The Wellington High School wrestling team got off to a 4-1 start to the season and a third-place team finish at the fifth annual Wellington Duals wrestling tournament Saturday, Nov. 17.
Wellington started with a dominant 72-12 victory over Centennial by winning 12 of 14 weight classes, and cruised through the next two rounds with a 64-18 win over Lake Worth and a 52-21 win over Mater Academy. In the final round of pool play, Wellington faced Riverdale, which is currently ranked second in Florida’s 2A state rankings.
Riverdale jumped out to a big 18-0 lead with pins in each of the first three matches. Wellington closed the gap a little before falling by a final score of 49-22.
In the third place match, Wellington defeated Boca Raton by a score of 52-23. Undefeated wrestlers for the Wolverines were junior Briar Macfarlane (120 pounds), junior Brandon Paz (138) and sophomore Noah Coulter (195).
“I was very pleased with our performance in this tournament, and it gets us very excited about our potential in the future, considering we didn’t have one senior in our lineup the entire day,” coach Travis Gray said. “Noah Coulter really stood out with a perfect 5-0 record with four pins, including a 6-2 win over a wrestler from Riverdale that he lost to last year 10-2.”
Above: (Front row, L-R) Chase Denhart, Andrew Mitchell, Colton Macfarlane and Briar Macfarlane; (back row) coach Juan Ferro, Noah Coulter, Josue Arce, Devin Gillotte, Angel Lopez, Coach Travis Gray, Alex Korum, Andy Leal, Brandon Paz, Brandon Des Jardins, Nik Bonadies, Giovanni Fundora, Brandley Gomez, Mathew Wunderlich, Bryce Pfeil and coach Chris Forte.
