Palmetto uses depth to defend Manatee County wrestling title at new-look meet

Marks of progress were infrequent during this year’s Manatee County championship. A new format for the county meet ditched the traditional schedule of team dual meets. In its place was a round-robin event pitting each wrestler against every other competitor in his weight class across two days inside Benjamin “Buzz” Narbut Gymnasium.

The only chance for teams to be know where they stood came after matches finished Friday, when a handful of individual championships had been determined and teams returned home to prepare for an early return to Southeast High School for the final day of competition Saturday. Palmetto hadn’t won any of the six individual county titles settled Friday, but the Tigers led after the first day.

“We came in here pretty confident, ready to go, ready for anything they’d throw at us,” Palmetto heavyweight Brian Ormsby said. “We just came in here feeling pretty good about it.”

The Tigers came to the county meet knowing everyone else would be gunning for them as the defending champions. Less than two weeks ago, Palmetto edged Manatee, last year’s runner-up, by a single point in a dual meet.

This weekend, Palmetto was the only team to field a wrestler in every weight class, and all but one secured a top-four finish, thereby earning team points. With the help of three champions — tied for second most behind Southeast — the Tigers repeated as county champions for the first time with 582 points. The Hurricanes, as expected, finished second with 551 and three individual championships. The Seminoles finished third with 439 points and claimed four individual titles.

“That’s a total team effort,” Palmetto head coach Bryan Wilkes said. “We only had three champions, but everybody placed, so, yes, it’s a total team effort. We have a family that worked together, and I’m very proud of them because this was a very knock-down, drag-out tournament all the way through.”

For the first time, all eight county schools competed at the championship meet thanks to the new format. Saint Stephen’s, which was never able to field a roster big enough to compete in a dual tournament, finished fourth with 259 points and won the program’s first two individual championships. Bradenton Christian, which had been relegated to the junior varsity meet in past years with the Falcons, finished fifth with 188. Braden River was sixth with 179 points and one champion. Lakewood Ranch scored 154 to finish seventh with one individual title. Bayshore rounded out the field with 120 points.

Six of the schools left with some sort of hardware thanks to their individual titles. The individual champions for the host Noles were Randy Torres (113 pounds), Alex Roldan (145), Stephen Kelle (182) and Darrien Grant (220). Ormsby was joined by Dominick Bass (152) and Andrew Duncan (195) as the Tigers’ three champions. Marshall Craig (120), Charles Small (160) and Matt McAleer (170) gave the Hurricanes three individual titles to match Palmetto. Saint Stephen’s was the only other team with multiple champions: Jake Manning (106)and Alan Morano (126). Hunter Reed (132) was the Mustangs’ champion and Chance Sharbono (138) was the Pirates’.

Craig was named the county’s most outstanding wrestler in the lower weights. Kelle took the honor for the upper weights.

“There was no easy matches these two days,” Wilkes said.

The format also left the Tigers uncertain until the final results were read Saturday afternoon. Some sideline math gave Wilkes a hunch his team had repeated, although he couldn’t be certain even as the last match was concluding and Ormsby was securing Palmetto’s final individual title. Afterward, Wilkes clutched the trophy for the second straight year and posed with his team. An assistant coach joked that they weren’t going to give it back. Saturday marked the fourth county meet title for the Tigers in the program’s 12-years history.

“Everyone was looking at us because we won last year and we beat Manatee recently, so everyone was looking at us,” Wilkes said. “The other teams came at us a little harder than normal.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Palmetto uses depth to defend Manatee County wrestling title at new-look meet."