverdale High School, Bayside High School, Santaluces High School, John I. Leonard High School and Centennial High School. Seminole Ridge High School participated in the junior varsity tournament.
Wellington faced rival Riverdale in the final meet, and fell to the Raiders 39-30. The Wolverines entered the tournament unbeaten in 10 meets but suffered their first loss, taking the second-place award.
Wellington is ranked 24th in the state in Class 3A and is the defending District 10-3A champion, plus Palm Beach County and conference champions.
The Wolverines were last year’s region runner-up, achieving the best finish in the school’s 26-year history.
“Our goal is to defend our conference, district and county championships, but we’ll be tested by Olympic Heights and American Heritage Delray in the county meet,” coach Travis Gray said.
Gray is in his ninth year as the Wolverines’ head coach, and he has molded a very successful program in Wellington.
Results in final meet vs. Riverdale High School in the championship round:
106 – Jared Abramson (WELL) over Austin Holland (RIVE) (For)
113 – James Monos (RIVE) over Cameryn Townsend (WELL) (Fall 0:11)
120 – Andrew Mitchell (WELL) over Trey Floyd (RIVE) (Fall 5:56)
126 – Daniel Williamson (RIVE) over Colton Macfarlane (WELL) (Fall 4:57)
132 – Jarrett Chandler (RIVE) over Bailey Laster (WELL) (Dec 8-3)
138 – Hunter Weeks (RIVE) over Quentin McCauley (WELL) (Fall 1:50)
145 – Rolando Torres (RIVE) over Michael James (WELL) (Dec 4-2)
152 – Christian Goss (WELL) over Tredon Dunn (RIVE) (Dec 11-8)
160 – Gage Shield (RIVE) over Eric Saber (WELL) (MD 11-0)
170 – Elroy Taylor (WELL) over Gilmark Vasquez (RIVE) (SV-13-1)
182 – Josue Arce (WELL) over (RIVE) (For)
195 – A.J. Lopez (WELL) over Damion Garcia (RIVE) (Fall 1:29)
220 – Jessy Pryor (RIVE) over Ian Posada (WELL) (Fall 1:16)
285 – Cole Schneider (RIVE) over Anthony Pata (WELL) (Fall 1:13) (Riverdale misconduct- 1.00).
The Wolverines will travel to Gateway High School on Jan. 16-17 for a meet, then host Cardinal Newman on Jan. 20 in a dual meet.
ABOVE: Wellington 113-pounder Andrew Mitchell pins his Centennial rival.
