- January 20, 2026
Flagler Palm Coast is heading to the state duals wrestling tournament for the second year in a row.
The Bulldogs defeated Orange Park Oakleaf and Gainesvilles Buchholz in the Region 1-3A quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, on Thursday, Jan. 15, to advance to the state tournament Jan. 23-24 at Osceola High School in Kissimmee.
FPC will face Class 3A second-ranked Oviedo Hagerty in the regional final at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, at Osceola. The winner will advance to the 3A state semifinals on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. against the winner of the South Plantation-South Dade match. The duals championship is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday.
The Bulldogs defeated Oakleaf 54-20 in the regional quarterfinals and Buchholz 54-21 in the semifinals on Jan. 15 at Tocoi Creek High School. It was the third year in a row that FPC faced Buchholz in the semifinals. The Bulldogs defeated the Bobcats 35-33 last year after losing 36-34 in 2024.
“We’ve wrestled Buchholz in the district final and the regional semfiinals three years in a row,” FPC coach David Bossardet said. “They are a common opponent, and it’s usually close matches. I think we wrestled well for Jan. 15. I always try to keep everything in perspective. We still have a ways to go to get to March [for the individual bracket state tournament]. We have to wrestle better when we wrestle Hagerty.
FPC also faced Hagerty in the regional final last year with the Huskies defeating the Bulldogs 43-25.
FPC has been moving its lineup around throughout the duals season. Against Buchholz, the Bulldogs inserted junior Gabriel Moy into the 144-pound spot, and he pinned his opponent.
“Gabe recently dropped down to 144,” Bossardet said. “He won a match we dropped in district to Buchholz, so that’s a 12 point swing from a pin for them to a pin for us. For Gabe, that was a big moment for where he’s at in his career.”
Another highlight in the Buchholz match was 285-pounder Aidan Korth winning a 5-4 decision over No. 1-ranked Derryl Godbolt.
The Bulldogs will wrestle Matanzas in a dual match on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the Pirates gym ahead of the state tournament.
“We’ve been bumping guys all around based on the teams we’re wrestling,” Bossardet said. “After state duals, we’ll be done with dual competition. Their weight classes will start being established when we go into the individual bracket tournaments.”
