By: J. Daniel Pearson
Late April brings the FHSAA post-season in many spring sports and several different Osceola schools have excelled in the playoffs. Here is a rundown:
Boys Weightlifting
St. Cloud posted four Olympic Champions and five Traditional Champions to sweep the FHSAA Class 3A, 5 championships over the weekend. Individual regional champions automatically advance to FHSAA State Championship meet in Lakeland, May 6-8.
Dual Gold Medalists from St. Cloud included Jayden Green-Alemany (129-lb. Weight Class), Jason Isapharich (139) and Jaden Perez (183) automatically advance in both disciplines for the Bulldogs; while Ayden Lopez (119-Traditional), Demetrius Hollingsworth (154-Traditional) and Gilbert Chase (199-Olympic), also go as regional champions.
Other Oceola County lifters to win regional championships include Celebration’s George Taruru (219-Traditional) and Harmony’s Ngo Benjamin (159-Olympic) and Barry Brice (169-Olympic) also earn automatic advancement to states.
Green-Alemany (Traditional) and Isapharich (Olympic) earned the meet’s top overall lifters in each discipline to give St. Cloud a sweep of those awards. Team-wise, St. Cloud outdistanced Harmony (72-34) to win the Olympic Team Championship; while they topped Ridge Community (52-39) for the Traditional Team Championship.
When at-large qualifiers are announced on Monday, St. Cloud head coach Cory Aun believes as many as four additional Bulldog lifers will qualify. “As with any competition, you have some surprises and some disappointments,” Aun said. “We had one lifter who I thought would be a lock to advance flame out, but we had some surprising efforts, Right now, we are sending six to compete in nine different events but I believe we will have 3 or 4 more.”
Track and Field
Class 3A, District 7 Championships
Over the past weekend, Gateway used a strong performance in the field events to run away with the FHSAA Class 3A, District 7 championship contested Saturday at Eagle Lake High School in Lake Region.
The Panthers tallied 185 points to easily slip by second place Sebring (140.5); while the Lady Panthers (116) finished third behind Zephyrhills (185) and Auburndale (116).
Ethan Amtle (36 points) and Maxwell Garcon (26) were among the top performers for the Panthers. Amtle won both the pole vault (13-9 ¼) and long jump (21-11 ½); but also qualified for regionals with a second-place finish in the triple jump and javelin. Garcon won the triple jump (47-1 ½) and was second in the long jump and high jump.
Other automatic regional qualifiers for the Panthers included district champions the 4 x 800-meter relay team (Jacob Zamor, Andre Almonte, David Goden, Jean Jesserum) and high jump champion Dory Thimote (5-9 ¾). Second place finishers also advancing automatically include Langston Carry (800), Anderson Olea (1600 and 3200), and Asaiah Seward (110 hurdles).
The Lady Panthers saw Jarah Diaz win the pole vault (9-2 ¼) and Melina Figueroa take the triple jump (37-2 ½). Other automatic state qualifiers for Gateway include 2nd place finishers Figueroa (100 hurdles) and Esther Olalere (High Jump).
Class 4A, District 7 Championships
The Osceola girls ran away with the district title last Friday; while athletes from St. Cloud, Harmony, Poinciana and the boys Osceola team are sending representatives to the regional meet. Read about that here: Lady Kowboys Run Away With District Title, Showcase Osceola’s Rising Track Power
Softball
District playoffs begin today (Morning) with top-seeded St. Cloud hosting the Class 7A, District 6 tournament. Semifinal action on Monday will have Harmony playing Poinciana at 5 p.m. with Celebration facing St. Cloud at 7:30. That ensures Osceola County will send at least one school to regionals as a district champion.
In the 7A, District 5 tournament at Cypress Creek, Tohopekaliga is the number 3 seed. If the Tigers get by Lake Nona in Tuesday night’s semifinal, they would face the winner of Boone/Cypress Creek in the Thursday championship. Osceola is in the 6A, District 7 tournament where the third-seeded Lady Kowboys play Viera on Tuesday. A win would put them in Thursday’s championship game – most likely against state power Melbourne (23-1).
Baseball
The best-of-three regional semifinals start this weekend and Harmony is the lone Osceola County team still standing. The Longhorns (16-10) got to this point by defeating St. Cloud (18-7) in a regional quarterfinal game last Friday night, 6-5. (Read about that game here: Harmony Holds Off St. Cloud’s Late Rally, Advances with 6-5 Region 3 Playoff Win
Heath Williams’ team will travel to top-seeded Vero Beach (20-4) on Friday. Game two is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. and should the teams split the first two contests, a second Saturday game would be held. The regional semifinal winner gets the winner of Park Vista-Jupiter for the regional title the following weekend.
Boys Volleyball
Top-seeded Harmony (20-3) took down #2 Cypress Creek on Friday night (25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 25-19) to win the 3A, District 6 championship. The Longhorns will wait for final seedings to come out today to learn who they will play in the regional round. Senior Oliver Benken (214 kills) and junior Jameson Benken (107 kills, 39 aces, 328 assists) have had outstanding seasons for coach Ryan Kading’s team.
Flag Football
Following Harmony’s convincing 26-13 win last Thursday over budding rival Celebration (read about that game here: Harmony Girls Flag Football Ties School Wins Record, Captures District 10-4A Championship with 26-13 Victory Over Celebration ), the Longhorns learned their path ahead when regional playoff pairings were announced over the weekend.
Harmony has earned the number one seed in Class 4A, Region 3 and will open its bid for a Final Four appearance on Wednesday with a 6 p.m. regional quarterfinal game against Cypress Creek (9-5), the #8 seed. The teams met earlier in the season with Harmony taking a 25-0 win.
Celebration (13-4), who dropped both the OBC and District championship games to Harmony, not only earned an at-large regional bid but also secured the number four seed and they will host Palm Beach Gardens at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Should both the Longhorns and Storm win, they will meet in a regional semifinal game at Harmony on May 4.
Gateway upset Freedom in the 2A, District 10 championship (28-14) last week and will be seeded fifth in the Region 3 championship. They will travel to New Port Richey on Tuesday to face #4 seed Gulf High (14-3). A win would most likely pit the Lady Panthers against top-seeded Robinson in the regional semifinals. Robinson is 16-1, ranked fourth across all classifications and has won their last four games by a combined score of 174-0.
Tennis
Celebration’s boys team took care of business at Districts, besting seven other teams to advance to last week’s regional competition. There, they dispatched Strawberry Crest (7-0) and Newsome (5-2) to advance to this week’s FHSAA Class 4A State Championship starting today at Sanlando Park.
The boys’ team, consisting of Bakzod Jalilov, Sam Henriguez, Caleb Riddle, Spencer Sterry, and Gabriel Santos won the number 3,4, and 5 singles lines and both doubles competitions to edge George Jenkins (16-12) for the district title. Following the sweep of Strawberry Crest in the regional semifinals, Jalilov, Santos and Henriguez all won singles lines and the number one doubles team of Jalilov and Santos clinched the regional title with a win.
The Storm girls’ came up just one match short of making the state championship tournament when they dropped a close 4-3 decision to Newsome in the Regional Finals. The match essentially came down to a third set overtime thriller between Newsome’s Victoria Pressley and Celebration’s Valerie Ramirez, which Pressley won 11-9. Still, the Storm will be represented at states as Sofia Morillo earned a spot in the individual tournament as a Line 2 region champion.
Los atletas locales brillan mientras las escuelas de Osceola avanzan profundamente en la postemporada
A finales de abril llega la postemporada de la FHSAA en muchos deportes de primavera, y varias escuelas de Osceola han destacado en los playoffs. Aquí un resumen:
Levantamiento de Pesas Masculino
St. Cloud logró cuatro campeones olímpicos y cinco campeones tradicionales para barrer los campeonatos de la FHSAA Clase 3A, Distrito 5 durante el fin de semana. Los campeones regionales individuales avanzan automáticamente al Campeonato Estatal de la FHSAA en Lakeland, del 6 al 8 de mayo.
Los medallistas de oro dobles de St. Cloud incluyen a Jayden Green-Alemany (129 lb), Jason Isapharich (139) y Jaden Perez (183), quienes avanzan en ambas disciplinas para los Bulldogs. Además, Ayden Lopez (119-Tradicional), Demetrius Hollingsworth (154-Tradicional) y Gilbert Chase (199-Olímpico) también avanzan como campeones regionales.
Otros campeones regionales del condado de Osceola incluyen a George Taruru de Celebration (219-Tradicional) y a Ngo Benjamin (159-Olímpico) y Barry Brice (169-Olímpico) de Harmony, quienes también avanzan automáticamente al estatal.
Green-Alemany (Tradicional) e Isapharich (Olímpico) fueron nombrados los mejores levantadores del torneo en cada disciplina, dando a St. Cloud un barrido de esos honores. A nivel de equipo, St. Cloud superó a Harmony (72-34) para ganar el campeonato olímpico por equipos, y venció a Ridge Community (52-39) para el campeonato tradicional.
El entrenador Cory Aun cree que hasta cuatro levantadores adicionales podrían clasificar cuando se anuncien los cupos at-large el lunes.
Atletismo (Track and Field)
Campeonatos del Distrito 7 Clase 3A
Gateway dominó gracias a un sólido desempeño en las pruebas de campo para ganar el campeonato del Distrito 7 Clase 3A. Los Panthers sumaron 185 puntos para superar a Sebring (140.5). Las Lady Panthers (116) terminaron terceras.
Ethan Amtle y Maxwell Garcon lideraron el equipo con actuaciones destacadas. Amtle ganó salto con pértiga y salto largo, mientras que Garcon ganó salto triple.
Otros clasificados incluyen equipos de relevos y múltiples atletas en diferentes pruebas.
Softbol
Los playoffs distritales comienzan hoy, con St. Cloud como primer sembrado en el Distrito 6 Clase 7A. Esto garantiza que al menos una escuela de Osceola avanzará a los regionales como campeona distrital.
Béisbol
Harmony es el único equipo del condado aún en competencia y enfrentará a Vero Beach en las semifinales regionales.
Voleibol Masculino
Harmony ganó el campeonato del Distrito 6 Clase 3A tras vencer a Cypress Creek. Ahora espera conocer su rival en la ronda regional.
Flag Football
Harmony es el sembrado número uno en la Región 3 Clase 4A y comenzará su camino hacia el Final Four esta semana. Celebration también avanzó y podría enfrentarse nuevamente a Harmony en semifinales.
Gateway también avanzó tras ganar su campeonato distrital.
Tenis
El equipo masculino de Celebration avanzó al campeonato estatal tras dominar en distritos y regionales. El equipo femenino quedó a un partido de clasificar, pero tendrá representación individual en el estatal.
