Palmetto High wins county wrestling title
PALMETTO -- The scene was familiar to Manatee and Palmetto as the decisive meet and Thursday's Manatee County championship crept toward its end. The Hurricanes and Tigers were separated by just a handful of points as the 285-pound wrestlers prepared to lumber toward the mat.
The scene was especially familiar to Nathan Heidenreich. Palmetto's senior heavyweight just needed to avoid a pin at last season's championship, and the Tigers would have won the county. He tried not to think about his devastating loss even as both sidelines did.
Bryan Wilkes sat at one corner of the middle mat in The William "Butch" Hughes Gymnasium with a quiet confidence. Losing last year's county title ended up being the best thing to happen for Heidenreich, Wilkes said. The head coach knew there was no way he'd lose again.
Heidenreich spent most of his match atop Manatee's Ne'Kari Cheaves. Steadily, his PHS teammates bubbled with energy until there was a full-scale eruption behind Wilkes' seat at Palmetto High School. Heidenreich found himself on the opposite side of a championship bout, and the Tigers clinched the county championship with a 34-30 win
against the Canes.
"I didn't think a whole lot if I was going to win or I was going to lose. I just thought I've got to be the aggressor and I have to do well for my team," Heidenreich said. "It doesn't matter what people say or anything about you."
Heidenreich was also one of three individual county champions for PHS, joined by Leonel Barboza at 160 pounds and Don Bass at 152. The Hurricanes' Marshall Craig (113), Charles Small (145), Matt McAleer (170), Connor Morang (182) and Brandon Dossey (195).
Morang was named the county's outstanding heavyweight wrestler and Braden River's Chance Sharbono (138) earned the overall award. Lakewood Ranch's Hunter Reed (120) capped the first perfect regular season in program history at 49-0 and was an individual champion, as well.
Wilkes called his team an underdog entering Thursday's county championship. His team had split a pair of matches with Lakewood Ranch and had yet to see the Canes.
A surprising rash of forfeits due to injuries, illness and missed weights doomed Ranch -- and set up another clash between Manatee and the Tigers, both of whom started 3-0 with wins against the Mustangs.
PHS built a lead early, racing to a 21-6 edge before the meet of the Hurricanes' lineup entered the fray. The Canes' strength lies between 145 and 195 pounds. Palmetto knew it was unlikely to win much more than Barboza's bout, and a series of six-point falls were possible for the Hurricanes.
"A lot of guys should have been pinned and they didn't get pinned," Wilkes said. "Those guys won the match."
The Canes scored three points and 145 and 152 before Barboza's win at 160. Then Manatee picked up four pints at 170 and got its first pin at 182. Where the Hurricanes could have pulled away, they instead only took a two-point lead with the two heaviest weight classes remaining.
Heidenreich's chance for redemption came with a two-point lead and peaceful naivety. When he stepped off the mat, he didn't realize why the Tigers' celebration was so raucous. His mom's cries from the side of the mat were loud, but familiar. The pandemonium along the wall of the gym was unusual. Finally, someone told him. He had won a county title.
"He felt bad," Wilkes said. "The kids didn't say it to him, but he felt he let them down. He took it upon himself to get better."
This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Palmetto High wins county wrestling title."