FLEMING ISLAND - Fleming Island High's wrestling team got a show of force from a Florida powerhouse program; Suwannee High School, but the Golden Eagles flexed their team depth muscle to take a 235-220 win in the Keystone Memorial individual brackets tournament at the Keystone Memorial Invitational held Friday and Saturday. Oakleaf was third at 171 points. 14 teams were competing in the annual event.

With Fleming Island grabbing seven individual titles; Matthew Newman at 113, Jordan Mukaddam at 120, Shane Duhaylungsod at 126, Laird Duhaylungsod at 138, Kaden Schaefer at 150, Chris Chop (5th 160 2A last year) at 175 and Kevin Reyes at 285, Fleming Island dashed away from Suwannee's pursuit with the Bulldogs getting just three individual titles.
For Reyes, a first-year wrestler for coach P.J. Cobbert at Fleming Island, the learning curve comes hard every day he is on the mat.
"Coach P.J. is giving me little pieces of the strategy and tactical part of wrestling to combine with my strength and speed," said Reyes, a state weightlifting champion last year as well as starting offensive lineman for football for Fleming Island. "I thought about that I wanted to try and get a second state title and wrestling would be a good sport to do it in."
Cobbert liked Reyes' intensity as well as his immense strength and power.
"He's the kind of kid that just hates losing and loves competing," said Cobbert, noting Reyes beat Georgia 285 state runnerup Jaquavian Daniels from Colquitt County 5-2 in his final. "We are not trying to overwhelm him with too much wrestling stuff, but to give him enough to improve each week and gain more confidence. He could be a big surprise come March."
Daniels also was a linebacker for 12-1 Colquitt County football that lost in the 7A region finals in Georgia.
Two finals matchups for both teams were Schaefer, third in 2A at 145 last year, with a 4-0 win over Suwannee's Austin McKinney (5th 152 1A last year) at 150 and Newman, fourth in 2A last year, with an 8-0 win over Topher Pearson (3rd 1A 120 last year) at 113.
Oakleaf got an individual title from Kellon Duncan at 144 with seconds to Jerimiah Baker at 157 (lost to Suwannee via injury default) and Sebastian Bonache at 132 who lost a thrilling tiebreaker to Dallon Lowe of Brantley County (GA) (6-6). Oakleaf was without state qualifier Ion Hortinela due to illness.