Avon Park looks strong in Preseason Classic

The Avon Park and Sebring wrestling teams literally knocked the rust off each other during Saturday's Preseason Classic, with the Red Devils emerging with two dominating victories in the dual meet in the Blue Streaks gym.

"In the preseason, we're not looking for scores or victories," Sebring coach Josh Miller said. "We wanted to get the jitters and preseason mistakes out of the way, and mainly to get the new kids a match."

The Blue Streaks have plenty of those newcomers.

Miller, who took over the program last year with nary an upperclassman, estimated that only five of his 20-plus wrestlers have prior experience. That translates to a bunch of early-season miscues, like locking hands and disqualifications.

"It's a building process with a lot of first-year wrestlers," he said. "But I was very happy with the effort they gave. I think Saturday was a pretty big success."

Avon Park overwhelmed Sebring in the first match, winning 57-22. The second-round scores were closer, but the Red Devils still edged the Blue Streaks by a score of 46-36.

Winding through two rotations, the individual champions were Avon Park's John Chittum, Jessie Guzman, Charles Hubbard, Cody Schoneck and Omar Torres, while Sebring's Jeremy Qualls also won both of his matches. Thirteen different weight classes were represented in the first meet of the season for both squads.

Miller, the Sebring coach, was particularly impressed with the efforts of Shane Liskey, a senior co-captain, and Mike Pollaty, who moved up in weight to face Hubbard, Avon Park's best wrestler. They squared off at 160 pounds - Hubbard came out on top, 6-0 - and Miller expects both to trim down for the regular season, with Hubbard likely to wrestle at 152 and Pollaty at 140.

Liskey defeated Avon Park's Raymond Arango in both of his heavyweight matches.

"There were a lot of jitters and we hurt ourselves as far as mistakes," said Miller, whose Blue Streaks open the regular season Thursday at Lake Region. "I don't think we got beat. I think we beat ourselves and that's what the preseason is all about.

"I'm OK with those mistakes," he continued. "I just saw an enormous amount of potential out of the kids. The talent and effort was really great, and that's what I wanted to see."

Avon Park will now prepare for the Citrus Tournament on Dec. 5.