Status: Fini

"It's not a party until something breaks."

Well, there would not be much to a tournament if seeds always held and upsets did not occur.

The 40th Louisiana Classic is now a party and everyone is invited.

14 of 56, or 25% of the seeds # 1-4 were defeated on Friday.  Three #1 seeds fell, as did two #2 seeds.  #4 seeds got trounced the worst.

Brother Martin leads the 54-school field with 156 points.  Jesuit is a surprising second at 120.5 points, one-half point more than Catholic of Baton Rouge.  That may keep a local engraver "on call," as the plaque on the first place team trophy that once read "Brother Martin" may be premature.  A vast amount of team points remain to be determined in the consolation rounds.  But Brother Martin still has nine semifinalists.  Seven Blue Jays are in the semifinals, as are six Catholic Bears.  If the majority of the remaining Brother Martin seeds place near their seeded spots, they should still win.  For the moment the tournament is theirs to lose. 

Jesuit's most surprising wrestler was unseeded Gaston Eymard, who is making his first appearance at 138 lbs. this year.  Eymard defeated Holy Cross' 4th-seeded George Benoit 4-3 in a tie-breaker, and then defeated 5th-seeded Jack Fontenot of John Ehret 7-3.

Teurlings Catholic's Brock Bonin wasn't told that a party does not being at the time listed on an invitation.  But someone inevitably has to arrive first.  The #5 Bonin defeated Parkway's #4 Alex Simmaly 12-6.  He'll meet top-seed Christopher Marson of Denham Springs in the first semifinals match on Saturday.  #2 Alex Betteridge of East Ascension will meet #3 Ben D'Antonio of Jesuit, making his first start at 106 lbs.

At 113 lbs. #1 Mitch Capella (JES) and #4 Connor Stampley (COM) arrived at their reserved seats in the semifinals.  But #3 Hunter Taylor (LAF) and #2 Taylor Gambill (BM) were sent back to the kids' table.  Jacob Bernard (#6) defeated Taylor 6-2 and Catholic's Mitch Napoli, the 7th seed, sent Gambill there with a 15-8 decision.  It was only the second time this season that the freshman Crusader tasted defeat.

120 lbs. only had one minor upset when #5 seed and predicted "seed-buster" Alex Nicosia of Holy Cross defeated #4 seed Tyler Mire of Rummel.  Nicosia will face #1 Paul Klein of Brother Martin, who beat Nicosia by a 6-5 score early in the season at the Mandeville Open.  #2 Peyton Garlington of Hoover, Alabama, arrived in the semifinals with a 13-3 victory over King's Angelo Medina-Perez.  Garlington will meet #2 seed Jacob Dale of Comeaux, who enters the semifinals with a major decision and a first period fall.

Catholic's # 5 seed Brennan Taylor set 126 lbs. back to normal, if that word can describe this weight class this year, by dispatching of Hoover, Alabama's, Jackson Hall, the #4 seed who placed second in this tournament last season at 106 lbs., 10-3.  Taylor will face top-seeded Cody Hill of Live Oak.  Taylor is the only wrestler to have defeated Hill (twice) this season, although Hill has avenged those losses and claimed a few more victories since.  The #3 seed, two-time returning state champion Matt Calcote of Rummel, will face #2, junior and first-year started Austin Meyn of Brother Martin, who defeated Calcotte.9-4.

132 lbs. is the first weight class in which the top four seeds remain, in #1 Connor Campo of St. Paul's, who will face #4 Matthew Mire of Catholic, and #2 seed Rick LaCava of Rummel, who will give two-time defending Division III state champion Trevor Schermer a shot for redemption after LaCava defeated Schermer 5-2 in the Sam Sara finals.

138 lbs. is where Eymard is running amok, and he will face #1 seed Dominic Casadaban (now 19-0) of Brother Martin in the semifinals.  Defending Division I state champion and 2nd seed Mark Englehardt will square off against Catholic's James Claitor.  This is Englehardt's first appearance at 138 lbs. and both he and Claitor are undefeated against Louisiana wrestlers this season.

The tournament's first #1 seed fell at 145#s when unseeded Colin Laird of North Vermillion defeated then undefeated Cody Thomas of Parkway 6-1.  Dominic Iovenetti, the #5 seed, will meet Laird in the semifinals after a 9-6 decision over Brother Martin's Patrick Hoppe.  #2 seed and once-beaten Grant Godso of Redemptorist will wrestle #3 seed Efosa Eboigbe of Jesuit after Eboigbe squeaked past East Ascension's Michael Bernard 4-3.

Like 132 lbs., 152 lbs. remained as seeded.  Two-time defending state champion Tyrek Malveaux is seeking his second Louisiana Classic title.  To get a shot he will have to get through 4th-seeded Tanner Leblanc of St. Paul's.  Devin Leblanc of Brother Martin, the #3 seed, will face a 2nd-seeded wrestler nobody knows much about, unless they were one of his victims as he won the Scott Rohrer Hoover Invitational this year, in Cody Wehunt of Hoover.

160 lbs. had a minor upset at Sulphur's #5 seed Josh Crochet pinned the #4 seed Brandon Briones of Grace King.  He will have the pleasure of Catholic's #1 seed and returning state champion Brandon Luckett in the semifinals.  #3 seed Jordan Giroir of Brother Martin advance as expected and will meet #2 seed Kody Woodson of Shaw.  Until January 9th some pundits had Woodson "ranked" a notch below Brice Duhe of Holy Cross.  Woodson quieted any naysayers when he majored Duhe on the 9th 11-3, beat him 6-3 the following Saturday at the Holy Cross Division II duals and then pinned him Friday night in Baton Rouge in 4:54.

170 only had one upset of note in #5 seed Dillon Prejean's (BRU) forty second pin of Byrd's Darrick Roberson.  Dillon will face #1 seed Robin Albrecht of Brother Martin.  In the other semifinal Rummel's #2 seed, after defeating Shaw's #7 seed Blake Faust, will face #3 seed Jimmie Brown of Jesuit

182 lbs. should please the seeding committee as #1 Kyle Delaune had a pin, a forfeit and a technical fall en route to his semifinals match against #4 seed Billy Marcantel of Rayne.  In the bottom half of the bracket #2 Gage Grush of Jesuit will face #3 Nick Schneider of Teurlings.

195 lbs. is also "true to form" pitting the #1 seed, Jesuit's Manny Armour, against # 4 seed Daniel Relayson of Holy Cross.  #2 seed Alex Shunnarah of Hoover will face #3 Quirtauious Gillian of Byrd in the other semifinal match.

The party got a second wind in the 220 lb. weight class in which three of the top four seeds were relegated to the consolation bracket.  Only Brother Martin's Josh Tapia, the #3 seed, made it as far as he was expected.  Rae Juan Marbley of Destrehan defeated top seed Brennan McKnight of Rayne 14-10.  Marbley will face #5 seed Caleb Sutton of Catholic who defeated the #4 seed, Ora Broussard of Sulphur, 6-3.  Michael Yeatman, Holy Cross' #2 seed, was upset by unseeded Daniel Kincaid in a "Sudden Victory" period, 3-1.

One upset occurred at 285 lbs.  East Ascension's Conor Karwath defeated #3 seed Zac Creel of Jesuit 7-3.  his match should have been expected to be close, as Creel only defeated Karwath by one point, 5-4, in a dual meet against Jesuit. 

Brackets may be found by clicking the link on the "Volumes" page.  They will be updated as the tournament progresses during the day.

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