Bulldogs qualify five wrestlers for region

NICEVILLE – First-year Crestview wrestling coach Ron Panucci began this season hoping to build a stronger program than the one he had inherited, which, by his own words, was one that had “steadily gotten better all the time.”

On Friday at the District 1-2A Tournament in Niceville, Crestview – despite not having quite the numbers of wrestlers that he had to open the season – turned in an impressive showing by qualifying five individuals for the Region 1-2A meet next week in Tallahassee.

And while Crestview’s five regional qualifiers was bettered locally by only Niceville (11) and Fort Walton Beach (9), Panucci made it clear that his program and those within it will continue to push for more.

“Considering the wrestlers we had left at this stage of the game, (I’m pleased),” Panucci said. “Am I pleased with the season overall, no. We had a lot of wrestlers with us at the beginning of the season that didn’t hang … but the guys that stuck it out really wrestled well.”

Crestview was paced by three runner-up finishes by Clint Lukert (119-pound weight class), Justin Mitchell (171) and Aaron Dean (189). Rounding out Crestview’s group of regional-bound performers was Colin Smith (fourth, 140) and Tanner Vigren (third, 145).

Highlighting the team’s performance was Dean collecting career win No. 100 in his first match of the day, becoming one of the few wrestlers in program history to reach the 100-win plateau.

“I’m really excited,” Dean said of the milestone. “I was like, ‘This is it, this is what I’ve been looking forward to the last four years.’

“I think I’m the fifth or sixth kid on the team to ever win 100 matches,” Dean said. “They should have my name in the (record) books somewhere.”

The Region 1-2A meet is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Chiles in Tallahassee.