Raider Wrestling Insights
State Wrestling Re-Cap - 3/3/18
State Wrestling Re-Cap by Adam Regan, The News-Press (10:02pm on 3/3/18)
Riverdale (136 points) finished third as a team in 2A
behind state champion Lake Gibson (160.5) and runner-up Brandon
(139.5). Fort Myers and Cypress Lake finished ninth and 10th,
respectively. Of the 28 state qualifiers from Lee County and LaBelle, 18
found themselves on the podium by Saturday night. Lleyton Taylor, Jared Dinh, and Darius Parker made splashes for Riverdale, which had seven of eight state qualifiers reach the podium, over the weekend with state runner-up finishes.
Taylor (39-7), a junior fell to undefeated Charlotte
sophomore Donovan Cataldi (47-0) by a 10-2 decision in the 138-pound
final. Meanwhile, Dinh (45-8), a freshman, made a late push on Venice’s Dan Stone (53-8) but lost 10-8 at 113. “They never stopped competing,” Riverdale coach Kris Hayward said. Parker
(47-6), one of five state qualifiers who’ll return for the Raiders next
season, trailed 5-2 late in the second period against West Boca Raton’s
Alex Bordeau in the 195-pound final. The junior had a chance in the
final 30 seconds of the period with the beginning stages of a cradle he
couldn’t turn over. Parker, who split with Bordeau during the season,
took another shot early in the third, but got caught, taken down on his
back and pinned. “When you’re down that many points you’ve got to go for
it,” Hayward said. “I’m proud of him.”
After falling in the 132-pound semifinals, Justin Rivera beat Jensen
Beach’s Wyatt Kirkham 7-2 to take home third place. Riverdale’s Nelson Ortiz
was beaten in the 152-pound semi by defending state champion Noah
Ridley of Brandon in a battle of undefeated wrestlers. Ortiz came back
to score a 5-0 decision against Auburndale’s Hunter Crichton in the
third-place match. His teammate, Jesse Martinez, added a
third-place medal to his collection at 160 pounds with a pin of
Brandon’s Onid Olavarria with five seconds left in the first period. Jacob Stanbro followed suit at 220 with a 5-1 decision in his third-place match.
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