By DAN HOEHNE
daniel.hoehne@newssun.com
If it's mid February, that means plans are being made for the annual trek to the Lakeland Center for the State Wrestling Finals.
Such is the case yet again as eight Highlands County grapplers qualified for the penultimate competition out of their regional meets this past weekend.
At the Region 2-2A meet at St. Cloud High School, Blue Streaks Chris DeJesus, Nathan Franklin and Ty Johnson all stamped their ticket with top-four finishes, while at the Region 2-1A meet at Tenoroc, the Red Devils saw five members of their squad confirm their reservations.
Jose Torres will be making a return trip, as will Johnny Baldridge, after missing out last season.
Delroy Blake, Dre Neely and Bernard Charles will be making their first trips.
At St. Cloud, DeJesus took second in the 160-pound weight class and is making a return trip to Lakeland, Franklin went for third place at 120 pounds and Johnson was fourth in the 182 class.
Avon Park, continuing its' trend of a wrestler qualifying in every year the program has existed, saw Torres and Neely, just a freshman, win their respective weight classes, 120 and 113, and Blake take second at 195.
Baldridge and Charles were fourth at 126 and 132, respectively.
Noticeably absent from the list of State-bound Devils was senior Dylan Brown, who earned a fifth-place medal a season ago.
But in and early round match, a shoulder injury prevented him from getting back to the big stage.
So now it's on to that big stage for the Highlands County eight - the array of mats covering the coliseum floor of the cavernous Lakeland Center for the two-day event before a packed house of thousands of screaming fans.
DeJesus, with a 34-5 record on the season, will be facing Alexander Luttrell of Crestview in his first-round match on Friday, while Franklin, at 36-11, will square off with Wilmer Almendarez of Mater Academy.
Johnson comes in with a 31-12 season record and faces Largo's Derrick Doss in his opening match.
Torres finished the year at 32-3 and faces Brady Moser of American Heritage Plantation and Neely, at 36-5, faces Brad Kumm of Clay.
Blake goes into the competition with a sterling 44-2 record for the year and is set to face Mark Hinchcliffe of Tallahasee's Florida High.
Baldridge stands at 37-10 and will go up against William Morgan of Wakulla and Charles was 34-15 for the year and meets Anthony Vazquez of Cardinal Gibbons.
The festivities get underway Friday at 10 a.m. when the opening-round action kicks off.
Wrestlebacks will follow, then comes the afternoon second round, and subsequent wrestlebacks.
Upon a wrestler's second loss, their journey is done, with the potential for three matches Friday in the hopes of reaching Saturday's final, medal-placing rounds.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - www.newssun.com/WED-2-13-13-Wrestling