SPRING HILL – By the high standards Springstead’s wrestling program has established over the decades, a fourth-place showing in its own tournament won’t stand out in the history books.
But considering the level of competition in this weekend’s Corey Hill Memorial Invite, the Eagles’ performance certainly ranks as respectable.
“I thought it was really tough. I think that’s what extended it so long, because there wasn’t a lot of pins, 2-1 matches going the full time. It was a pretty good tournament,” Springstead coach Bob Levija said. “There were some pretty tough teams. I think Lake Gibson is going to win the state championship and I think Flagler is going to be right up there. So yeah, there were some pretty quality teams here.”
Flagler Palm Coast won the tournament with 198.5 points, followed by Lakeland-Lake Gibson (189), Naples-Palmetto Ridge (155.5) and the host Eagles (141.5).
Springstead sent four grapplers to Saturday night’s finals, and ended up with two champions in seniors Richie Rivera and Travis Williams.
Rivera went 4-0 across an impressive run at 113 pounds. He started off with pins of Ontevion Davis from Sarasota-Booker in 3:00 and Christian Shepard of Flagler Palm Coast in 3:29. He added victories over Jonathan Conrad of Tampa-Carrollwood Day (10-4) and Lake Gibson’s Nathan Lawwell in the final, 6-3.
“I feel great. I worked hard in practice. I did what I was supposed to do. I pushed it. So, I’m pretty happy with myself,” Rivera said. “This is good for all of us because we get to see what we have to improve on and see what we have to work on in practice. I think we did pretty good.”
As for Williams, he was also 4-0 at 170. He pinned Crystal River’s Tyler Godfrey in 1:15, then collected three decisions, over Hernando’s Devin Dennis (4-0), Lake Gibson’s De’Yovey Joseph (4-2) and Palmetto Ridge’s Lance Lecuyer (2-0). This marked the first time he had finished first in this event.
“To go out my senior year, win my last tournament at home, I couldn’t feel better,” Williams said. “It just means everything. Means I worked hard and finally accomplished some of my goals.
“Overall, I think I wrestled great. Hardly any mistakes, wrestled tough. … I just got to go out, keep wrestling hard. Just got to keep working, working, working. All that’s going to do is get me on that state podium.”
Thomas McCane at 106 and Chris Morales at 138 were runners-up in their respective weight classes.
“Hot and cold, off and on. We’ve still got a long way to go. We’ve got to get our lineup set and it’ll start changing next week,” Levija said. “The four kids in the finals, I thought did well, in having two champions. It just kind of gets us ready for next week’s dual with Hernando.”
For the Leopards, Harry Williams advanced to the final at 182, going 3-0 with two pins before getting pinned by Flagler Palm Coast’s Steve Canidate in 3:20. Josh Hulse at 120 and Dennis at 170 both made the consolation finals and took fourth.
Ashton Harding from Nature Coast placed fourth at 182. Hernando finished seventh in the team standings (91), while the Sharks were in 13th (61) and Weeki Wachee was 23rd (22).
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.