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STATE WRESTLING

Nix nabs lone NE FLorida wrestling title; Rodriguez second

By Randy Lefko Sports Editor
Posted 3/11/20

KISSIMMEE - The magnitude of completing a wrestling season with a title of state champion was displayed over the March 6-7 weekend at the Florida State Meet in Kissimmee with Clay County sending more …

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STATE WRESTLING

Nix nabs lone NE FLorida wrestling title; Rodriguez second


Posted

KISSIMMEE - The magnitude of completing a wrestling season with a title of state champion was displayed over the March 6-7 weekend at the Florida State Meet in Kissimmee with Clay County sending more than two dozen wrestlers to the annual grapple-fest, but returning with just one state champion; Fleming Island High senior 220 pounder Chad Nix, and one state runnerup, Ridgeview High junior 126 pounder Matthew Rodriguez.

"Chad was focused on achieving the title, I let him do his thing all season," said Cobbert, noting Nix' lone loss (64-1) was to Georgia's unbeaten 220 state champion Chase Horne (53-0). "That loss was in December and he refocused his efforts to not lose again. He had a ton of first period pins from then on."

Nix, third last year, upped his stock with a first place finish in the rugged Class 3A ranks while Rodriguez suffered through his second unbeaten regular season, district and region titles and a clean slate all the way to the Class 1A championship where he lost his only match of the season. Nix was the only northeast Florida state champion in all three classes with Pace High in the Panhandle winning a Class 2A title.

"Chad joins a strong group of our wrestlers who will be heading to college in a few months," said Fleming Island coach P.J. Cobbert. "One of the strong points of our program is that guys like Chad and Paul Detwiler and Briar Jackson and Jason Davis and Ryan Smenda have made the program one that you expect to win at the highest level. Chad is part of that club."

Nix, third last year at 195 for Fleming Island, trounced most of his competition to his championship match with Seminole High's Jordan Smith where Nix got a third period takedown to score a 3-0 gold medal win. Nix and Smith were at a standoff in the first period until Nix went into a single to double leg takedown that wound up out of bounds for no points.

"That guy had great hips and was strong and Chad was being cautious," said Cobbert. "Chad wanted the pin for bonus points and the team taking second, but I told him to win the match first and let the points go where they go. If it comes, it comes, but win the match."

Nix got Smith nearly turned for back points in the second period, but could not get the final edge for points. Nix did get an escape early in the third before Smith tossed Nix nearly into a scorer's table, but for no points also because out of bounds.

From a neutral position facing Smith, Nix's late match endurance was faster than Smith's defense for the winning takedown.

Nix finishes at 64-1 for the year with a slew of first period pins highlighting his career at Fleming Island High School. Nix was third while a sophomore at Jensen Beach before coming to Fleming Island for his junior season.

For Rodriguez, the frustration of finishing as runnerup for a second year comes with the positive of getting to the state final.

"It's always a blessing to be able to be in that position; getting to state," said Rodriguez. "Not many athletes get to go to state once let alone three times; maybe four."

For Rodriguez, the agony of a second straight unbeaten to runnerup finish was evident in his championship match with Lake Highland Prep's Danny Nini, who was third at 106 last year, as the two got tangled up on some third period releases that created some push and shove moments.

"I was kind of gambling and he was the one getting more frustrated because he wanted me to just go away," said Rodriguez. "I kept trying to get points even late in the match."

Nini took an early 4-0 lead on Rodriguez in the first period off quick takedowns with Rodriguez able to slow the assault down to a scoreless second period.

"I was able to ride him out most of that second period," said Rodriguez. "He wasn't trying to get out of it more than just staying there. I have never wrestled him, but have beaten guys that he has beaten pretty handily."

In the third, with Rodriguez trying desperately to score a tilt or near fall for bigger points, Nini was able to snag four takedowns against the frustrated Rodriguez to end the match 10-5.

"Honestly, I did perfectly fine on top and he didn't really want to wrestle," said Rodriguez. "Maybe, my finishes could have been better on certain moves. The match went pretty fast."

In the team scoring, Fleming Island finished third in Class 3A behind perennial champion South Dade, 199.0, and Southwest Miami (108.0) with the Golden Eagles netting 107.0 points for the weekend. South Dade, with a seventh consecutive team title, finished with three state titles with Osceola High and SW Miami both earning two. Oakleaf, with two competitors; Marcus McGee and David Parkes, finished 41st with three points.

Fleming Island scored points with a handful of top six finishes including thirds to Hunter Herrington at 113, (Lost semifinal match to eventual champion and unbeaten (68-0) Danny Martinez of SW Miami 8-1) and Luke Chop at 160 (Lost in semifinal to runnerup Steven Villalobos of South Dade 14-5); a fourth to Tyler Williams at 138 (lost in semifinal to runnerup Zach Creeden of Jupiter 6-1); a fifth to Tanner Hill at 152 (Lost in semifinal to runnerup Sawyer Bartelt of Doral 2-1), and sixths from Gannon Janssen at 145 (Lost in semifinal to runnerup Lukas Forehand of Wellington 1-0) and Jeffrey Lascano at 195 (Lost in semifinal to runnerup Colton Curtis of Freedeom 2-1).

"We saw a lot of kids in the other classes and our Class 3A that we had wrestled and beat during the season," said Cobbert. "Our program is to put up against the best and stick to the system of wearing people down and not making mistakes. A couple of calls here and there would have changed those one, two point matches that we had that would have made a difference."

Fleming Island had most of its varsity roster at the arena with Ryan Hobson, Riley Holton, Isaac Padgett, Gavin Smith and Nick Janssen making the trip from regions and finishing in consolations.

In Class 2A, Orange Park, with three athletes; Wesley Carlisle (0-2, 113, Lost to runnerup in round one match), Cameron Broughton (Fifth at 145, lost to runnerup in round two match) and Jacob Moore (Sixth at 182, lost to champion in semifinal), finished well behind defending 2A champions Lake Gibson who squeezed out a 224-204 team title over Tampa Jesuit. Tampa Jesuit had four state titles, Charlotte three and Lake Gibson two.

"It feels really good to be able to have finally reached the podium after all of the work and time I’ve put in," said Broughton. "But of course I wanted to do better and am not satisfied."

The Raiders finished 18th with 23 points.

In Class 1A, Clay High got two medalists; a third to Cale Hoskinson at 152, and a fifth to Garrett Tyre at 220, to improve to 12th from 21st in the team finishes with Lake Highland Prep, with an incredible eight state titleists, again dominating the top with a 289.5-173.0 title over Somerset Academy, who had two state titles. Clay finished 12th with 38 points.

"Our goal was to win regions and get a top five at state," said Clay coach Hunter Hill, who got second to Wakulla and 12th at state. "We had four guys lose in the blood round at regions (semifinals) and were missing Abdiert Escobar and Tazz Hampton to injury and sickness."

Hoskinson won his third place match in overtime while Tyre lost his semifinal match to eventual runnerup Nicholas Benton of Somerset Academy. Tyre won fifth via pin.

Ridgeview, with just Rodriguez, finished 24th with 21 points.

For the Blue Devils, who return next year with five of their seven state qualifiers, Maverick Rainwater, Luke Davis, Dominic Martin, Jordan Bell and Derrek Mosley all made the trip.

"Maverick was the big surprise," said Hill, noting Rainwater's region title and state ticket. "He was always sitting in the wings and we were waiting for him to finally break out."