Feb. 25, 2010
Oviedo's Chase Gordon wrestles his final opponent to the mat on his way to a state championship Saturday. Despite recently moving to class 2A, the Lions returned to the top of the state for the first time since 2007 on the strength of three individual championships from Gordon, Jay Taylor and Doug Vollaro.
Photo courtesy of Jay Taylor
By Isaac Babcock
The Voice
Under the lights of the Lakeland Center Saturday night, Chase Gordon held a gold medal in his hand one final time as an Oviedo Lion. That same night, teammates Jay Taylor and Doug Vollaro would ascend to the top of the podium as they carried a team along with them. The Lions were state champions again.
For Gordon, it was deja vu at the top. Three straight wins for the 145-pound senior wrestler in the earlier rounds had brought him to the final, giving him a last chance to defend his looming 2009 state title. That's when he went on a rampage, scoring so many points that he won by technical knockout — a pin without a pin.
Eight Lions would stand on the podium that night, as they celebrated redemption for the first time since losing the 3A state title after 2007. In that year, they'd handily defeated second place finisher South Dade.
This year they were in a new 2A class, but with the same aspirations of a comeback.
"It'll be just as hard as 3A, maybe even harder," Coach Tom Coffman had said at the start of the season.
"We're back on top and it feels good to be where we were two years ago," he said after the team's comeback win.
Three of the team's wrestlers are individual state champions — Gordon, Taylor at 189 pounds, and Vollaro at 285 pounds. Just behind them, 125-pound Ray Rowland and 160-pound Erin O'Dell grabbed second place. Joy Hefley won a 119-pound consolation round for third, and 215-pound Alton Meeks finished fourth.
Together the team would amass 161.5 points, besting second-place Springstead with 156.5.
That same night Winter Springs would grab its third-highest finish in school history, at 8th place in class 3A. Their star 140-pounder, Matt Nereim, went on a rampage, winning three of his four matches by pins, with one of them coming in only 16 seconds. Two of those three pins would come against opponents who had just won by pin in the round before.
Nereim's teammate Eric O'Niel would grab second place at 135 pounds.
A Lyman wrestler who is frequently teammates with Lions and Bears wrestlers in the club wrestling season also had a strong showing at state. Jayden Semrad of Lyman finished 5th in the 125-pound class.
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