Telegraph Staff Writer
Union County High School wrestlers Alexander Cortese and Caleb Crawford each missed qualifying for the state finals by one win at the Feb. 25-26 Region 1-1A wrestling finals at Wakulla High School.
To advance to state, a wrestler had to place in the top four in his weight class.
Cortese and Crawford were two of eight UCHS wrestlers who participated. Four besides Cortese and Crawford earned at least one win in the double-elimination tournament.
Crawford (160-pound class) won his first two matches, which put him one win away from advancing to the championship match. He pinned Marianna’s Trett Phillips in 1:43 and pinned Yulee’s Samuel Sahrphillips in 1:54. Crawford then lost by a 17-1 technical fall to Fernandina Beach’s Enzo Gamba. That pitted him against Bishop Kenny’s Collin Hearn for the right to advance to the third-place match, with Hearn pinning Crawford in 2:18.
Cortese (182) suffered a close 11-10 loss to West Nassau’s Nolan McKelvy in his first match. He then recorded two straight pins, defeating Bay’s Joshua Fine in 2:11 and Marianna’s Marquis Patterson-Rhode in 4:14. Cortese was one win away from advancing to the third-place match, but lost 6-4 to Suwannee’s Dustin Wood.
Alec French (106), Kale Waters (113), Ian Halfacre (132) and Danny Thornton (195) each went 1-2.
French pinned Rocky Bayou Christian’s Wyatt Moore in 1:19 before getting pinned twice, losing to Suwannee’s Topher Pearson in 1:36 and Bay’s David Drake in 1:31.
Waters was pinned in 1:48 by Wakulla’s Conner Brown before bouncing back to pin Wewahitchka’s Tyler Johnson in 41 seconds. He was then pinned in 3:49 by Bishop Kenny’s Jacob Harless.
Halfacre, after getting pinned in 1:23 by Paxon’s David Kang, pinned Marianna’s Josh Mercer in 4:28. He was then pinned in 2:27 by Wakulla’s Isaiah Wilson.
Thornton lost his first match, getting pinned in 2:25 by South Walton’s Elijah Ramirez. He bounced back, pinning Florida High’s Diego Duprey in 2:50 before losing 5-4 to Yulee’s Christopher Aud.
Union’s Rodney Barnett (138) and Ethan Shea (145) also competed. Barnett was pinned in 1:47 by Rutherford’s Romero Black and then pinned in 4:02 by Episcopal’s Christian Ryan. Shea was pinned in 3:02 by South Walton’s Dylan Billingsley before getting pinned in 3:35 by Fernandina Beach’s Cole Misciagna.
