KISSIMMEE - In one of the strongest fields in the early rounds of the 2023 wrestling season, Fleming Island High came home with two individual champion "Hammers"; Jordan Mukaddam and Kaden Schaefer, in a first look at how the Golden Eagles look to upend the power programs of Florida and even Georgia. Georgia multiple state champions Camden County had their usual monster team on hand to test the Floridian mettle. Fleming Island was second in Class 2A last year in both Duals and the IBT state meet.

"This is by far the toughest early regular season tournament of the season and it shows just where our preparation is," said Fleming Island coach P.J. Cobber, who came home with two individual champions and a handful of top-five finishes in the gauntlet two days of battles. "We had some brackets that our boys will never see the level of talent that they saw this weekend again this season including the state meet. It was that strong."

On day one, on Friday, the brackets were separated into White, Blue and Gold divisions denoting a hierarchy of elite wrestling.

For Cobbert, Mukaddam, a senior, won the gold first place at 120 with a 3-0 win over (Second in 3A) Southwest Miami's Angel Delgado, a senior (7th at 126 last year); Laird Duhaylungsod, a junior, pinned Jefferson Cuttino of Glynn Academy (GA) in 138 Gold, Kaden Schaefer, as senior at 150 Gold, won with a 16-0 Tech Fall over Camden's Jamaal Coppedge and Christopher Chop, a senior at 175 gold, pinned Evangelo Mercado of Southwest Miami. The rest of the Fleming Island lineup finished in the top five of their weight divisions.

On day two, with a more competitive and deep bracket lineup, Mukaddam beat Delgado, this time in overtime to take first place with a 4-1 slate.

At 150 Gold, Schaefer finished unbeaten in five matches with an unfortunate injury default win over Cade Morgan of Glynn Academy in his fifth match. Schaefer's wins to go 5-0 including Camden County, Lake Gibson, South Dade and Osceola high

One wrestler Cobbert got a surprise meet from was new junior Kevin Reyes, a Class 3A state weightlifting champion returning to the mat after last wrestling in junior high.

"He's super strong, but, more importantly, hates to lose," said Cobbert. "He is slowly learning more and more technique that, when combined with his strength, could make him a formidable challenger in the spring."

In Tallahassee at the Capital City Classic hosted by Tallahassee Lincoln, Middleburg and Ridgeview High finished fourth and eighth against some mainly north Florida teams plus a Miami Southridge team.

Middleburg scored 221.5 points for fourth behind Florida High at third with 223 and Lincoln and Southridge going 1-2 with 247.5 and 240.0 in one of the tightest finishes in Classic recent history.

Middleburg got champion golds from Gavin Fisher at 106 and Porter Loveland at 190. Sean Blouin advanced but lost in the finals at 144 with David Hall at 165 losing in the championship final and Tucker Cody losing at 215 in the championship final to Jordan Mills of Matanzas.

Ridgeview got a third from Raymond Goforth at 215 with a 9-1 record. Goforth lost via pin to Lincoln's Jordan Baker.

At the 42nd Annual Kiwanis Invitational in Brooksville Oakleaf finished fifth against a host of Class 2A powers in Zephyrhills Christian (10th in 1A), the team champion with 293.5 points followed by Brandon (5th in 2A) at 273, Heritage (8th in 2A) at 186.5, Wakulla (23rd in 1A) at 149 and Oakleaf (17th in 2A) at 145.5.

Oakleaf sophomore Sebastian Bonachea at 126 was an individual champion with a 5-1 win over Brandon's Luke Williams. Keon Barrientos lost in his 144 semifinals, then battled back with two third-period pins to finish third.