37th Ken Cole Invitational 160 Pounds Back to Page 1

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Number of Entrants: 32 Returning Division I State Champions: 0 Returning Division II State Champions 1 Returning Division III State Champions 0 Current LA Classic Champions 0 Returning Ken Cole Champions: 0

Place Wrestler School Score 1 (1) Louis Stutes St. Louis 7-3 2 (2) Frankie Arena Mandeville   3 Guy Patron, Jr. Jesuit 7-2 4 (5) Joffrion Gaines Northside   5 (6) Jon Robinson Comeaux 1:19 6 Jacque Girouard Comeaux JV

Championship Bracket     Consolation Bracket

There was little speculation as to what St. Louis Catholic's senior Louis Stutes wanted for his 18th birthday.  In a high school career that already included a Division II state championship, a Ken Cole championship would do just fine. 

Semifinals

Stutes utilized a first period fall, a 17-2 technical fall and then a forfeit to reach the semifinals.  Comeaux's JV entrant Jacque Girouard used an 8-5 win over the #5 seed Joffrian Gaines of Northside, a first period fall and forfeit as well to make it that far.  It was a very gallant effort by the Comeaux sophomore, but Stutes put an end to Girouard's run with a 16-1 technical fall.

Comeaux's starter at 160 lbs., 6th-seeded senior Jon Robinson, had a 19-17 record and a different route to the semifinals than he might have predicted.  He used two first period falls to get to the quarterfinals, but his opponent was Jesuit freshman Guy Patron, Jr., who unexpectedly scored a major 20-8 decision over 3rd-seeded Sam Lites of Airline.  Robinson had little trouble with Patron, pinning him in 1:17.

Robinson's opponent in the semifinals was Mandeville junior Frankie Arena, who quickly added victories to his 19-10 record with pins in just over a minute in the first and second rounds.  A 13-4 win over Comeaux's last entrant in the weight class, Kasey Toups of the "Comeaux Frosh" team put him in the semifinals. The seeding order was vindicated, for the winners' bracket at least, via Arena's pin of Robinson in 2:59.

Patron's loss to Robinson was his last of the tournament.  He ran-off four straight wins to place third, while Robinson lost another match but won his last to place fifth.

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Finals

Stutes started the scoring in the first by attempting a single-leg shot that Arena blocked with an underhook, and then spinning under the underhook to a "whizzer" and slipping his arm out for a takedown.  Stutes could not do much on top and was warned for stalling before the period ended. 

Arena started the second round on the bottom but Stutes preferred to start standing and let him up.  Stutes then used a duck-under to take Arena back down.  But again he could do little on top and Arena scored a legitimate escape before the period ended with Stutes ahead 4-2.  With Stutes starting the third period on the bottom it was Arena who chose to start the period in a neutral position.  But the strategy backfired as Stutes shot a single, switched it to a double, and scored another takedown.  Stutes rode him until the very end of the period when he let him go as the buzzer sounded, preserving a 7-3 win.

 HAPPY 18TH!

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