126 Pounds

#1 Cody Hill of Live Oak vs. #2 Collin Guerra of Holy Cross in the Division II finals.

The caliber of the competition in this weight class was just ridiculous.  Some of the competitors that made it so are listed below, as well as a "Current Favorite" time-line:

Name School-Grade 2011-12 Résumés Pre-2013 State LA Record Matt Calcote Rummel-12 2011 and 2012 Division I state champion 31-3 Stefon Foster John Ehret-12 2011 John Ehret champion, good free-style/Greco season 22-6 Cody Hill Live Oak-11 2012 Division II state and Louisiana Classic champion 45-3 Will LaFranca Jesuit-10 Son of 1984 Jesuit state champion Tim LaFranca 11-12 Austin Meyn Brother Martin-11 Good freestyle/Greco season, won starting position in what was once thought to be a "weak" weight class for the Crusaders. 19-3 Brennan Taylor Catholic-11 Four matches in 2011 before an injury, two of his three wins were over Dale and Holy Cross' George Benoit 24-9

"Who are those guys?"

Live Oak's Hill had a winning record against all of his opponents, but Live Oak is in Division II. 

Division I

Twenty-three wrestlers competed in the Division I 126 lbs. state championships

Introduction

With Hill out of the picture Division I seeding fell into place just fine, but just barely.  Meyn beat Taylor twice by a total of three points.  Had Taylor won one of those matches, would that put him at #1, or Calcote, who beat Taylor in a "Sudden Victory" round but lost twice to Meyn.  And then there is Foster, who came on strong at the end of the season and tied his record with Meyn at 2-2, but lost to Calcote. As it worked out, though, Meyn beat Calcote twice and received the #1 seed.  Calcote was second due to his win over Taylor, who was third.  Foster was fourth despite his two wins over Meyn, as he lost to Cody Hill and Taylor did defeat Hill in three of their eight matches.  St. Paul's Zachary Clay was fifth, as he owned an early season victory over LaFranca, who was sixth.  Adrian Ducote of Lafayette had a good season, but in this weight class it only amounted to a seventh-seeding. [Photo left: Brother Martin's Austin Meyn lifts Cody Hill in a dual meet on December 8th.  Hill won 5-3.]

Rounds 1, 2 and Quarterfinals

The first round gave the top eight seeds a bye.  In Round 2 only one match went the full six minutes as #8 Ja'Quvis Hart of Airline narrowly defeated St. Amant's Joshua Averette 8-7.  The quarterfinals went according to seeding.  Meyn pinned Comeaux's Jacoby Guillory in 5:02.  #4 Foster defeated St. Paul's #5 Zachary Clay in the St. Paul Invitational 7-4 and had a closer match with the Wolves grappler this time, winning 5-4.  Catholic's #3 Taylor defeated Jesuit's #6 Will LaFranca 3-0 at the Deep South Bayou Duals and this time prevailed 11-6.  Calcote and #7 Ducote had met at the Louisiana Classic.  Calcote won in 1:12 then and just took a little longer in this match, pinning the Lafayette wrestler in 1:25. 

Semifinal # 1

The fourth seeded Foster exhibited exactly why this weight class was so competitive, even without Cody Hill's involvement.  In Foster's seventh match of the season and Meyn's first, Foster defeated Meyn 5-3 in a dual meet.  Three days later Meyn defeated Foster in the Mandeville Open finals 4-1.  Meyn pinned Foster in the Louisiana Classic but Foster came back and, in both wrestler's last match before the state tournament, beat Meyn 3-2 in the Greater New Orleans Championships.  Only one wrestler beat one of the two but lost to the other.  That was Calcote who lost to Meyn twice and needed a "Sudden Victory" period to beat Foster.  Whatever Meyn had that helped him beat Calcote twice must have worked in his favor in this match as he got past Foster by only a 3-1 score.

Semifinal # 2

Matt Calcote scores a takedown in "Sudden Victory" on 11/24/12.

Calcote and Taylor had met once before in a dual meet at Catholic on November 24th.  In that match Calcote intentionally gave Taylor a third period escape point to set-up a "Sudden Victory" period.  Taylor almost took Calcote down in the final seconds of the third period, but the Raider was able to takedown the Bear on the extra period for a 4-2 win (photo left).  Since that match both had lost to Meyn twice, but the taste of defeat was fresher in Taylor's memory after his loss to Hill in the Greater Baton Rouge Championships final.  Add to that the fact that since Taylor lost to Calcote he had wrestled Hill four more times and had made it to the Louisiana Classic finals.  Experience counts, and it worked in Taylor's favor in this match as Calcote fell behind early and was matched by Taylor every time he scored.  Taylor advanced to a finals meeting with Meyn via a 7-5 score.  (As shown in the bottom right photo, Taylor's win more than just elated Catholic Coach Tommy Prochaska, it literally "elevated" him off of the floor.)

Taylor sets up an arm drag...	...and scores a takedown.	Calcote tries to escape from the tenacious Taylor.	Taylor remains in control as the match ends.

Consolation Rounds

Sixth seed Will LaFranca of Jesuit navigated a tough road for a season's rematch against Ehret's #4 Foster in the consolation semifinals.  He first faced the tough senior from Comeaux, Jacoby Guillory, and won 4-0.  Next, he had to prove his pin over the Ken Cole #1 seed, Lafayette's #7 Adrian Ducote, was no mere fluke. He did that, although not without a fight in the senior's last match, with a 4-3 win.  Zachary Clay, the #5 seed from St. Paul, had a little easier route in the wrestlebacks.  First he pinned Northshore's Ray Dupuy in 2:37 and then scored a major decision over #8 Ja'Quvis Hart from Airline.  That set-up a consolation semifinals match with #2 Calcote.  Calcote had pinned Clay in 3:43 and 0:33 earlier in the season, but this was the state championship and Clay did not go easily, falling this time 10-4.  In the other consolation semifinal LaFranca exacted his revenge for Foster's 3-1 victory over him in the Louisiana Classic, defeating the Patriot 2-0.  Foster, wrestling in his last match, did not hold back in the match for fifth place against Clay.  This match was nothing like his 5-4 quarterfinals victory as he scored a major decision against the St. Paul junior 13-4.  La Franca had certainly proved his Ken Cole win was not a fluke by reaching the consolation finals.  But Calcote was not used to losing in February, having won state championships in 2011 and 2012, and while certainly disappointed about not being in the finals, still put forth a solid effort, defeating the Blue Jay sophomore 6-0 to take third for the Raiders. 

Finals: #1 Austin Meyn (Catholic) versus #3 Brennan Taylor (Catholic)

During the regular season Meyn's two victories over Taylor were by a total of three points.  But in the semifinals Meyn did not dethrone a two-time defending state champion.  Taylor did, and his momentum continued.  He took Meyn down for a 2-0 lead.  After a Meyn escape Taylor threw him for five more points, taking a 7-1 lead into the third period.  Starting on the mat, Taylor escaped and Meyn took him down to make the score 8-3, but he could not turn Taylor over, and after Taylor escaped time ran out.  The junior from Catholic, who may have suffered the worst during the season, with close losses to Meyn and Calcote, or had the most success, with three wins over Live Oak's Hill, assimilated everything he learned in the process and walked off of the mat a Division I state champion.  Taylor finished the season 28-9 (34-10) while Meyn was 22-4 (34-10).

Taylor works a single-leg...	and scores a takedown on Meyn.	Taylor celebrates his victory...	...and is congratulated by Coach Tommy Prochaska.

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Division II

Eighteen wrestlers competed in the Division II 126 lbs. state championships

Introduction

Cody Hill of Live Oak   If one has to lose a match in 57 matches that one person might as well be the Division I state champion.  In this case it was.  Brennan Taylor of Catholic defeated Live Oak's Cody Hill in the finals of the Central Invitational 3-0, in the finals of the Spartan Open 4-1 and in the semifinals of the Louisiana Classic (8-6 SV).  But those losses were tolerable for two reasons.  The first being that the two wrestlers competed against each other eight times, and Hill won the other five matches, including their last one in the finals of the GBR Championships (photo right).  Those wins were by 12-6, 7-2, 7-6, 3:35 and 11-4.  The second reason is that in his last loss, at the Louisiana Classic, he was comfortably ahead when he received a head wound that stopped the match several times due to bleeding.  Bandaged, bloodied and just exsanguinating all over the place, he let Taylor back into the match and into a "Sudden Victory" period in which Taylor scored.  A Division II state champion in 2012, Hill was the best 126 lb. wrestler of the season, defeating Division I's #1, #2, #3 and #4 seeds.

Division II's #1 seed Hill, aside from his wins over Taylor, the Division I #3 seed, also had wins over the #1 seed Austin Meyn (photo above - left), Rummel's #2 Matt Calcote and #4 Stefon Foster.  More importantly for this tournament, though, was that he had a 19-6 win over #2 seed Collin Guerra of Holy Cross.  Zach Funderburk of Parkway was seeded third due to a loss to Shaw's #6 Bryce Ballas, whom Guerra had defeated three times, and Belle Chasse's Nick Arbourgh was seeded fourth.

Rounds 1, 2 and Quarterfinals

Rounds 1 provided no upsets but Round 2 yielded one when Teurlings Catholic's Mark Mouton pinned St. Louis' Jacob Rowland in 3:06.  The quarterfinals contained one upset when #6 Javorski Batiste pinned #3 Funderburk in 5:49.  Otherwise Hill advanced in 0:51 over #8 Brandon Robinson of Huntington, Arbourgh in 3:14 over #5 Daulton Rainwater of Central, and #2 Guerra scored a major decision over Mouton of Teurlings Catholic 9-1. 

Semifinal # 1

Hill and Arbourgh had not met during the season, but that was of little consequence to Hill, who stopped a shot by the Cardinal and whipped him to his back, scoring a fall in 1:45.

Semifinal # 2

A much more tightly contested match took place in the second semifinal.  The sophomore Guerra had yet to meet the senior Batiste of Northside, and the two dueled to a 2-2 tie after the end of six minutes.  But Batiste could not hold the Tiger down in overtime and Guerra prevailed 3-2.

Consolation Rounds

#5 Rainwater of Central battled through the consolation rounds with an 8-3 decision over Tyler Lawshe' of Pearl River and a 10-7 decision over #8 Robinson of Huntington.  The 10 minutes of wrestling may have taken its toll come the consolation semifinals against Batiste, as the Northside senior defeated him 6-1 to move to the consolation finals.  Funderburk of Parkway had the other long road in the wrestlebacks.  Funderburk and Benton sophomore Josh Caskey had met in their last match before the state tournament, in the Northwest Louisiana Regional Tournament, and Funderburk, also a sophomore, won handily 12-0.  In his first match in the consolation round (after Caskey had previously won a 5-3 overtime match against St. Michael's Michael Ensminger) Funderburk won by another major decision 14-6.  He then got through a tough match against #7 Mouton of Teurlings Catholic 5-4.  His next match was against the fourth-seeded Arbourgh, and the #3 seed moved onto the consolation finals against Batiste with an 8-6 win.  For fifth place Arbourgh came back and beat Rainwater 10-6.  Funderburk lived up to his seeding, albeit taking a roundabout route to get there, defeating Batiste 7-4 to place third.

Finals: #1 Cody Hill (Live Oak) versus #2 Colin Guerra (Holy Cross)

#1 Hill and #2 Guerra met on January 12th at the Holy Cross Division II Duals in which Hill was the victor by a 19-6 score.  In this match Hill ruled again, taking the sophomore Tiger down to his back almost at will to build an 18-2 lead which ended the match via a technical fall in 3:05.  With three falls and a technical fall in the finals Hill was selected as the Division II Ken Cole Outstanding Wrestler award winner.  Hill finished the season 49-3 (54-3) while Guerra finished 28-7 (21-10).

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Division III

Eighteen wrestlers competed in the Division III 126 lbs. state championships

Introduction

Although they only had one common opponent, and Bossier's Xavier Chism pinned him whereas North Vermillion's Austin Scalisi only defeated him 11-8, Chism only had nine matches on the season.  He won seven of them, but Scalisi had 31 matches, winning 22, and he had a runner-up finish at the Ken Cole.  The experience factor was enough to make Scalisi the #1 seed with Chism receiving the #2 spot. Scalisi had defeated Rayne's Landyn Thibodeaux twice, which placed Thibodeaux in the third spot.  Doyline's Cole Pannell was fourth and freshman Devin Bazinet of Basile, a state runner-up at 113 lbs. in 2012, was seeded fifth. 

Rounds 1, 2 and Quarterfinals

The first two rounds went without any surprises.  Not so the quarterfinals. #1 Scalisi defeated University Lab's #8 Ashby Woolf via a fall in 1:16 in the quarterfinals.  #4 Cole Pannell had a tough time with the 5th-seeded freshman Bazinet from Basile, but managed 8-6.  #3 Thibodeaux of Rayne, though, was upset by a fall in 2:35 by #6 Toby Hebert of Brusly.  Chism had no problem with #7 Seth Nethery of Holy Rosary, scoring a fall in 1:07 (photo left).

Semifinals

Fourth-seeded Cole Pannell of Doyline had placed third at the Little Rock Central Open and won the John Curtis Tournament, but Scalisi faced stiffer competition from the Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge areas, and won the Brusly Invitational  over Owen Monaghan of Ocean Springs., Mississippi.  The experience paid off as Scalisi was able to win a 15-9 decision and advance to the finals (photos below). Chism, with the exception of one match against a St. Michael's wrestler, had only wrestled northwest Louisiana opponents, but his natural strength was enough to get past Brusly's #6 Hebert with a fall in 4:52.

Consolation Rounds

#5 Bazinet of Basile had to win three matches to earn a spot in the consolation finals.  This he did with a 2:38 fall over North Desoto's Cole Arbuckle, a 2;18 fall over #8 Ashby Woolf of University Lab. and then a 7-0 decision against #6 Hebert after the latter lost his semifinal bid.  Rayne's #3 Thibodeaux, after his loss in the quarterfinals, pinned South Plaquemines' Christopher Danos in 2:10, scored a technical fall 16-0 over Holy Rosary's Seth Nethery and then met #4 Pannell, whom he edged 11-7 to make the consolation finals.  For fifth place Hebert was determined the winner due to a disqualification of Pannell.  In the consolation finals the third-seed Thibodeaux had a tough time with the fifth-seeded freshman from Basile, but defeated Bazinet 4-2 to place third. 

Finals: #1 Anthony Scalisi (North Vermillion) versus #2 Xavier Chism (Bossier)

In the first period Scalisi managed a takedown and then each wrestler added a two-point move.  Chism added an escape but Scalisi had a 4-3 lead.  That Scalisi scored the first takedown which was only answered by an escape is what won the match for Scalisi.  The two seniors only traded points after that and Chism was never able to make-up that extra point.  The match ended in a 7-6 victory for Scalisi.  The North Vermillion senior finished the season with a 25-9 (29-9) record while the senior from Bossier finished 10-3.

Scalisi works a half-nelson.	Chism sits-out and tries to escape.	Scalisi follows Chism's turn.	Scalisi wins.

Sharing the Wealth at 126 lbs.:

¹  Mr. Scalisi had a great season but was not involved in much of the match-by-match seasonal swings of the Division I 126 lbs. contingent.

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