This year, the Seminole Athletic Conference championship took place at Oviedo High School, and the Lions had a great tournament run coming in third as a team against seven other schools. SAC is an individual tournament that is played against all the schools in Seminole county, including Lake Brantley, Lake Mary, Lake Howell, Winter Springs, Hagerty, Seminole, Lyman, and Oviedo.

This tournament is held every year to test everyone’s abilities for upcoming postseason tournaments. All wrestlers compete in a bracket with up to eight people to see who can come out on top. The performances of the independent wrestlers are then added up to a team score. The higher you place in a bracket, the more points you get for your team.

This year the SAC champion was Winter Springs with a team score of 189. Second came Hagerty with a score of 165, and a close third was Oviedo High School with 137 points.

The Lions were composed of a girls team and boys JV and varsity teams. For varsity, two people came in first place, including Gunner Forsberg at 152. Three reached second place, two third place, and three fourth place.

The Lions went up first against Winter Springs and won the match 14-4, then on to the finals to beat Lake Brantley with the same score of 14-4 to take first place.

Gunner Forsberg reached the top by winning 12-2 in the first match, then he took no time at all in the finals and pinned Lake Mary in 38 seconds.

“When I wrestle I leave it all out there so then when I’m done I can sit and have nothing left to give,” said Gunner Forsberg.

JV had three first place winners: Luis Melendez, Dougie Dowda, and Gavin Brown. The team also had two second place winners, and three third placers. 

The girls varsity team had three first place winners: Amelia Vernadoe, Jana El’Harake, and Hailey Mitchel. They also had two second place winners and one third place winner. This tournament was very successful for the team with this many people placing in the top 4. 

“I told everyone that as long as they wrestle their hardest, I will be happy, and they went even beyond that, and some of them placed because of it,” said Coach Zachary Waters.

A classic tradition for this tournament is that the top four placers on varsity and girls varsity are awarded with a prize ribbon. On junior varsity, the first place wrestler earns a box of pizza as the first place award.