BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Keystone Heights High School wrestlers Atreyu Contes and Mikey McCall finished as runners-up in their weight classes at the Jan. 11 Marine Corps Challenge, which was hosted by Jacksonville’s Terry Parker High School.
Contes earned his second-place finish in the 113-pound class. He had a first-round bye before pinning Terry Parker’s Journi Huggans in four minutes. That put him in the championship match, where he lost 4-1 to Beachside’s Walter Howard.
McCall went 2-0 in head-to-head matches to reach the championship final in the 138 class. He pinned Beachside’s Nick Avignone in 45 seconds and then pinned Beachside’s Leon Butterfield in 1:01. McCall was pinned in 1:18 by Stanton’s Diego Torres in the first-place match.
Keystone’s Adam McGarvey and Cason Burton both wrestled in the 120 class, placing third and fourth, respectively. The two faced each other in the first round, with McGarvey pinning Burton in 55 seconds. McGarvey was then pinned in 1:25 by Wolfson’s Gay Doh before pinning Beachside’s Nicholas Walford in 29 seconds to reach the third-place match.
Burton pinned Stanton’s Angelo Gigena in 1:24 to set up another match against his teammate, which McGarvey won by recording a pin in 1:01.
Burton was one of four Keystone wresters to place fourth. Luciano Moncada earned one of those fourth-place finishes, wrestling in the same class as Contes. Moncada was pinned in 22 seconds in the first round by Beachside’s Howard (who would go on to defeat Contes in the championship match) before earning a 10-4 win over Terry Parker’s Huggans. That put Moncada in the third-place match, where he was pinned in 49 seconds by Wolfson’s Asher Nathanson.
Jared Goetzman wrestled in the 126 class. He lost by a 20-2 technical fall to Stanton’s Leonardo Torres, but bounced back to pin Baldwin’s Ian Rhoden in 52 seconds. In the third-place match, Goetzman was pinned in 3:18 by Beachside’s Preston Masar.
Arthur Durning took fourth in the 132 class. He started his day by pinning Beachside’s Bryce Holden in 2:57. Durning was then pinned in 1:42 by Wolfson’s Tristan Martinez, but he put himself in the third-place match by pinning Baldwin’s Isaiah Breen in 1:47. The Keystone wrestler had to face Beachside’s Holden again, with Holden recording a pin in 3:24.
