Southeast wrestling wins another district title while Saint Stephen’s makes history

As the medalists from each weight class took turns stepping to the podium inside Booker High School’s gymnasium, the blue and orange of Southeast became a familiar sights, as it is most years at the Seminoles’ district championship meet.

Fourteen weight classes took their turns in Sarasota and the Seminoles received a medal in 11 of them. Southeast claimed the Class 1A-District 11 championship Saturday largely because its depth was unmatched.

“And we’re led by eight seniors, which helps out a lot,” Seminoles head coach Nick Balde said. “We’ve got a good core of seniors, and then we’ve got a lot of other people that have contributed, too.”

The Seminoles were the only team to bring a full roster of 14 wrestlers to the Class 1A-11 championship and it set up a runaway win for a third district title in four years. The Seminoles finished with 174 points. Sarasota Military Academy was second with 114 and Saint Stephen’s finished third with 105 1/2.

Southeast also led the way for Manatee County with three individual district champions. Alex Roldan won the 138-pound weight class, Stephen Kelle won with a first-round pin at 182 pounds and Darrien Grant won the 220 weight class with a pin during the third round against Bradenton Christian’s Dalton Francis.

Those three, who were county champions a week earlier, all earned top four seeds at Friday’s Class 1A-Region 3 meet, which the Seminoles will host. The four medalists in each weight class advance to the region meet.

“We’re right on track,” Balde said. “We’re set up, ready to go and we’re going to have a good week of practice.”

While the Seminoles’ continued a recent run of success, the Falcons staged a historic day with their third-place finish. Saint Stephen’s brought six wrestlers to the district championship, a program record, and all made it through to next week’s region meet.

Four of the six Falcons advanced to championship matches, including county champions Jake Manning and Alan Morano. After Manning and Morano lost their final bouts by one point apiece, Saint Stephen’s hopes for its first individual district title flickered, as well.

At 160 pounds, Jake Ross delivered a final bit of history for the Falcons. Ross pinned St. Petersburg Northside Christian’s Mitchell Kerr in the third round to win the school’s first district title in wrestling.

“It feels really good. Just hard work,” Ross said. “It’s nice to be winning for once.”

The Panthers produced the area’s only other district champion when Mason Foss pinned Southeast’s Chevaughn Rose in the final match of the day in the 285-pound weight class. BCS placed two others in the district championship bouts for a total of three region qualifiers.

Bradenton Christian finished with 51 1/2 points to finish seventh among 12 teams.

“He was putting a lot of pressure on me throughout the match,” Foss said. “Every heavyweight does that. They put pressure into you, it’s simple. Just an easy throw from there. That’s how I beat most of my guys.”

Bayshore was the area’s only other area team competing in the meet and will send one wrestler on to the region meet. James Russell took third at 145 to qualify for the region tournament. The Bruins finished with 16 points and took 11th place.

This story was originally published February 18, 2017 at 9:52 PM with the headline "Southeast wrestling wins another district title while Saint Stephen’s makes history."