CRESTVIEW — Crestview High School’s wrestling team is only three matches into the season. The season is still young, but Coach Andrew Black is excited about the potential for a strong campaign.
Black has every reason to be optimistic after the Bulldogs beat Gulf Breeze 42-39 Monday to improve to 3-0 on the year.
“We are just looking to keep wresting and getting better and better,” Black said. “We have 21 first-year wrestlers. You can’t gain experience without more and more matches that we are trying to get going through the season.
“I extremely proud of our effort and the way we came together as a team. We got off to a rocky start, but we kept our heads in the game and came back to get a win over Gulf Breeze, which is an extremely spirited wrestling program. I couldn’t be happier right now.”
From the outset it looked as if the teams were evenly matched even if some of the wrestlers were overmatched by their opponent.
Only two matches were not decided by a pin and one of those matches was a win by forfeit for Crestview’s Avert Suarez.
Angel Ortega, Josh Cantwell, Coleman Young and Jeremy Cassidy had first period pins for Crestview. Cantwell needed just 20 seconds to take care of Calvin Malo.
Deigo Calonje picked up a second period pin for Crestview and Austin French needed until the third period to take down Ethan Rocha.
CRESTVIEW 42, GULF BREEZE 39
102: Kaylee Stevens, GB pinned Edwin Rivera
113: Katlyn Butcher, GB pinned Darian Hollman
120: Hamadah Hamideh, GB pinned Karter Watson
126: Angel Ortega, CREST pinned Kade Nelson
132: Nate Golman, GB def. Mike Cantwell 10-6
138: Deigo Calonje, CREST pinned Noah Loslevsky
145: Josh Cantwell, CREST pinned Calvin Malo
152: Avery Suarez, CREST forfeit
160: Aaron Mantuano, GB pinned Nieko Barnes
170: Tannen Slack, GB pinned LaJonte Watson
182: Pete Staviski, GB pinned Louis Berrios
195: Austin French, CREST pinned Ethan Rocha
220: Coleman Young, CREST, pinned Drew Drollinger
285: Jeremy Cassidy, CREST, pinned William Cross
CRESTVIEW-GULF BREEZE WRESTLING BOX
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview edges Gulf Breeze in wrestling (PHOTOS)