Wewa wrestlers medal at state

In a grueling post season, eight members of Wewahitchka’s boys wrestling team advanced to the post-season, with six qualifying for regionals, and three moving on to the state tournaments.

And then, when all was said and done, two Gator wrestlers, senior Jake Parker at 132 pounds, and sophomore Calvin Ross at 215 pounds, both climbed atop the winners’ stand following the Class 1A state championship held at Silver Spurs Arena in Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee.

It had been a busy year for Tracy Malcolm’s squad, competing in 71 matches that took them all over the Southeast.

“We wrestled a bunch,” said Malcolm. “In the season we traveled to Tennessee to North Carolina to central Florida to central Georgia and then all over the Panhandle to get matches in for all these kids, to give them a breadth of experience to different styles of wrestling, and different coaching techniques and different wrestling techniques. And it worked out great for these kids.”

The climax came at the state tourney, where Ross, who had posted a jaw-dropping 62-9 record during the regular season, came to wrestle at 215 pounds. 

All season long he had toughened up by at times competing in the 285 pounds class, considered a heavyweight, against wrestlers who easily outweighed him by 60 pounds or more.

In his first state match at his optimal weight, he pinned Chamberlain’s Koleton Washington in 2:29, and then he bested Cocoa Beach’s Nathan Pond 8-0, the point total amounting to what’s called a major decision.

It was time for the semifinals, and in that match, he lost 17-2 at the 1:22 mark, considered a technical fall, to Cardinal Gibbons’ Michael Mocco, regarded as tops in the state and among the 10 best in the nation. “Mocco’s father was an NCAA Olympic champion,” said Malcolm. “He’s got the pedigree.”

The loss didn’t deter Ross, who came back in the consolation semifinals to pin Hernando’s Kian Blyss in 56 seconds.

In the battle for the bronze, the match to decide third place, Ross lost a close one, 7-5, to The Bolles School’s Brett Bearden. 

Ross jumped ahead with a takedown of Bearden, who then managed a reversal and rode out the period to hold a slim 3-2 lead.

In the second period, Ross opted for the neutral position, “because we took him down so easy,” and Bearden managed a takedown, and Ross a subsequent escape, so he trailed 5-4 heading into the third period.

Bearden chose down in the final period, and executed a reversal, to jump ahead 7-4. Ross managed an escape but with 45 seconds remaining, he couldn’t take down Bearden and ended up with a fourth place finish, which is where high school wrestling pundits had picked him to finish at the outset of the season.

“I truly feel in my heart the wrong Calvin showed up to wrestle that match,” said Malcolm. “The fiery and feisty Calvin that comes out wasn’t there in the match.”

The fiery Calvin came to Malcolm in the eighth grade, after never wrestling before, and in his first year went 24-23 at 165 pounds.

In his freshman year Ross went 42-9 at 175 pounds, losing out in the blood round at regionals.

“Over the summer he started really working out,” said Malcolm. “And he gained 10 to 20 pounds of muscle. He’s ‘barnyard strong,’ he’s never had to cut weight period.’ With his strength and speed, they couldn’t touch him.”

To help shape the young wrestler’s style, Malcolm had Ross often compete at the 285-pound heavyweight class, and in fact, four of his nine losses were at 285.

“The ones he lost to, he was 50 pounds lighter,” said the coach. 

Malcolm had counted on Ross surprising some opponents, and was only on a few people’s radar, but those days are gone.

“Calvin’s out in the open now,” he said. “One loss last year was against a number one kid, a senior from Yulee, who told me ‘I’ve never wrestled anyone that strong.’ When I told him he was a freshman, the look on his face was ‘you’re kidding me.’ He told Calvin what he needed to hear.

“That’s Calvin last year,” Malcolm said. “I knew I had something special in him. We’ll quietly work him this summer, he’ll get more knowledge and he’ll be a contender next year.”

Wrapping up his high school career was senior Jake Parker, who posted a 64-13 regular season record at 132 pounds.

Parker opened with an 11-3 major decision over Clearwater Central Catholic’s Viktor Swain, and then faced the state’s third best Class 1A grappler, Merritt Island’s Landon Quiroga, and sustained an 11-5 defeat.

Parker rebounded by pinning Miami Sunset’s Oscar Aguilera in 2:29, and then faced Episcopal of Jacksonville’s Mikah Ikeda, who had defeated Parker a week or so before in the regional semifinals.

But this time, the outcome would be different, as Parker won a 7-2 decision, setting up a match against Cocoa Beach’s Adrian Day.

“It was an extremely tight match,” said Malcolm. “I argued a couple calls, they gave Adrian a takedown, but in the waning seconds of the third, they didn’t give one to Jake. It was a really good match, both were very evenly matched.

Parker ended up losing a 4-1 decision, and Day would go on to finish third in state.

In the battle for fifth place, Parker squared off against Florida High’s Jasper Croom, a top notch wrestler. In 2:11, Croom had a 16-0 technical fall, and Parker settled for sixth place.

It was the second time he had placed at state, the first time in 2023, also for sixth place, when he fought at 126 pounds.

Junior Tyler Johnson, who posted a regular season record of 51-17 at 113 pounds, wrestled three times at state and managed a pin in his second match, at the 4:27 mark, when he bested Bell Creek’s Gavin Najera.

In his opening match St. John Neumann’s Erik Perez scored an 18-3 technical fall at the 5:03 mark over Johnson.

In his third match, Johnson sustained a 19-3 technical fall at the 2:25 mark against North Bay Haven’s Koa DeLoach.

While only the top eight are considered to have placed, Johnson, by making it to the blood round, can be viewed as being in the top 10 among Class 1A wrestlers in the weight class, Malcolm said.

“As a state qualifier that gives him seeding criteria for tournaments for next season,” said Malcolm. “That will give me some arguing power when we seed different tournaments.”

The coach’s squad of wrestlers who competed this year included at 106 pounds, sixth grader Tucker Easter (11-14) and Port St. Joe seventh grader Reef Davis (12-25); at 126, eighth grader Xavier Devine (8-27); at 138, Port St. Joe eight grader Jonathan Lindsey (2-8); at 144, junior Christian Johnson (33-20); at 150, freshman Levi Adkison (19-39) and sophomore Wesley Spencer (16-30); at 175, sophomore Luke Bryan (19-24); and at 215, junior James Hardy (22-22).