Avon Park wrestlers roll into regionals

The Avon Park wrestling team flexed their muscles in a big way in Friday's Class 1A-District 7 wrestling meet at Auburndale High School.

Avon Park finished third in the nine-team meet and the Red Devils had nine wrestlers out of the 14 weight classes qualify for Friday's regional meet at Tenoroc High school.

The top four finishers in each weight class move on to the regional competition and Avon Park was paced by two district champions.

Red Devil sophomore Johnny Baldridge finished first in the 103-pound weight class with a pin in the final match, while Dylan Brown won the heavyweight class with a pin in the district final.

"Johnny and Dylan wrestled really well against some tough competition," said Avon Park wrestling coach Ed Brown. "Johnny pinned a kid from Frostproof in the finals and Dylan pinned a Lake Wales wrestler in his final match.

"We had a lot of pins during the meet and I'm most pleased with the growth we've shown during the season."

Avon Park's Jose Torres placed second in the 112-pound weight class, Miguel Perkins came in third at 119 pounds, Rakeem Bates finished fourth in the 135-pound weight class and Jose Pontinela came in fourth at 145 pounds.

"We've got a young team and they've really worked hard to improve," Brown said. "This is a good group of kids and they're only going to get better."

Red Devil junior Jessie Guzman finished third in the 140-pound weight class, Romeo Dunn finished in fourth place at 189 pounds and Charles Council claimed fourth place in the 215-pound weight class.

Avon Park heads to Tenoroc High School on Friday for the two-day regional competition and the Red Devil wrestlers will have to be in peak form to qualify for the state finals in Lakeland.

"We're going to work very hard in practice this week," said Avon Park assistant coach Blake Germain. "The competition is going to real tough at the regional meet, but we're hoping to come out strong, wrestle smart and qualify a bunch of guys for the state finals."

Sebring, which qualified five wrestlers at the Class 2A-District 6 meet in Lakeland on Thursday, is the host school for its regional competition at South Florida Community College on Friday and Saturday.