Cardinal Gibbons, Coral Springs breeze
FORT LAUDERDALE — Cardinal Gibbons senior Gabe Gibson felt he let his school’s wrestling team down the past two seasons.
On Thursday night, Gibson showed he can provide the lift that the Chiefs need to contend for a state championship.
Trailing 3-2 in his 126-pound match against two-time state qualifier Donovan Ortiz, of American Heritage-Delray, Gibson won on a third-period pin (4:17) to help the state’s second-ranked team to a 49-16 victory in the 1A regional final dual-meet wrestling competition.
The Chiefs advance to the dual-meet state championships on Jan. 19-20 at Osceola High. It a new format adopted by the state this year. The traditional state wrestling meet will be held March 2-3 at Silver Spurs Arena (Kissimmee).
“This is really big for me,” said Gibson, who failed to qualify for the state championships the past two years after qualifying his freshman year. In the team’s semifinal, he pinned Jupiter Christian’s Eric Barnes, who finished fourth at last year’s state meet. “Coming here [tonight], nobody really knew about me. I let my team down the last two years and this year I wanted to show up for them and give it my all.”
Cardinal Gibbons got a pin from senior Amadeus Concepcion (152) and technical falls from senior Anthony Temes (132) and sophomore Eric Temes (145).
The Stallions, ranked sixth in the state, got a majority decision by Aiden Gasper (106) and a technical fall by Nicholas DeSola (138).
American Heritage-Delray was without its top wrestler, sophomore Frankie Tal Shahar at 138, who missed the finals with a sprained knee.
“That was a tough surprise, it was a game-time decision today,” said Stallions coach J.P. Reese, who spent six years at Cardinal Gibbons as an assistant before moving on to Delray three years ago. “He tweaked his knee about a week ago…we tried to get it done without our best guy and we just didn’t get it done tonight.”