Depth has returned for Manatee wrestling as it enters the home stretch

There’s one wall in the Manatee High School wrestling room dedicated to past accomplishments. Former state champions. Memorials to those who have competed at the national level. A list of those who stood on the podium at the state championship meet. The latter doesn’t list the years alongside the names, but there are enough repeats during one stretch for coach Andrew Gugliemini to quickly point out the period his team was most dominant.

There were years from 2007-09 when the Hurricanes were sending seven or eight wrestlers to the podium at the state meet and bringing home multiple gold medals.

“That’s where we want to get back to,” Gugliemini said.

In recent seasons, the Hurricanes have had to settle for two at most. Last winter, Marshall Craig and Charles Small earned the top-six finishes necessary to take home a medal as juniors. They’ll be among the favorites to win a Class 3A title during the next two weeks.

As the Hurricanes prepare for the start of the Class 3A-Region 2 tournament Friday in Lakeland, Manatee has recaptured some of the depth it used to become a state powerhouse at the end of the last decade. The Hurricanes will have 10 wrestlers on the mats at the region tournament Friday and Saturday, including five coming off championships at the Class 3A-District 8 tournament. Manatee expects to send about half of those 10 qualifiers to Kissimmee, the site of the state tournament.

Lakewood Ranch will also compete in the region meet at George Jenkins High School. Hunter Reed, a 132-pound senior, and Chase Sharp, a 170-pounder who reached the state tournament last year, are among the Mustangs most likely to advance beyond this weekend.

“We’ve kind of rebooted this year. We’ve got a lot of seniors,” said Small, who is wrestling in the 160-pound weight class for the Hurricanes this year after finishing sixth at 145 pounds in 2016. “I think everybody can do well.”

Small and Craig were joined by two others at the 3A tournament last year who are back: Matt McAleer, now a senior and district champion at 170, and Brandon Dossey, now a sophomore. Those two are also on the Hurricanes’ list of wrestlers with a strong chance to return to the state tournament and perhaps reach the podium with a year of experience behind them.

Two more added Class 3A-8 titles last week: Daniel Cunningham (152) and Joshua Booker (220). Manatee won five district championships last Friday. Four were by pin. The fifth came via medical forfeit.

“We’re peaking at the right time. There’s no doubt,” Gugliemini said. “Any time you get four pins in the district finals that means you’re dominating people. You’re not just beating them. You’re dominating them.”

For Craig, another step was the expectation. Gugliemini expects to have wrestlers who finish near the top of the podium at the state tournament as juniors contend for gold as seniors. Small’s step is a bit larger.

The 160-pounder began wrestling as a freshman and is three wins away from reaching the state tournament for the third straight season. After seeing how close he was in 2016, Small dedicated his summer to the sport. He was back in the Hurricanes’ wrestling room only a week after the end of the state tournament and then went to Tulsa, Okla., to compete in a national tournament with Team Florida. He finished the summer with more than a month of training in California, which helped him jump two weight classes and remain among the best in the state.

The third name Gugliemini is quick to mention is Booker. A star running back for the Manatee football team who is drawing interest from a number of Division I programs, Booker sometimes seems more like an athlete who happens to wrestler rather than a polished grappler. The steps he has taken after missing most of the 2015-16 season because of a transfer from Sarasota to Manatee has given the Hurricanes depth they haven’t necessarily had in recent seasons.

“I feel like we have four, maybe five guys that could place at the state tournament,” Gugliemini said. “First we’ve got to get there, though.”

This story was originally published February 23, 2017 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Depth has returned for Manatee wrestling as it enters the home stretch."