Milton wrestling program to expand; Pace celebrates state performance

MILTON — Pace High sent four wrestlers to the 2017 Florida High School Athlete Association state wrestling tournament and brought home a medal. Meanwhile, Milton High School came close sending one to the tournament.

MHS hosted the competition for District 1, which includes Milton, Pace, Gulf Breeze, Tate, Niceville, Crestview, Choctaw and Fort Walton Beach high schools, according to Milton Wrestling Head Coach David Bohannon.

“There were a lot of really positive things said about not only the tournament but the program as a whole,” Bohannon said. “We’re making the right steps to improving the Milton wrestling brand.”

Doing so would attract better athletes, he said.

MHS freshman Brandon Nicholson, senior Xavier Morgan, senior Seth Martin and junior Connor Saint qualified for the Region 1 tournament the last weekend of February.

“It’s a major accomplishment to make it to regionals in your first year,” Bohannon said of Nicholson. “He’s got a great future ahead of him and we’re definitely looking for big things out of him next year with continued work and improvement.”

Nicholson finished 0 and 2 at regionals. His injuries during the district tournament affected his performance, according to Bohannon.

Morgan and Saint also had 0 and 2 finishes at regionals.

“Martin was the only one to advance to day two of the regional tournament,” Bohannon said. “He made it to the consolation semi-finals. He had a great opportunity to win. He was down by points with less than 30 seconds. The winner of this match got to go to state.”

The match came down to a disputed call, according to Bohannon.

“Seth was down 5 points with 30 seconds left. He was able to get a reversal and came within inches. It was one of those highly disputed calls. We thought he reversed the guy and pinned him when time expired, but the referee said his shoulders were never down. He ended up losing 10 to 8. He came within less than inch from going to state.”

Milton’s plan to improve its wrestling program is to go to elementary and middle schools.

“We’re getting a middle school and elementary school program next year to reach youth sooner and get the basics and fundamentals down,” Bohannon said. “The tentative plan is to run it after high school practice so we can have some of our high school wrestlers involved and basically helping create a foundation for the younger kids.”

In Pace, Assistant Coach Dan Mabry will step down from coaching, having sent four wrestlers to state with one bringing home a third-place medal.

Leland Knoch, Kevin Green, Kihaviyan Nettles and Murphy Bennett competed at the state championship. Pace would have sent six if not for two close losses, according to Mabry.

Knoch, Green and Nettles won district for their weight classes, at 113 pounds, 126 pounds and 195 pounds, respectively. Bennett at 285 pounds won third at district but would go on to be Pace’s first heavyweight wrestler to qualify for state.

For regionals, Leland took third, Green runner up, Murphy fourth and Nettles first place. Eight others from Pace competed at regionals. Nettles was Pace’s standout wrestler at state, taking home a third-place medal, the highest finish in Pace’s history.

In addition to his first-place finish at district and regional, Nettles, who moved to Pace from Georgia last year, placed at every tournament this year.

“We won district this year,” Mabry said. “We beat every district opponent head to head at duel tournaments. We won four to five tournaments as a team. We really racked up some wins this year. From top to bottom, it was a great year,” he said.

What’s next for Mabry?

“I’m passing (coaching) to Travis Barnes. We’ve brought in young assistant coaches … My son is in high school. My dream was to have a wrestler as son. It turns out I have a baseball player and that’s just fine.

“I’m going to take the last couple years and be a dad. It’s a good year for me to go out.”