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Citrus title up for grabs, coaches sayBy CAREY FREEMAN © St. Petersburg Times, published January 26, 2001 INVERNESS -- There is a consensus among the three Citrus County coaches regarding the Citrus Invitational. Lecanto's Fran Copp, Crystal River's Bill Tovine and Citrus' Ed Kilpatrick agree that this year's event may be the most competitive. Their reasoning is based on solid footing. The eight teams invited to Saturday's tournament seem to be as evenly matched as any in recent history. "There isn't a dominant school this year," Kilpatrick said. "Lake Weir, Crystal River, Lecanto and and Central are all strong." Don't forget Hudson. It captured last season's title, edging Lecanto by four points. The Cobras, who sent wrestlers to state last year, return two, including 215-pound state champion Rob Philippus. The Citrus Invitational will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the teams engaging in duals against the other three squads in their pool. Pool 1 will include Lecanto, Lake Weir, Dunnellon and Crystal River. Pool 2 will include the host Hurricanes, Ocala Vanguard, Central and Hudson. Crystal River, which has a county-best 14-3 record in duals, could have been the prohibitive favorite if not for some nagging injuries. The Pirates' chances have been hindered by the loss of 103-pounder William Lesser and the possible loss of 145-pounder Nate Stone (Bronchitis), 160-pounder Drew Lepinski (shoulder) and 171-pounder Sam Force (shoulder). Tovine said Lesser would not wrestle and that the other three are day-to-day. "We'll make our minds up on Friday," Tovine said. "We'll give them some time off this week and have them do other things. We're not going to bring them in if they're hurt. "Naturally, we want to go in and wrestle -- there are a lot of teams we'll see in districts there -- and we want do well. But, at the same time, we want to be able to compete in districts. "I'd say at one time we had a good chance to take first or second (in the invitational). But now our chances are pretty slim," Tovine said. Lecanto might be a favorite if the tournament used a traditional format, in which wrestlers are bracketed based on their weight class. Jimmy Rodriguez (112), Mike Duca (125) and Harold Skidmore (130), all state qualifiers last year, could have earned the Panthers a lot of points in such a format. However, Lecanto has a lot of holes to fill in other weight classes, which makes it tough to compete under a dual format. Copp doesn't seem bothered. The event should provide some good competition for his Panthers in their last action before the Class A, District 7 Tournament, Feb. 9 at Springstead. "Yeah, we could have gone to other tourneys, but we wanted to finish the season close to home," Copp said. "Some of our guys are getting worn out and are starting to get beat up," he said. "It's nothing major, but we do need some time to recover."
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