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Durant Snags State Title

Photo by STEPHANIE FARMER

The Durant High junior varsity wrestling team: kneeling in front, Dylan Wood; second row (from left), head coach Kerry Beaty, assistant Colin Jones, Trent Johnson, Rafael Rosa, Louis Tur, Alex Cook and assistant Hamilton Jordan; back row, C.J. Mazur, Matthew Farmer, William Clark, Chris Melendez, Nick Cullen, Matt Simeone and Kaleb Sistrunk. Tur, Mazur, Brandon Booher and Daivontae Lumpkin were also individual champions.

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By DAREK SHARP

dsharp@tampatrib.com

Published: February 25, 2009

PLANT CITY - For a team that wasn't sure it would be allowed into the event, Durant High made the organizers look pretty smart. A late entry into the JV State Wrestling Tournament, the Durant junior varsity squad walked away with the state title.

"It's pretty exciting for everyone," said Kerry Beaty, one of the team's coaches. "Last year was the first I'd heard of a JV state tournament, and it rolled around this year and I tried to get us in."

Durant varsity coach Dennis Kitko helped convince the coach of the host school, Central High in Brooksville, that the Cougars JV squad deserved a spot. The event was Jan. 31.

The field of 16 teams included many JV units for schools with powerhouse varsity programs, such as Osceola, Oviedo and Manatee. Osceola's varsity squad won the recent Class 3A-Region 2 tournament.

Four Cougars won individual titles: Louis Tur (103 pounds), C.J. Mazur (145 pounds), Brandon Booher (152 pounds) and Daivontae Lumpkin (189 pounds).

Rafael Rosa was second in the 215-pound class, and heavyweight Stan Witchowski finished in third.

"When I first called Central High coach Roy Reyes, it was a 'let's see what we can do' situation. I told him we really wanted to be part of it," Beaty said. "His being a good friend of Coach Kitko I think helped."

Beaty said the main factor in Durant's favor was it was able to bring a full squad while other schools could not. The only downer was Kyle Chavalier was unable to wrestle because he had a 103-degree fever the morning of the event.

This was the team's first state title. The team was undefeated this season, with a 14-0 record.

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