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A win carrying lots of weight

Dunnellon's victory over Lecanto is big even in a down year for the Panthers, says Tigers coach Scott Haslam.

By CAREY FREEMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 18, 2001

DUNNELLON -- You can tell them about Lecanto's hardships this year, that the Panthers are down after being a top area team the past five seasons, that nearly half the spots contested Monday night were filled by freshmen.

But don't tell the Dunnellon Tigers this wasn't special.

"Any time you beat a team that's traditionally good like Lecanto, it's definitely going to help us out down the road," Tigers coach Scott Haslam said after a 51-27 victory. "I'm extremely happy and extremely proud of them."

It was the middle weight classes that sealed the four-year program's first win over Lecanto (3-5).

Trailing 19-3 after forfeits at 130 and 135 pounds, the Tigers (3-2) got consecutive pins from Steven Connor (140), Keith Magliaccio (145) and Chad Ross (152) and a forfeit at 160 pounds. They took a 27-18 lead, and never looked back.

Lecanto, which had several wrestlers competing in a high weight class, finally stopped the bleeding at 171 when senior Terence Hollis scored a pin 3:16 into his match with Jacob Gonzalez.

Hollis was coming off a second-place finish in Saturday's Kiwanis Invitational in Brooksville.

"Terence wrestled a lot of tough matches this weekend, but he wrestled good tonight," Panthers coach Dana Wilkes said. "He was wrestling up a weight class tonight, and most everybody on the team was up a weight class because of the tournament and trying to make weight and everything."

Dunnellon's Matt Glantey followed Hollis' win with a quick pin of junior Jesse Navaro (189). Billy Simmons (215) eked out Lecanto's last victory with a 9-7 decision. "I'm hoping it's just a hangover from the tournament we wrestled in this weekend," Wilkes said. "We wrestled sluggish tonight. We can wrestle better than this."

Sluggish or not, Lecanto hasn't been the same this year. The reason could be seen in Monday's lineup, as six of the 14 slots were filled by freshmen.

The Panthers had to forfeit two classes. Corbin Glantz was the only one of the six to win a match, pinning Lou Weaver in 4:41. Freshman Dustin Cummings (135) won by forfeit.

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