Preview of upcoming wrestling season
By WALT JACOBS
Correspondent
As the house lights went off, a lone spotlight shone in the center of the mat and the air began to pulsate with the sound of Metalllica’s “Enter Sandman.”
With each riff of Kirk Hammett’s guitar, anticipation grew and shouts of support from the crowd erupted, culminating with the 2025 Wakulla Wrestling Team emerging from a tunnel formed by the War Eagle Cheerleaders.
After the team’s brief warmup, the angelic voice of Miss Luna Martinez sweetly singing the “Star Spangled Banner” was juxtaposed against the visual of battle hardened warriors from Wakulla and Chiles High who were faced off against one another on opposing sides of the mat.
Following an electrifying introduction of the starting lineups, Wakulla quickly took the lead 12-0 with a pair of forfeits at 106 and 113.
Chiles responded with a pin by 13th ranked Jason Marsala over No. 8 Matthew Thaxton.
Wakulla’s William Harvey answered with a pin of his own over Dominic Cicco. Harvey’s pin began a barrage of points by Wakulla from 126 through 150 lbs that extended the War Eagle’s lead to 39-6.
Patrick Cooksey got a second period fall over Jayden Larson at 132. Subsequently, Brady Jackson notched a 2nd period tech fall over Connor Blaine.
It only took Aaron Robinson 27 seconds to pin J.R. Jordan at 144.
At 150, Troy Thaxton garnered an 8-0 major decision over Toby Trumbower.
Chiles gained some ground when Wakulla forfeited 157 and 165 making the score 39-18.
Chiles continued to slowly chip away at the deficit when Hayden Smith secured a 17-1 tech fall over Wakulla’s Cole Manning.
At 195, in the second period, Gavin Mitchell was winning handily over Chiles’ Levi Bradley 11-1, when a slam by Mitchell was ruled illegal by the referee.
Bradley was awarded at point, and when he could not continue to wrestle, he was awarded the victory by default.
At this juncture, the score was 39-29. With two matches remaining, victory was still well within reach for the Timberwolves, but in the 215 pound bout, Blake Barodte slammed the door shut on a Chiles comeback when he pinned Andrew Hutton 58 seconds into the second period.
In the final match of the dual, Zechariah McGriff pinned Wakulla sophomore John Chancy.
The final score of the dual was Wakulla 45 Chiles 35.
The War Eagles will be back in action at home against Suwannee High on Thursday, December 11th.
On December 5th and 6th the War Eagles traveled to Kissimmee to compete in the Danny Byron Invitational.
Danny Byron Invitational Day 1 Gold Pool Results
Day 1 (Pooling) Results determine seeding for day two.
Gold Pool
106: Brayden Hodges 5th place
113: Kyle Manzi 3rd place
120: Matthew Thaxton 2nd Place
126: William Harvey 1st Place
132: Patrick Cooksey 6th Place
138: Brady Jackson 1st Place
144: Aaron Robinson 3rd Place
150: Troy Thaxton 3rd Place
175: Cole Manning 5th Place
190:Gavin Mitchell DNP
215: Blake Barodte 2nd Place
285: Lonnie Pierce 4th Place
Day 2 (Bracketing)
Gold Pool
126: William Harvey 2nd place in Gold Pool
138: Brady Jackson 2nd place Gold Pool
215: Blake Barodte 4th place in Gold Pool
Blue Pool
113: Kyle Manzi 2nd place in Blue Pool
144: Aaron Robinson 2nd place in Blue Pool
285: Lonnie Pierce 3rd place in Blue Pool
White Pool
106: Brayden Hodges 1st place
132: Patrick Cooksey 3rd place
175: Cole Manning 2nd place
190: Gavin Mitchell 1st place
LADY WAR EAGLES COMPETE AT
BORDER WARS
On Saturday, December 6th, the Lady War Eagles and 16 other teams, mostly from the North Florida area, converged upon South Walton High School in Santa Rosa Beach to compete in the Seahawk’s Border Wars Tournament.
In round 1 of the 125 pound bracket, Julia Baggett faced No. 22 Gracelynn Janssen of Bay High. Janssen got a takedown early in the 1st period to take a three point lead, but Baggett managed to get a reversal before the period expired to make it 3-2. Baggett got another reversal 47 seconds into the second period to momentarily take the lead 4-3. Twenty-Seven seconds later, Janssen was able to get a reversal of her own and regain the lead 5-4. With time expiring late in the second, Baggett reversed Janssen yet again and secured the pin with 13 seconds left in the period.
Wakulla’s Kameron Easter also won with a second period pin in the first round of the 125 pound bracket over Caroline Anderson of North Bay Haven.
Baggett and Easter both faltered in the next round. Baggett fell to Niceville’s 25th ranked Gianna Muscarella and Easter to Jefferson’s Ava Goodwin.
The pair pinned their way into the 3rd place match where the teammates would face one another. Baggett won the contest over Easter by pin with 43 seconds left in the second.
“Julia wrestled very well this weekend against some very tough opponents.” Coach Sanchez said. “She was able to recover from some hard matches last weekend at Flagler by making some good adjustments and finished strong at this tournament”
Sanchez had glowing remarks for Easter as well: “Kameron is continuing to turn heads as she’s progressing into the season. Her technique and aggressiveness on the mat is proving to be a big factor in her success.”
In her very first tournament, freshman Rose Cooper went 1-2 over the weekend. Her lone victory was a dominant 17-0 tech fall over Bay High’s Johanna Smith. Her performance on the day impressed her coaches so much that they named her the girls wrestler of the week.
“This is her first year wrestling but she has taken to the sport quickly. She wrestled very tough against more experienced wrestlers.”
Kendal Haynie added more gold hardware to her already sparkling resume on Saturday. She completely dominated her competition with a tech fall and three consecutive pins, including wins over No. 23 Taylor Molstrom and No. 12 Nova Estrada.
“Kendal wrestled very aggressively at the tournament. In four matches, she wrestled for a total of 7 ½ minutes.” Sanchez said. “She is very focused on becoming a state champion and I don’t really see very many wrestlers standing in her way of achieving just that.”
Next up for the Lady War Eagles: Queen of the South in Enterprise, Alabama.
WRESTLERS of the WEEK
“William Harvey earns wrestler of the week for his pure and utter dominance on the mat.”
– Head Coach Nate Litowsky
“I guarantee you’ll see big things from her in the upcoming years.”
– Lady War Eagles Head Coach Jon Sanchez
COACH’S CORNER
“It was a very good and fun opening week for our program. The guys have been itching to finally compete, and you could feel that excitement carry onto the mat Thursday night and this weekend. We’re proud of how we started 1-0 as a team and getting some dominant wins in Osceola. Now we head back to the drawing board to clean things up and get ready for next week. Overall, a strong beginning and a necessary start.”
– Coach Nate Litowsky
