FERNANDINA BEACH - Clay High wrestling, after a strong win at their own Clay Rotary Invitational a week ago, continued its powerful wrestling streak with a win at the 2025 Dual at the Dunes Invitational held by Fernandina Beach High School.
Clay and Middleburg, both in region 1-2A, will be at their region duals championships on Thursday, January 16 with Middleburg hosting one side of the bracket that includes Middleburg against Pace in round one with Lincoln against Gulf Breeze while Clay, at Winter Springs High School, will have New Smyrna Beach in their duals region opener with Ponte Vedra against Winter Springs in the opposite bracket.
The winners of both matches will wrestle the same night for their round two matches with those winners traveling to the region championship on January 24 at Osceola High School.
The state duals championships are scheduled for Saturday, January 25, also at Osceola High School.
In Fernandina Beach, with a final first-place win over Episcopal High School, Clay came home with the win over 10 teams with Fernandina Beach third and Pedro Menendez fourth.
Clay defeated Episcopal 58-17 for the team title behind 10 match wins and three losses with a handful of forfeits and one injury default win.
From the start, Clay dominated with a 76-6 win over Interlachen, a 72-6 win over ED White, a 77-0 win over Bradford, a 51-30 win over Fernandina Beach and a 66-6 win over Pedro Menendez.
Against Episcopal, Clay got pins for wins from Andrew Loveland at 165, Landon Martin at 175, Aaron Stacy at 215, Landon Willard at 126 and Calvyn St. Clair at 138.
At the Marine Corps Challenge at Terry Parker High School, Keystone Heights got two second-place finishes; from Atreyu Contes at 113 and from Mikey McCall at 138, to finish sixth in the eight-team event with 68.0 team points. Beachside High won the event with an overwhelming 215.0 points with Wolfson second at 108.
Contes lost a 4-1 decision to Beachside's Walter Howard (25-3 season record) while McCall was pinned by Stanton's Diego Torres in his finals match.
In the third/fourth place matches, Luciano Moncada at 113 finished fourth with a pin to Wolfson's Asher Nathanson; Adam McGarvey at 120 won his match with a first-period pin over teammate Cason Burton; Jared Goetzman at 126 lost to Beachside's Preston Masar with a third period pin and Arthur Durning at 132 with a third period pin from Bryce Holden of Beachside.
For the Middleburg girls, at the Rusted Jade Ladies Classic at Hernando High School, two-time state champion Cheyenne Cruce, now at 235 after dominating at 190 for her two state titles, won with three third-period pins to be the lone individual title holder for the Lady Broncos who finished seventh overall behind team champion South Dade (251) with Hernando second (223) and Osceola third (153). Middleburg was the first north Florida school in the top 10 with Tallahassee Lincoln finishing 11th and Ponte Vedra taking 16th. There were 37 teams in the meet.
At 120, Memphis Moses continued her strong return to the mat after an injury with a loss in her semifinal against Florida Christian School's Zoe Delgado one of the strongest finishes for her short-lived return.
At the Billy Saylor Duals at Suwannee High, Fleming Island High's Sebastian Bonachea at 132 and 138 executed a 6-0 record with two pins and three tech falls to be a top finisher for the Golden Eagles.
Laird Duhaylungsod at 150 also finished at 6-0 with six pins, the fastest at just 32 seconds.
Isaiah Washner at 113 went 6-0 with three pins and three tech falls.
Tyler Frein at 165 went 6-0 with two tech falls and one major decision.
Zion Longmire at 175 was 6-0 with two pins and two tech falls.
In matches, Fleming Island, with just eight wrestlers, beat Mosley 31-30 and had losses to Viera, Suwannee, Crystal River, Florida, and Fort Walton Beach.
In the team scores, Zephyrhills Christian finished first ahead of Wakulla with Bay High third.