LAKELAND – Auburndale's wrestling post-season might be a little brighter than coach Jorge Espinoza might have thought, at least if the results from the George Jenkins IBT wrestling tournament Saturday are any indication.

The Bloodhounds sent one wrestler to the finals, and had a host of others in various consolation matches to finish in fifth in the 34-team event, the highest finish of the six Polk County schools entered.

“We had eight kids place in the top eight, and that's something to be proud of," Espinoza said. "I expected at least four for sure, but having eight is definitely icing on the cake. It lets me know where we are going into districts.”

Auburndale's Hunter Crichton, at 152, ran into a buzz saw in the final, losing by pin 1:19 into the first period to Tampa Tech's Anthony Artalona, who scored falls in four of his five wins. Critchton earned a berth in the championship match with a 9-4 decision over Jake Finken of Newsome.

“That kid from Tampa Tech is as good as they come, just bigger, stronger, faster,” Espinoza added. “Hunter has been working his take downs, and in the semi-finals, it was take down, take down, take down. It's something we work on, constant pressure, constant motion. Other than the finals, I saw great things from him.”

Lakeland's Tanner Howe at 220 was the only other county wrestler with a chance to go for gold, but he fell in a close 5-3 decision. A potential take down opportunity that would have tied the match came just a second or two after the final buzzer.

“It was a little too little too late,” Lakeland Coach Michael Farley noted. “There's a few things that we saw in this match that are easy fixes and it will help him get a medal in March. When he was down, he got out each time, but we'll see if we can get him out a little quicker to have more time for takedowns.”

County wrestlers in third place matches did well, with five of six Polk wrestlers bringing home bronze.

McKeel's Cody Brown (113) won by pin 47 seconds into the third period over Booker's Dakarai Rivers, while Auburndale's Robert Lamothe got three near-fall points in the second en route to an 11-7 win over Tanner Kitta of South Lake.

At 145, the Bloodhounds got a third from Donovan Barker, who used three reversals to post an 8-1 decision over Austin Edmunson also of South Lake. Teammate Sloan Cullifer (182) used a two-point first-period take down to defeat Gavin Spencer of Port Charlotte, 3-0.

Dez Flowers (170) had the host's highest finish, getting a pin at 48 seconds of the final period over Darwin Diaz of Somerset. Kathleen's Anthony Williams fell 4-2 in the consolation final to Brendan Bengtsson of Braden River.

Although it was only for fifth, Parker Baum had a noteworthy performance in his last match, getting a take down with four seconds left to pull out a 5-4 win over Montavious Moore of Forest Hills.

Somerset took the team title with 231.5 points, followed by Freedom (201.5), Tampa Prep (142), Forest Hill (135.5) and Auburndale (123.5). George Jenkins was seventh, McKeel 13th, Kathleen 16th, Lakeland 26th and Ridge Community 28th.