37th Ken Cole Invitational 138 Pounds Back to Page 1

Status: Fini

Number of Entrants: 30 Returning Division I State Champions: 0 Returning Division II State Champions 0 Returning Division III State Champions 1 Current LA Classic Champions 0 Returning Ken Cole Champions: 0

Place Wrestler School Score 1 (1) Abram Sellers Comeaux 15-6 2 (6) Raygan Suarez Sulphur   3 Morgan Root Catholic 4:20 4 Joshua Wicke Grand Lake   5 (5) Pablo Marroquin Airline 3:33 6 Andrew Pousson St. Louis

Championship Bracket     Consolation Bracket

The only thing not surprising about the 138 lbs. weight class was Comeaux's Abram Sellers being the #1 seed.  The Spartan senior had a 33-7 record with wins at the Jacob McMillan and Rebel Open tournaments.  Returning Division III state champion Joshua Wicke did not submit seeding information, and was accordingly not seeded.  4th-seeded Rudy Glass of Byrd won one match and lost his next two.  Sellers was the only "constant" in the 138 lb. equation.

Semifinals

Sellers pinned his way to the semifinals and there met an unexpected opponent.  4th-seeded Rudy Glass of Byrd won his first match but went seep into the third period before pinning North Vermillion's Chad Breaud.  But Glass was upset in the second round, losing via a 4:16 pin to Acadiana's Ben Rogers.  Just above Glass and Rogers in the bracket, Catholic's Morgan Root defeated 5th seed Pablo Marroquin of Airline in 3:37.  It was Root who moved on to the semifinals by pinning Rogers in 4:30.

A junior with a 4-4 record*, Root had met Sellers twice in November at the Warrior Open at St. Michael.  Sellers beat him handily in the second round 14-8, but Root put forth a better effort in the consolation semifinals, losing 8-6.   From afar this match appeared to be dominated by Sellars.  But in the end, the Comeaux wrestler won only by a 9-6 margin.

The bottom half of the bracket was even more frenetic. After scoring a 17-1 technical fall over Carencro's Justice Hebert, the unseeded Wicke faced 32 seed Hunter Huckaby of Parkway.  Wicke wasted little time, pinning Huckaby in 3:43.In the quarterfinals Wicke pinned Deiontae James of South Plaquemines in 4:56.  Above Wicke, at the top of the bottom-half of the bracket, #6 seed Raygan Suarez of Sulphur was staking his claim by defeating #3 seed Don Stufflebeam of Brusly 5-1.

Wicke moved on to meet Root in the consolation finals, which Root won by a fall in 4:20.

Wicke and Suarez wrestled a close match, but in the end it was Suarez who had to protect a two point lead on his feet, which he was able to accomplish to earn a 3-1 victory.

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Finals

Sellars used a high-crotch duck-under to score a takedown in the first period and rode Suarez with his legs for the vast majority of the period.  However, he gave up an escape as the round ended and only led 2-1.

Starting on the bottom in the second period, Sellers sat-out and escaped but then was taken down by a Suarez single-to-a-double, which tied the match at 3-3.  Sellars was able to escape again and then scored a double-leg takedown to end the period leading 6-3.

At the beginning of the third period Suarez chose the bottom position, but Sellers elected to give him an escape point and to start neutral.  His strategy paid off as he took down Suarez with another high-crotch and then let Suarez go again.  Sellars took Suarez down and let him go two more times before, after his last takedown, he put Suarez in something akin to a "banana split" to score three nearfall points.  At the end Sellers had scored a major decision with a 15-6 win.

The Ken Cole victory may help Sellers a little re Division I state seeding, particularly after a disappointing finish in the LA Classic, losing to East Ascension's Michael Bernard in the consolation quarterfinals.  James Claitor of Catholic and Dominic Casadaban of Brother Martin should be the top two seeds.  If Mark Englehardt of St. Paul's remains at 138 he will be third.  Jesuit's Gaston Eymard, with a victory over Bernard, should be fourth, and Bernard fifth.  Sellers may only get a 6th seed, but could surprise a few people if he wrestles like he did in this tournament's finals match. 

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