South Dade has strong start at GMAC wrestling; Cypress Bay leads at Broward championships

For what’s supposed to be the down year for South Dade wrestling, it’s doing quite alright.

South Dade, not as strong as its nationally-ranked teams each of the two previous seasons, advanced 10 wrestlers into the semifinal round and leads in team standings by 28 ½ points over No. 2 Southwest on the first day of GMAC championships on Friday at Doral Ronald Reagan High.

“This is supposed to be the year we’re vulnerable to lose,” South Dade coach Vic Balmeceda said. “I’m sitting here with a grin on my face. We’re wrestling outrageous right now.”

After the five already-established core wrestlers for the Buccaneers — defending state champion ninth-grader Brevin Balmeceda (132 pounds), two-time state champion Ozzy Lugo (145), defending GMAC champion Chei Hill (195), returning state runner-up Kyron Taylor (285) and Elijah Varona (106) — Balmeceda got impressive performances from the group that follows.

Peter Webb (120) defeated North Miami’s David Mompoint, seeded ahead of him, in a 14-1 majority decision to advance into semifinals, and Jason Geffrard (220), who has all but one year of wrestling experience, made it through to join Arie Reyes, Todd Perry and Aaron Flores as Buccaneers still alive.

The semifinals will be wrestled right back at Regan on Saturday.

“This is the time when your second-tier kids make their mark and help you get to the level you’ve been at for previous years,” Balmeceda said.

“[On Saturday], it’s going to be a battle and it’s going to take some upsets, us being strong-minded and believing in how hard we worked and believing in South Dade tradition to get us through some of these matches.”

Last season the Buccaneers had 12 wrestlers advance into semifinals at GMAC. On Friday, they could’ve done the same had it not been for Coral Reef’s Leonard Wooten upsetting Corey Harvey, the No. 2 seed in the 182-pound bracket, in an 8-6 decision and Joel Ramirez falling to Miami Springs’ David Sanchez 15-8 at 138.

Southwest sits in second place heading into Saturday with eight wrestlers in semifinals. Southridge and Columbus sit in third and fourth with seven each.

At 152, Miami High’s Guervins Jean upset No. 1 seed Bryan Dominguez of Braddock with a 10-9 decision. He advanced into Saturday’s semifinals with an 8-3 decision over Zachary Rendueles of Hialeah Gardens in quarterfinals and will face Southridge’s Marcos Perez.

Semifinals are expected to begin at noon on Saturday followed by wrestlebacks in the morning.

The inaugural girls’ GMAC wrestling bracket will be run Saturday morning, as well.

BCAA OPENS

A familiar trio of schools lead the way heading into the final day of the BCAA wrestling tournament held at Pompano Beach High School.

Cypress Bay at 125 points holds a 9.5-point lead over St. Thomas Aquinas with Cardinal Gibbons 16.5 back of the Lightning. The three schools took the top three spots last year.

“We knew that if we came out and wrestled like we have all year we’d have a shot to win the tournament. We put ourselves in good position,” Cypress Bay coach Allen Held said.

“The kids want to win the title. Obviously I want to win the title.”

Cypress Bay also leads with nine wrestlers advancing to Saturday’s semifinals and five in the consolation rounds. Aquinas has seven wrestlers in the semifinals while Gibbons has five.

Previously undefeated Gibbons junior Joey Lopez surprisingly did not make the semifinals in the 138-pound weight class. The No. 2 seed was one of the few experienced members in the Chiefs’ lineup this year.

“We’re very, very young. I’ve got seven freshmen in the lineup, so to me, this is a building year,” Gibbons coach Frank Pettineo said. “We’re in the hunt. It’s a three-man horse race.”

The semifinals start at 10:15 a.m. Saturday morning with the finals set to begin that night at 6:15 p.m. at Pompano Beach.

MARK SINGER

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 11:34 PM with the headline "South Dade has strong start at GMAC wrestling; Cypress Bay leads at Broward championships."