Lemon Bay falls to Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons

KISSIMMEE

The addition of a dual team tournament has split the prep wrestling season in two.

If the second half goes as well as the first for Lemon Bay High, chances are no one in Manta Rays colors will do too much complaining.

A day after winning the Class 1A-Region 3 title, Lemon Bay lost, 45-27, to Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons during Saturday’s state semifinal at Osceola High.

It wasn’t quite the result Lemon Bay was looking for. But getting to within a match of wrestling for a state championship far exceeded the Manta Rays’ expectations.

“We came a long way. I didn’t think we’d come this far as a team at all,” said Marc Towers, a Lemon Bay senior who scored a pin Saturday at 182 pounds. “It’s getting kids ready to go to college. In college, you have a dual season, then you have the individual season. And it brought us together. Beginning of the season, we were just wrestling as a bunch of guys. Then we really came together.”

Lemon Bay jumped to a 12-0 lead after Bryce Taranto (106) and Jacob Labell (113) rolled to first-period pins. But Cardinal Gibbons won the next three matches in convincing fashion — a pin and two technical falls — to jump to a 16-12 lead.

“They had some weapons a little bit deeper than us,” said Lemon Bay coach Mike Schyck. “But I can’t be more proud of these guys. We started out not knowing what we were going to do, and hopefully be a part of this. To be in the final four, it’s a great little thing for our community.”

Wrestling without Albert Werden, a two-time state medalist at 120 who missed the dual tournament with an elbow injury, Lemon Bay closed to within 16-15 on Tripp Lytle’s 11-4 decision at 138. But Cardinal Gibbons won six of the final eight bouts, including two by pin and another by technical fall.

Pins are worth six points to the team score, technical falls are worth five. Decisions won by seven points or less are worth three.

“It shows how important bonus points are,” Schyck said.

Michael Morales also won for Lemon Bay, locking up a second-period pin at heavyweight.

With dual season behind them, the Manta Rays will now prepare for the individual portion of the postseason, which gets underway when Lemon Bay heads to Cape Coral Oasis for the District 12 tournament on Feb. 17.

“We’ve got to be selfish and get these guys healthy so they can wrestle for themselves,” said Schyck, whose team travels to Charlotte on Wednesday for a dual and will compete in the Tarpons’ Gene Gorman Invitational next Saturday. “A lot of these guys have lofty goals to be on the podium at the end of the season, so we’ve got to get them healthy.

“But I’m excited.”