Heritage High wins district wrestling title

MELBOURNE – The Heritage High wrestling team on Friday added a District 13-2A championship to the Cape Coast Conference title it won a week ago, but senior Elijah Saboor wasn't ready to celebrate.

"We're trying to stay focused. It's not the end of the season yet," he said. "State is still the goal."

Saboor kept his record perfect (33-0), winning at 182 pounds on the floor of the Melbourne High gym. Teammate and fellow senior Brandon Delosa also won, taking the 195-pound championship.

Though they were the only individual champions from the winning team, 12 Panthers earned spots at next week's regional tournament in Jensen Beach. The top four in each weight class there qualify for the state meet, Feb. 13-14 in Kissimmee.

Merritt Island was the district runner-up and qualified nine to the regional round. Rene Capo, at 152, added a district title to his CCC title. Christopher Kiser (113), Daniel Caron (126) and Chase Montanez (170) also won their classes.

Third-place Palm Bay, which had won seven district championships in a row as a team, qualified nine to the regional. Three of them – Jordin Chandler at 120, Dylan Perrow at 138, Bryce Poppell (145) – took first, the latter two being 10th-graders.

Poppell's goal is to make it back to state, where he went 0-2 last February.

"I feel technically better and stronger than last year," he said. "I want to make it back to state and win a match this year."

Two Eau Gallie wrestlers who were CCC champions also won district titles: Wade Blalock at 106 and heavyweight Noel Villegas. The same was true for Bayside 132-pounder Rayshaad Warren.

In St. Cloud, 10 Viera wrestlers qualified for regional competition. The Hawks placed fourth in District 5-3A.

Contact McCallum at 321-242-3698 or bmccallum@floridatoday.com. Follow him at www.facebook.com/FLtoday.brianmccallum and on Twitter @Brian_McCallum.