Manatee ends trophy drought with runner-up finish at district wrestling meet

Andrew Gugliemini retreated out of the gymnasium at Palm Harbor University High School for a moment while most of the wrestlers and coaches who spent Friday at the Class 3A-District 8 meet in Palm Harbor lingered. A few minutes later, the Manatee head coach returned, a trophy finally hoisted above his head.

It wasn’t quite the district championship trophy he hoped for when he traveled north from Bradenton for the start of the postseason. After a three-year drought without any sort of district hardware, though, the runner-up award would do.

“We had a lot more opportunities to score points against them, but we’re pleased,” Gugliemini said. “We know we have some quality. It’s the same story every year. We have kids that are going to go and make a run at the state tournament.”

The Canes finished with 182 1/2 points to Palm Harbor University’s 198 1/2 to take second on what still amounted to one of Manatee’s best days in recent history. The Canes pushed 10 wrestlers through to Friday’s Class 3A-Region 2 meet in Lakeland and boasted five individual champions — both totals marking Manatee’s best since 2014 when the Canes advanced 11 through to the region tournament with six individual district champions.

Lakewood Ranch, the only other Manatee County team competing at the district championship, finished sixth with 89 1/2 points, qualified five for the region meet at George W. Jenkins High School and won three individual titles. The top four finishers in each weight class move on from district meets into the region tournament.

The meet mostly unfolded the way the two area teams expected for its top wrestlers. Marshall Craig, the Herald’s All-Area Player of the Year last season, breezed to a championship in the 120-pound weight class for the Canes to follow up his Manatee County championship from last Saturday. Charles Small at 160 pounds and 170-pounder Matt McAleer followed up a county championship with a district title for the Canes, as well. Hunter Reed, the Mustangs’ lone county champion, followed up last week’s feat with a district championship at 132 pounds, too.

The extra gold medals for Manatee came from Joshua Booker, who won by medical forfeit at 220 pounds, and 152-pounder Daniel Cunningham, who landed a pin against Sarasota’s Zach Young in the final. Cunningham qualified as the Canes’ biggest surprise, charging from the No. 4 seed to win his first district title.

“I had to fight in the seeding meeting to keep him there,” Gugliemini said. “They were trying to bump him around. I said, ‘Hey, he needs to stay there.’ We wanted him to be in that position. He beat the No. 1 seed, then he goes out and avenges a loss against the Sarasota kid.”

Lakewood Ranch’s breakthroughs came in the 138- and 195-pound weight classes. Ryan Brown assured himself a top-four seed at the region meet with a win against PHU’s Tyler Vitulli in the 138-pound championship and Chase Sharp, who qualified for the state meet last season, toppled Austin Gould of the Sailors to win his championship at 195.

“I think we wrestled well,” Mustangs head coach Tyler Small said. “I’d say above expectations.”

For Manatee, Friday’s hardware bodes well for the coming weeks at the region tournament and eventually next month’s Class 3A championship in Kissimmee. Craig and Small both medaled at the state final as juniors in 2016, and the Canes entered this season knowing they had the sort of depth which had eluded them in recent years.

Manatee always has a wrestler or two with a chance to make a run to the final meets of the season. This season, though, the Hurricanes are able to start celebrating the team score once again.

“There’s a lot of them that are in their last year here,” Gugliemini said. “We’ve got to capitalize while we have these guys here and score as many points as we can.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 9:37 PM with the headline "Manatee ends trophy drought with runner-up finish at district wrestling meet."