BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Bradford High School’s Wyatt Acevedo, Daniel Banda and Miguel Rivera qualified for region-level competition by placing second in their weight classes at the District 4-1A wrestling meet, which was held Feb. 19 at Episcopal School of Jacksonville.
The top four in each weight class earned the right to advance to the Region 1 meet, which will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 28-March 1, at Bay High School in Panama City.
Acevedo, who had a first-round bye, pinned two straight opponents to reach the championship match in the 144-pound class. He defeated Bishop Snyder’s Curran Davis in 1:40 and Bishop Kenny’s Jonathan Valdiva in 2:33. Acevedo then lost by a 20-4 technical fall to Episcopal’s Levi Ritter.
Rivera, who wrestles in the 150 class, had byes in the first two rounds before defeating Union County’s Hunter Cruz by a `17-2 technical fall. In the championship match, he was defeated by a 17-2 technical fall by Episcopal’s Turner Glenn.
Banda pinned two opponents after a first-round bye to advance to the championship match in the 157 class. He defeated Bolles’ Lucas Comora in 5:16 and Episcopal’s Worth Athey in 2:34. Banda then lost by an 18-3 technical fall to Providence’s Camden Garcia.
Fifth- and sixth-place finishers could possibly wrestle at the region meet if slots are needed to be filled in their weight classes. Bradford had three fifth-place finishers in Jonathon Armstrong, Aiden Scott and Taylor Touchton.
Scott, who wrestles in the 120 class, had two losses before earning a win by forfeit, while Armstrong went 2-2 in the 126 class. Armstrong pinned Providence’s Parker Brown in 53 seconds before then getting pinned in 39 seconds by Wolfson’s Taylor Martinez. Armstrong got pinned again, losing to Episcopal’s Logan Henson in 1:20. He then faced Providence’s Brown again, winning again with a pin in 2:40.
Touchton went 1-2 in the 190 class. He was pinned by Episcopal’s Christian McGarity and Trinity Christian’s Nicco Musso, but ended his day by pinning University Christian’s Cooper Martell in 2:59.
Ty Keim didn’t win a match, but he was sixth in the 285 class.
Jayden Prevatt (132 class) and Tremeze White (165) also participated for Bradford.
The Tornadoes placed eighth out of 11 teams. Episcopal won the team championship, while Bishop Kenny was runner-up.
