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Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium						No photo available
Name	Jason Bush, Jr.	Trenton Jolivette	Gabriel Whittington	Kade Chisholm	Ezekial Tarin	Jon`Tavius Thomas
School	Shaw	Carencro	Pearl River	Teurlings Catholic	Benton	North Desoto
Seed	4	3	5	1	7	2
Class	11	12	10	12	12	12
Final Record	3-0	6-1	16-1	8-6	7-8	4-4

Final records include Louisiana losses but all wins

Weight Class Synopsis

All season nobody gave much credit to Pearl River’s Gabriel Whittington.  He entered the state tournament with an 11-0 record, including a Zachary Big Horse championship, but was seeded behind wrestlers with records of 6-4, 3-0, 2-1 and 0-0.  Nine of Whittington’s wins were over Division I opponents, including Garine Gibson of Chalmette, who placed fourth at 220 lbs.  That Whittington was a sophomore and did not wrestle last season may have been a factor re his seeding.

The 6-4 record belonged to Teurlings Catholic senior Kane Chisholm, a Division II runner-up in 2020.  His losses were to quality opponents in Caleb Harris and Braiden Laidlaw of Sulphur and John Drake of John Curtis.  Seeded second at 2-1 was North Desoto’s  Jon`Tavious Thomas whose sole loss was to Gavin Soniat of East Ascension, who would win the Division I 285 lbs. title.  Those two were legitimate #1 and #2 seeds.  Trenton Jolivette of Rayne was 3-0 but none of his opponents competed in the state championships.  Fourth was Shaw junior Jason Bush, Jr.  Bush had no matches prior to this event.

Whittington should have been seeded third, Jolivette 4^th and Bush, due to a fourth-place finish in 2020, should have been fifth.  Caddo Magnate’s Howard Strickland, who was 3-2, was fine as the sixth-seed, albeit he would not make the podium.

It was Bush who was the surprise finalist.  He pinned Whittington in 2:57 and followed that with a 1:52 semifinals fall over Chisholm.  On the other side Jolivette won an “extra innings” match with Thomas via a fall in 7:21.

Whittington made it to the consolation finals with pins of 0:24, 2:28 and 1:10 over Thomas.  There he defeated Chisholm 5-3 to place third.  Thomas met seventh-seeded Ezekial Tarin of Benton for fifth place, but he was done for the day as Tarin pinned him in 3:46.  It was Tarin who kept Strickland out of the placement matches.

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Quarterfinals

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Semifinals

(4) Jason Bush, IV (SHW) pinned (1) Kane Chisholm (TC) in 1:52

(3) Trenton Jolivette (CAR) pinned (2) Jon`Tavius Thomas (ND) in 7:21

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Championship Consolation Rounds

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Finals

Fourth-seeded Jason Bush, III of Shaw defeated the top-seed in the semifinals and third-seeded Trenton Jolivette of Carencro 3-1 to win a fourth title for the Eagles   A third period takedown was the difference in this match.  Nobody scored in the first period and Bush managed an escape in the second.  In the third period Jolivette tied the match 1-1 with an escape.  With 10 seconds remaining Bush reached as if he were trying for a double-leg shot but turned it into more of a “bull rush” which knocked Jolivette down.  Bush stayed with the falling Jolivette and was awarded a takedown, and a state championship, with two seconds remaining.

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