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Highlands Today

Streaks, Devils Hit The Mat

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By Brian Gjurgevich | Highlands Today

Published: November 12, 2007

Both the Sebring and Avon Park wrestling teams laced up their high-tops and hit the road on Saturday in their first matches of the season.

The Blue Streaks traveled to Riverdale for a double-dual meet with defending-state-champion Palmetto Ridge and Charlotte and got wins from Shanaan Spiegel (160 pounds), Michael Polatty (140) and David Baker (215).

"It was our first real competition of the season," said Sebring coach Dave Cunningham. "It was good to see some of the guys get their feet wet."

The same can be said for the Red Devils, who traveled to Lake Region and split matches with Lake Region and Tampa Catholic. Avon Park picked up wins from junior Isuel Guzman (215), junior Kemosi Hatten (171), Josh Sala (130) and Omar Torres (160) and witnessed crowd-pleasing efforts from freshmen Greg Gentry and Jack Bland.

"Tampa Prep has quite a bit of experience, and it seemed that they had their real strong kids where we had younger kids," said AP coach Dave Brown. "One of the first things [Gentry] said when he came off the mat was "I had fun, but I sure am tired.

"And that's what we're looking for: At this point, we're trying to learn a lot, because the one thing a coach can't teach a wrestler is experience."

Cunningham said he purposely schedules tougher competition at the beginning of the year to get his younger wrestlers focused on improvement and remind his veterans where they need to be later in the season. He noted this weekend's SFCC Shootout, which the Streaks host, will feature top teams Riverdale and Clay. The SFCC Shootout starts at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"We have tough matches at the beginning so the young guys understand how hard a sport wrestling is," Cunningham said. "And for the veterans, it can be good for them to get beat by somebody to remind them they need to push themselves."

Brown said as much as he likes seeing the Red Devils on the gridiron, he'll be happy to have some AP football players on the mat as early as Tuesday. The Devils travel to McKeel for a dual meet at 7 p.m. Thursday.

"[AP football] Coach [Earnest] Perkins and I are in agreement that wrestling would be good for a number of his players," Brown said. "Hopefully, we'll get a few guys we can help with their aggressiveness."

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