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Spartans qualify 10 for tourney

By BOB PUTNAM and TERRY JONES

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 10, 2001

BRADENTON -- Although Lakewood did not get a trophy for its third-place finish at the Class A, District 11 tournament on Friday, the placement was enough of a prize.

The Spartans had the highest finish among the three Pinellas County teams competing, and as a bonus, they advanced all 10 of their wrestlers to next week's regional tournament.

Host Bradenton Lakewood Ranch won the event with 228 points. Bradenton Southeast was the runner-up with 1471/2.

"That was the biggest thing for us, qualifying all of our wrestlers," said Lakewood coach Frank Niles, a longtime referee in the county who took over the program this season. "Not a lot of teams can say they're taking their full squad to regionals. I'm proud, too, because they've wrestled real well and showed a lot of improvement."

After watching his team lose 12 of its first 15 dual meets this season, Niles changed his lineup, moving up three wrestlers from the junior varsity. Besides the depth, the Spartans also have gotten more wins, finishing the regular season with three straight dual-meet victories.

Lakewood had two district champions, Adam Whaley at 125 pounds and Dale Darr at 171.

Gibbs finished fourth with 129 points and advanced eight of its 12 wrestlers to regionals. Jason Plomatos (119) and Dustin Keseleski (275) each won titles for the Gladiators.

Admiral Farragut was fifth with 1231/2 points and advanced nine of its 11 wrestlers to regionals.

Although the Blue Jackets didn't have a district champion, they did have three wrestlers -- Dustin Naphan (145), Mark Nelson (171) and Walton Foster (189) -- make it to the finals. -- BOB PUTNAM

3A-7: PHU finishes second

TAMPA -- With nine wrestlers in the finals and four in the consolations, Bloomingdale left nothing but second place available for the other six teams at the Class 3A, District 7 tournament Friday night.

All 13 Bulls qualified for the 3A regional tournament Feb. 16 and 17 in Orlando.

The Bulls crowned five individual champions and scored 2301/2 points for the team title.

Meanwhile, Palm Harbor University finished second in the team race with 149 points. The Hurricanes placed three into the finals and won two individual titles. In the consolations, the Hurricanes took three thirds and five fourths to qualify 11 for regionals.

Winning championships for Palm Harbor were Rob Goetz (152) and Henry Schreiber (171).

"We beat Bloomingdale in a head-to-head dual early in the season, so I thought we would do better today," Hurricanes coach Bill Perry said. -- TERRY JONES

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