- February 18, 2025
Ana Vilar wrestles Addison Antonowicz of Sanford Seminole in the 135-pound semifinals. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Alexa Calidonio wrestles Hensley Carter of Lake Brantley in the 155-pound semifinals. Calidonio pinned three opponents on the way to the district title. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas district champs Cardy Michel and Ani Brown. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Joslyn Johnson will try to repeat as a state champion next month. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Mariah Mills wrestles Natalia Sanchez of Winter Springs in the 110-pound final. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Christina Borgmann is honored with her family on FPC's Girls Wrestling Senior Night at the District 4 championships. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Ana Vilar is honored with her family on FPC's Girls Wrestling Senior Night at the District 4 championships. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Mariah Mills is honored with her family — sister Juliana, brother Jayden and parents Abe and Rachel — on FPC's Girls Wrestling Senior Night at the District 4 championships. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Tiana Fries (center) is honored with her family — brothers Mikey and Lenny and parents Jessica and Mike — on FPC's Girls Wrestling Senior Night at the District 4 championships. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Tiana Fries (left) wrestles Rayna White of Lake Mary in the 145-pound semifinals. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Kendall Bibla is honored with her parents, Lindsay and Tom, on FPC's Girls Wrestling Senior Night at the District 4 championships. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Alexa Calidonio won the 155-pound district championship with a pin the final after trailing 11-4. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Alisha Vilar (left) wrestles Maryellen Wingate of Lake Mary in the 140-pound final. Vilar got the pin with three seconds to spare at 5:57. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas 190-pounder Ani Brown wrestles Destiny Bass-Boston of Hagerty in the final. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Cardy Michel of Matanzas (left) wrestles Deltona's Raegan Hatch in the 120-pound final. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Joslyn Johnson (left) wrestles Hadassa Manjano Herrera of Winter Springs in the 105-pound final at the Girls District 4 tournament. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Bulldogs honored their seniors at the District 4 girls wrestling tournament. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Winning the team title was not Flagler Palm Coast’s goal at the District 4 girls wrestling championships. The Bulldogs’ goal was for all nine wrestlers to win individual titles. They all did, and as a result the team title was a foregone conclusion.
“We never talked once about winning a district tournament,” FPC coach David Bossardet said after the host Bulldogs dominated the tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 12. “At FPC, it’s an expectation to win the district tournament. And I'm not saying that to knock on our competition, but you talk about winning state titles, and that's kind of where our mind is.”
The Bulldogs don’t need to set team goals, they say, because if they all reach individual goals, team rewards will take care of themselves.
“Once I win state, I’ll be helping our team win state,” said Mariah Mills, who is one of five FPC wrestlers who have previously won a state title. “If everyone does their job, (winning the team championship) will definitely happen.”
The Bulldogs placed second at the girls state championships last year with just four wrestlers qualifying. This year, they are a prohibitive favorite with all nine wrestlers having a good chance to advance out of the regional tournament Feb. 22 at Gainesville Buchholz.
“The goal here was to get through to the next weekend at Buchholz,” Bossardet said. “And that’s the goal next weekend, to get through and make the state tournament. You want to put yourself in the best position for the following week, because that's how they do seeding at the region and state tournaments based off your place in your district, your region.”
The Bulldogs won district with 223 points. Lake Mary was a distant second with 119 points with Oviedo (117) and Winter Springs (116.5) right on the Rams’ heels. Matanzas placed fifth out of 21 teams with 87 points. Seabreeze was 14th with 18 points, and Mainland was 17th with six points.
FPC’s district champions, all of whom will be moving on to the regional, are: freshman Juliana Mills (100 pounds), junior Joslyn Johnson (105), senior Mariah Mills (110), senior Christina Borgmann (130), senior Ana Vilar (135), sophomore Alisha Vilar (140), senior Tiana Fries (145), junior Alexa Calidonio (155) and senior Kendall Bibla (170).
At FPC, it’s an expectation to win the district tournament. And I'm not saying that to knock on our competition, but you talk about winning state titles, and that's kind of where our mind is.
— DAVID BOSSARDET, FPC wrestling coach
Johnson, Mariah Mills and Borgmann won state championships last year, while Bibla won as a sophomore and Fries won as a freshman. Mills, Fries and Bibla won their titles when they were with Matanzas.
The Bulldogs celebrated their four seniors at the district tournament, holding their senior night recognition before the championship and consolation finals.
“It makes everything more realistic,” Mariah Mills said. “This is my last state run. All these girls, we’re back together for our senior run. Now we’ve got to win states.”
Two Matanzas wrestlers won district titles — Cardy Michel at 120 pounds and Ani Brown at 190 pounds — while the Pirates’ Brianna Durry at 235 pounds also qualified for region with a runner-up finish.
Michel, a junior, was down 8-0 in the final against Raegan Hatch of Deltona. Michel took an injury timeout and came back to pin Hatch at 4:17.
“I was really dizzy. I couldn't see, and everything was spinning,” Michel said. “I was like, ‘I need a second to calm down.’”
She said she felt better by the end of the injury time.
“Once she got calmed down from the injury, she got back to her normal self,” Matanzas coach Dennis Kitko said. “I’m proud of the way she came back.”
Michel said she knew she would have to make her moves late in the match.
“(Hatch) is a really good wrestler, and she is very strong,” Michel said. “She came out really heavy, so I knew if I rode her out — and I waited until almost the last period — she would get really tired, and I got the takedown and I pinned her, so I'm really proud of myself for that.”
Brown, a senior, is looking to make her third trip to state. She placed seventh last year.
“Ani is wrestling great right now,” Kitko said. “She has tons of confidence. If she stays healthy, she’ll finish pretty high on the podium.”
Brown was a first-year wrestler when she qualified for state as a sophomore. Now she feels like she has the experience to contend for a state title.
“My first year going to state was really fun,” she said. “I’d never done the sport before, so going to state to me was like, ‘I don’t know what this is.’”
Brown said she was more skilled and more determined at state last year.
“Now, this is my third year, I want first (place),” she said. “That’s my goal, nothing less.”
Seabreeze senior Sofia James advanced in her first season on the wrestling team. She placed third at 170 pounds with three pins including a pin of Mainland’s Eva Rojas in 59 seconds in the first round. Rojas placed sixth. Bibla won the weight class with three pins, all in under 48 seconds.
Calidonio was down 11-0 at one point in the 155-pound title match against Zaria Slater of Lake Mary, but while still down 11-4 she pinned Slater at 3:54.
“Alexa stayed focused, and I like how she wrestled back,” Bossardet said. “That’s a girl we're going to have to see again though, so we better be ready to go. She beat (Calidonio) about a month and a half ago. She’s very explosive, and good on her feet. The later in the match we get with her, the more I like our chances. Alexa's pretty tough on top. She wore on (Slater) on top. We almost got a turn, but that call didn't go our way, and then (Calidonio) got back on (her) feet, and hit an ankle pick to (Slater's) back, and we ended up pinning her. And that's one thing we talk about — no matter what the score is, stay focused and stay wrestling because anything can happen, and Alexa proved that tonight.”
Johnson started with a bye and wrestled two matches, recording pins in the semifinals and final in 1:11 and 2:16. It was her first competition against female wrestlers since the Knockout Christmas Classic on Dec. 21.
“I was hoping to get on and off the mat faster, get a little bit faster pins,” she said. “Wrestling against the boys helps. I have to try to be on my ‘A’ game, and it showed me I’ve got to get a little bit stronger over the summer. It showed me where I need to improve.”
Johnson expects to wrestle Gulf Breeze’s Camdyn Elliott at region and then again at state. They have already wrestled seven times with Johnson winning four of the matches, including a 4-3 decision in last year’s 100-pound state final.
“We’ve been going back and forth,” Johnson said. “This would be her turn (to win). But I'm trying to win them both, to win it all. That's the goal.”
