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Can Brother Martin be beaten?

Click the photo to ask Otter:

(If this video does not work, please click here.)

Well, that could be what it takes.  Another just as feasible option is a Division I conspiracy.  Would that work?

We asked the finest non-Brother Martin seeded wrestlers, as determined by a "closed door" LHSAA State Wrestling Championships seeding committee, to participate in a mock tournament with the Crusaders.  The Louisiana Wrestling News retained the renowned accounting firm of Price-Waterhouse to tabulate the results, which are being presented here for the first time.  Points only reflect those scored for a particular place in the tournament.

Weight			Brother Martin Place	Brother Martin Points	Olympic Team Points
106	Mason Mauro	Ben D'Antonio (Jesuit)	1st	16	12
113	Taylor Gambill	Mitch Capella (Jesuit)	3rd	9	16
120	Paul Klein	Jacob Dale (Comeaux)	1st	16	12
126	Austin Meyn	Matt Calcote (Rummel)	1st	16	12
132	Mason Williams	Connor Campo (St. Paul's)	5th	5	16
138	Dominic Casadaban	James Claitor (Catholic)	2nd	12	16
145	Tyler Robertson	Tyler Frame (Rummel)	2nd	12	16
152	Devin LeBlanc	Tyrek Malveaux (Comeaux)	2nd	12	16
160	Patrick Hoppe	Brandon Luckett (Catholic)	2nd	12	16
170	Daniel Albrecht	Jimmy Brown (Jesuit)	1st	16	12
182	Kyle Delaune	Gage Grush (Jesuit)	1st	16	12
195	Yehia Riles	Manny Armour (Jesuit)	2nd	12	16
220	Josh Tapia	Miles Nash (Catholic)	4th	7	16
285	Ross Brister	Graham Karwath (East Ascension)	1st	16	12

So the Crusaders can be beaten when the best Division I wrestlers are placed against them as one team:  2020 US Olympic Team 200; Brother Martin 177.

When the Brother Martin team was asked about the results they were less than impressed.  106 wanted no more o' it.  113 said he would not gamble on it and 120 was inclined to agree.  It was not 126's main concern and, yeah, this has got to stop before it angers a dreaded pirate's heir, even if one just means to kid around.  Really, I am as done as a guy who just finished a sparkling kitchen floor and has a glass of white wine with a master brick layer and a French Tolkien wizard-nouveau, on well managed grass.  This is abusing the Queen's English, and that irks her like a Pittsburgh quarterback who's been subjected to an estoppel of rum-soaked sponge cake from Cleveland.  (That QB has a brother -  he is older than me.)  So, "lagomorphing" right along...

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The race to place second

Early in the season Catholic had to be the consensus favorite to finish second in Division I.  Jesuit's name was rarely mentioned in that light.  A 37-28 Jesuit loss to Holy Cross at the Fontainebleau Duals did not help.  Catholic's status appeared to be vindicated by a 40-30 defeat of Jesuit in the Catholic Duals on December 1st.  Then rumors spread of a shadow in the east...no,...of half of Jesuit's team quitting.  Well, those were evidently unfounded as eleven current Blue Jay wrestlers participated in the match against Catholic.  The "shadow" was to the northwest, where Jesuit competed in Tulsa, Oklahoma's Mid-America Tournament, with competition strong enough to give seniors Mitch Capella and Manny Armour their only two losses of the season.  A December 14th 42-19 defeat of Holy Cross started people thinking about the Blue Jays again, and in the Deep South Bayou Duals eleven of the Blue Jays currently on the team tied Catholic 36-36, due to a penalty on a Jesuit coach.  They faced Brother Martin in the consolation finals but chose to save their best efforts against the Crusaders for a January dual meet date.

Mind you, Catholic was not sitting idly by waiting for Jesuit to get better.  By the time the Bayou Duals came around the Bears had defeated Dutchtown 54-15, Rummel 44-25, Teurlings Catholic 59-15, and Comeaux 59-21 - all before December 1st when they went 4-0 at the Catholic Duals and beat Jesuit and Live Oak.  At full strength they continued their dominance with a 59-13 victory over Live Oak and a 73-3 thrashing of St. Paul's.  On their way they won the Central Invitational, the Spartan Open and the Bulldog Open.  The Bear got their first taste of the Crusaders at the Trey Culotta Duals, finishing second to Brother Martin's record-setting total.  Catholic placed second at the Bayou Duals to MacArthur High School of Oklahoma, who also handed Brother Martin their first dual meet loss in the semifinals.

Both Catholic and Jesuit spent the early days of 2013 out of state.  Catholic went to the Scott Rohrer Hoover Invitational in Alabama, placing third.  Jesuit went to and won the Grapevine Duals in Texas, and to hurt more Texas pride, travelled the following week to Arlington and won the Lone Star Duals.  Catholic was the first of the two to face Brother Martin in a dual meet on January 9th at Catholic, in which the Crusaders prevailed 31-20 in Catholic's only dual meet loss to a Louisiana opponent.  Jesuit did not get the pleasure of hosting the Crusaders until January 23rd.  Brother Martin was no kinder to their cross-town rivals, winning 54-21.

In between the Catholic and Jesuit losses to Brother Martin, however, was the 40th Louisiana Classic, held on January 18th and 19th.  Brother Martin, perhaps not justifiably yet certainly understandably, wanted the championship that eluded them by eight points last year, when a top-seeded Crusader did not "make weight."  Even without Mason Mauro or Tyler Robertson, and with top-seeded Paul Klein unexpectedly finishing sixth, the Crusaders cruised¹ to an 89.5 point victory over runner-up Catholic.

The surprise of the tournament was, however, the Blue Jays, who finished a mere four points behind the Bears.  Dual meet scores are not a great indicator of how a team will perform in a tournament - too many other variables (in this case, of course, wrestlers from other schools) exist, as do degrees of talent.  In the following week a less than full-strength Jesuit team surprised everybody, particularly host Comeaux, by winning the Ken Cole Invitational.

Catholic sent a small squad to the Ken Cole, but they concentrated on the next week's Greater Baton Rouge Championships.  Crowning eight champions, they won handily by 127 points over runner-up Brusly.

Jesuit's task was a little more daunting in the Greater New Orleans Championships that weekend.  Brother Martin sent their full starting contingent and won by 76.5 points.  But Jesuit lay to rest any doubt as to their GNO #2 status vs. Holy Cross.  Both teams entered all but three of their starters and the Blue Jays outscored the Tigers by 85 points.  If any questions remained about Jesuit, the Blue Jays answered them with a 36-23 win over Rummel and a 42-28 victory over St. Paul's in their final pre-state-tournament competitions.

Catholic has 13 wrestlers seeded in the top eight.  Jesuit has 12.  Catholic has three #1 seeds while Jesuit has two.  But Jesuit has three #2 seeds and Catholic has none.  Catholic has two #8 seeds and Jesuit has none below #6.  One of Catholic's #1 seeds is in a weight class that would baffle Stephen Hawking.  The Bears' learning curve has naturally shown season-long improvement, but it started out very high.  Jesuit has needed a little acceleration during the season to, based on the Louisiana Classic results, meet the bar set by Catholic at this point in the season.

If seeding "holds" through the quarterfinals, the competition for state runner-up will be fought "in the trenches," starting in the quarterfinals at 126 and 132, and continuing in the semifinals at 113 and 138.  Expect no armistice as a brutal battle should ensue in the wrestle-backs, ending when the Bears' and Blue Jays' competitors Argonne.²

¹  OK - who did not see that one coming?  It is best to be done with it early.

²  When I saw that coming, well, it was just too late.

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"When the fall is all there is, it matters."³

Barring a catastrophic breakdown by Catholic or Jesuit, the competition for fourth place should be heated between Comeaux, Rummel and St. Paul's.  Rummel won the Division I state championship in 2011.  They placed third last year, third in 2010 and second in 2009.  St. Paul's was one spot below the Raiders in 2009, placing third.  The Wolves placed fourth in 2010 and 2011 and fifth in 2012. Just behind the catholic school powerhouses, or finishing in place of one that slipped from the top five spots, was Comeaux.

Rummel has one #1 seed in Tyler Frame at 145 lbs. and a #2 seed in Matt Calcote.  Though seeded behind and having lost twice to #1 seed Austin Meyn of Brother Martin, Calcote is a two-time defending state champion who may not even remember what it feels like to lose in February.  Also seeded second is junior Rick LaCava at 132 lbs.  La Cava has had a great season after finishing 4th last year in the state championships.  His only losses to wrestlers from Louisiana have come from St. Paul's Connor Campo.  He has not competed against his expected semifinals opponent, 3rd-seeded Matthew Mire of Catholic, but La Cava has two victories over two-time Division III state champion Trevor Schermer of Brusly, and Schermer has defeated Mire twice.

St. Paul's is led by two returning state champions.  Senior Connor Campo may not remember what it feels like to lose at all.  (Research indicates that he did lose twice on February 12th or 2011, by a combined total of six points).  He was undefeated last season, is currently undefeated, and nobody in Louisiana has come close.  Mark Englehardt, another senior, won the championship last season as a #2 seed.  Although undefeated in Louisiana this year at 145 lbs., he will be competing at 138 lbs., a weight class in which he has losses to #1 seed James Claitor of Catholic and #2 seed Dominic Casadaban of Brother Martin.  While the move down may have created room for another St. Paul's wrestler to compete at 145 lbs., it is doubtful the move would have been made if Englehardt and his coaches did not like his chances.

Comeaux has a #1 seed in two-time defending champion Tyrek Malveaux at 152 lbs.  Malveaux's only loss of the season was to a wrestler from Texas, and he is the only wrestler in Louisiana to have defeated Catholic's returning state champion, Brandon Luckett at 160 lbs.  If a #1.5 seed existed, it would go to Comeaux's Jacob Dale at 120 lbs.  A returning state champion and winner of last year's Outstanding Wrestler award (via a 6-4 win in overtime over Brother Martin's Dominic Casadaban), Dale lost a 4-3 decision to Brother Martin's top-seeded sophomore Paul Klein, who is also a returning state champion.  But since that loss Dale has dominated the 120 lbs. weight class, winning both the Louisiana Classic and Ken Cole Invitational.

Of the three schools St. Paul's has the most top-eight seeds at 10.  Rummel has nine, but the Raiders have a six to four advantage in #1, #2 and #3 seeds.  Comeaux has eight seeded wrestlers and will need a substantial Wolves-Raiders attrition rate to make a serious run for fourth place.

³  While this could be a reference to pinning one's opponent, one should remember back to 1968 and Anthony Hopkins' first major motion picture role.

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