TALLAHASSEE - A seesaw battle for the team title created a tense atmosphere for three teams at the Region 1-2A wrestling championships as Middleburg, Clay and Pace high schools battled through two days of grappling with the Broncos emerging as team champions on Saturday at Tallahassee Chiles High.

Wrestlers traveled to Kissimmee's Silver Spurs Arena on Wednesday, March 4 for three days of state championship wrestling for boys and girls (Middleburg girls region champs) with finals on Saturday.

In other region tournaments, at Bay High in the Florida Panhandle, in region 1-1A, St. Johns Country Day School got region titles to Bryce Fiore at 113 and Howard Hill at 150 with Fiore continuing his undefeated season. The Spartans, under coach Hunter Hill had seven wrestlers at the region meet in a solid first year under Hill as coach with the Spartans scoring 72.5 points for a sixth-place team finish with Florida High champion at 153.

At DeLand, in region 1-3A, Oakleaf will send Sebastian Bonachea as a region champion at 138 with Connor Barnes going with a second at 126 and Kevin Freeland going with a third at 144. Oakleaf finished seventh with 92.5 points with Hagerty the team champion with 216.5

For Middleburg, with two years of a district title and no region title, the nerves were packed for changing the script.

"Before the tournament, I was pretty anxious about the team race and whether or not we were prepared," said Middleburg coach Coll Robertson, who has put the Broncos on the state map with two consecutive decisive district titles, but no region titles. "After day one, we were barely in the lead, but we had some head to heads with Pace in the semifinal that helped push us along. We showed up when it mattered."

Outside of the Chiles gym on Saturday, after his Blue Devils had a "slow" start by coach Jim Reape's standards, the Blue Devils dug down to their normal championship pedigree and got re-engaged in the battle on day two.

"We just came out flat and this is not the place to start slow," Reape said. "At this level, every match counts and that's what I told them. I told them we still had a chance to sneak up in the team points with seconds, thirds and fourths and also get guys to the state meet."

Clay would open up day two with a handful of consolation round matchups due to their day one start to take a 79.5-74 lead over Middleburg with Pace at 72.5, followed by Pace getting the top spot at 84.5-80.5-74 for Middleburg, then Middleburg jumping over Clay and Pace holding up top: 98.0-86.0-80.5.
In the upper weights of the consolations, New Smyrna popped in above Clay at third with Clay flipping that move before Middleburg finally took a solid lead at 111.5-104.5 over Clay with New Smyrna Beach and Pace tied at 100.5 to set up a dramatic finish.

"We wrestled a brutal schedule this year to prepare for this regional tournament and I think that's what made the difference," said Robertson, who finished the task with a 161.5 total over Clay's 143.5 and Pace third at 136.5. I think our guys are peaking at the right time."

Middleburg got region titles from Porter Loveland at 215 and Daniel Raines at 157 with Clay's Landon Martin taking the 190 title. Raines beat Clay's Calvyn St. Clair in the 157 final 9-4.

Also advancing to state with top four finishes were Jonathan Harp at 106 with a pin over Clay's Liam Soto; Nathan Harvey, second at 126; Chris McKeel, third at 144; Micah Thomas, second at 150, and Keensdee Roseme, fourth at 190.
For Clay, Martin made his strong presence known after a slow early season after a hand injury kept him off the mat to win at 190 with Soto fourth, St. Clair second at 157, Drew Holmquist third at 165 and Jayshawn McCloud third at 285.

"Landon is a big match, big moment guy, an incredible competitor," Reape said. "Drew has been a monster for our lineup for four years; athletic, tough, skilled and Jayshawn is learning quickly how to wrestle different body sets and skill sets. Liam is so slick and quick."

Orange Park's Elijah Grant also advanced to state at 132 with a third-place finish.