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Highlands Today

Local Wrestlers Medal At State

BRIAN GJURGEVICH/HIGHLANDS TODAY

Avon Park's James Bland, shown here at last week's regional tournament, finished third at 160 pounds at Saturday's Class 1A state meet in Lakeland.

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By Mark  Pinson | Highlands Today

Published: February 18, 2008

LAKELAND — Battling back against adversity and top-notch competition, three wrestlers from the Heartland came away with medals from the Class 1A state wrestling tournament on Saturday night.

Avon Park junior James Bland earned a bronze medal at 160 pounds, Red Devil teammate Kemosi Hatten came in fifth at 171, and Sebring senior Shaanan Spiegel finished third in the 152-pound weight class.

Bland, who suffered a knee injury in winning his first bout on Friday against Tampa Prep's Wes Jarrell, overcame a close 9-4 loss to eventual state champion Luke McGurrin of Jacksonville Bolles, to finish third by beating Tronic Williams of South Fort Myers by a technical fall.

Bland, who was making his second appearance at state, finished the season with a 44-1 record.

"James had a great season," said Avon Park co-coach Lee Elder. "His only loss of the season was to the state champion and he was in that match until the end.

"He's only a junior and we look forward to him moving up two more places next year at state."

Hatten, who finished 43-6 on the season, lost his first match on Thursday to Calvary Christian's Dominick Pierre, but wrestled his way back into contention to earn a medal.

Hatten, who suffered a knee injury a month ago and hasn't been able to do some conditioning drills, bounced back in wrestlebacks to beat Tyree Sparrow of Clewiston 6-4, Josh Hodges of Baker County and Derek Bonvillian of Estero.

The Red Devil junior lost to Pierre again, this time 9-5, but came back to pin Randy May of Riverdale in the second period to finish fifth.

"Losing his first match on Thursday put Kemosi in a hole," said Elder. "But he fought back, got over his nerves and wrestled that last match like the Kemosi we saw during the season.

"He had an outstanding year and is just a junior and we have most of our team coming back, so we're looking forward to next year with a lot of anticipation."

Spiegel, who was making his third consecutive appearance at state, pinned Mike Hawthorne of Tampa Robinson on Thursday, cruised past Tommy Oetting of Matanzas 14-2, but lost to Josh Trippett of Baker County 3-1 in overtime on Friday night.

Spiegel, who finished the year 46-2, defeated Kevin Drawdy of Crystal River on Saturday and then knocked off Wade Coston of Clay County 2-0 to finish third.

"Shaanan had a great season and gave everything he had," said Sebring coach Denny Hays. "It's tough when you don't have any teammates to root you on and give you support, but Shaanan stayed focused and wrestled well. "He could have won the match he lost right before the overtime, but his takedown was ruled to have come after the buzzer.

"I'm proud of him and I think he did a great job considering he was at the tournament by himself."

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