KISSIMMEE \u2014 Since the FHSAA girls wrestling state tournament began in 2022, Freedom has been the standard that other programs strive to imitate.<\/p>\n
The Patriots won the first title in 2022, then finished runner-up, fourth place and third place.<\/p>\n
And in 2026, they returned to the top spot on the podium, winning the title easily with 125 points on Saturday in Silver Spurs Arena. South Dade was a distant second with 92 points.<\/p>\n
\u201cFreedom is back on top!\u201d head coach David Bush said.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a typical win, with Freedom\u2019s highest finisher a runner-up at 130 pounds, Paolo Ramirez. But it was a true team championship, with girls fighting their way to the podium. Out of the 11 Freedom girls who qualified for state, eight of them stood on the podium as a top-eight finisher.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur girls are good at wrestling,\u201d Bush said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a bunch of champs, but we had girls fight to win matches on the back side of the (consolation) bracket. We had three girls fight their way back to third or fifth place.\u201d<\/p>\n
That included Hananeel Gregoire at 105 pounds, after she lost a tough match in the semifinals, Gabriela Kerber at 110 pounds and Mekialla Mauvais at 235. All of them finished third, while Ceajah Brown placed fifth after losing her first match on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s how you come back after a loss, and they all bounced back,\u201d Bush added.<\/p>\n
Ramirez lost a major decision (14-5) to South Dade\u2019s Willow White in the 130-pound final, but it was all about the team and her personal improvement in her one season at Freedom after transferring from Osceola.<\/p>\n
\u201cI improved every year at state, going fifth, third (last year) and second this year,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was about the team championship. Every girl feels like a champ no matter if we finished eighth or second. The team welcomed me. The Bush brothers (David and his assistant Mike) were great coaches. The girls are my sisters, and the boys team are my brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other local girls\u2019 finalist was Lake Mary\u2019s Zaria Slater, who finished runner-up at 155 pounds to Arianna Antoniou from East Lake.<\/p>\n
In Class 3A boys, South Dade won its 13th\u00a0consecutive state title, while Hagerty was third, only three points behind runner-up Miami Southridge, after winning two individual titles.<\/p>\n
After finishing third last year, senior Nikolas Blake pinned Didier Novoa of Southwest Miami to take the 157-pound title.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t going to leave anything to chance this year, and he was determined to take home the gold,\u201d Hagerty coach Scotty Diaz said.<\/p>\n
The Huskies\u2019 other weight class title came in the last match of the day, and it may have been the most exciting, with three overtimes needed to decide it.<\/p>\n
At heavyweight (285), junior Renzo Cooligan edged Raymundo Romero of Park Vista, 2-1, with the deciding point coming on an escape that Cooligan was confident he would get.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my plan,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce it got to overtime, I knew I could ride him and keep him on the bottom to wear him down,\u201d Cooligan said.<\/p>\n
It was the culmination of his first season of organized wrestling in which he was always improving.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe works hard in every match, and he got smarter as a wrestler,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n
Harmony finished fifth overall, and had two wrestlers place second in close matches.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s Orlando Sentinel Boys Wrestler of the Year, Nathan Lyttle, moved up a weight class this year to 120 after going undefeated at 113. The senior went up against the 120 defending state champ, Lazaro Soto of Southwest Miami, and lost 3-2. Soto finished the season 60-0.<\/p>\n
Nathan Barrett, who also reached the final last year, lost to South Dade\u2019s Armand Williams, 5-1, at 150 pounds.<\/p>\n
Grady Isaacs of Lake Mary was also runner-up at 215 pounds with an injury forfeit after getting hurt in the semifinals.<\/p>\n
In Class 2A, Winter Springs senior Jacob Rodriguez lost a heartbreaker, 4-2, to Andrew Bray of Zephyrhills. Rodriguez was up 2-1 before Bray got a takedown with 10 seconds left to clinch the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KISSIMMEE \u2014 Since the FHSAA girls wrestling state tournament began in 2022, Freedom has been the standard that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3745,86227,139,141,140,76046,76642,110],"class_list":["post-182984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-wrestling","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-social-varsity-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}