The Crest sophomore nearly recaptured the magic of his freshman year.
Strawberry Crest’s wrestling star, Cullen Telfer, didn’t top his freshman state championship Friday, March 4, in Kissimmee. But a third-place finish in the 126 weight bracket is nothing to scoff at.
“I’ve been wrestling high-schoolers since seventh grade, so I knew 126 was the weight class where the competition was at,” the sophomore says.
Things were looking good for Telfer, going into the weekend. He was coming off of his second regional championship win for the Chargers, which first saw him chip away at the energy of Riverview’s Joe Capone, taking Capone to overtime in an eventual, 3-1 semifinal win. Telfer followed that up with a 17-1 technical pin against Osceola’s Kristian Perez in the championship match.
It was Telfer’s fourth consecutive regional title: he had also won regionals in seventh and eighth grade, while at Tampa Bay Christian.
At states, Telfer started by picking up a pair of wins: a 9-3 decision over Anthony Powell in the opening round, and then a 16-1 technical fall over Mikael Codinach in the quarterfinals.
“The 126 weight class was the toughest one, head coach C.J. Gittens says.
“All the coaches know it was the toughest this year, 1A through 3A,” Gittens says. “There were three state champs in Cullen’s class alone.”
When he faced Jordan Marshall in the semifinals, Marshall scored a 4-2 decision over Telfer, en route to winning the state title. Telfer was sent to the consolation bracket.
“(Marshall) was just better than me that day,” Telfer says. “I started off feeling good. We wrestled a good match. If we wrestled 10 times, we would each win five. He got a quick to back points on me, and then he did a good job defending on me. I couldn’t get a takedown on him in the third.”
Telfer wrestled his way to third place, picking up an 18-1 technical fall over Anthony Vizcaino and a 4-3 decision over Pablo Asenjo.
“I’m not disappointed at all,” Telfer says. “I have two more years to look forward to.”
Telfer plans to wrestle in several national tournaments, as of now: the Disney Duals, held June 12 to 17, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports, and the Super 32 Challenge, held in mid-October in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“I think this kind of gives him a little wake up call,” Gittens says. “There are so many kids that would love to place third.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
