285 Pounds

#1 Ross Brister of Brother Martin vs. #3 Zachary Creel of Jesuit in the Division I finals.

The 285 lbs. weight class had two dominant senior wrestlers.  Brother Martin's Ross Brister was 25-0 against Louisiana wrestlers and 40-3 against all competitors.  Spencer Lemoine of John Curtis was 26-0. 

The two shared four common opponents, three of which each pinned and one, Brian Arnett, formerly of Redemptorist and now at Centreville Academy in Mississippi, which each defeated by five points.  Each had impressive résumés:

Ross Brister - Brother Martin 3rd in Division I in 2012 Mandeville Open Champion Trey Culotta Champion Louisiana Classic Champion Greater New Orleans Champion Spencer Lemoine - John Curtis 2nd in Division III in 2012 Thomas Jefferson Invitational Champion Brusly Invitational Champion Curtis AA, A, B & C Champion Ken Cole Champion

Scheduling conflicts did not allow the two "irresistible forces" to meet each other:

Predetermined scheduling did not allow the two wrestlers to meet all season.  Lemoine did not wrestle his first match until December 13th, a full month after Brister.  On the next weekend Brother Martin hosted the Trey Culotta while Curtis had accepted an invitational to the Thomas Jefferson Invitational.  On the last weekend of 2012 while Brother Martin was at the Deep South Bayou Duals, John Curtis travelled to northwest Louisiana for experience against Division III foes.  In the beginning of January the Crusaders held important dual meets versus Catholic and Rummel before spending the following weekend in Texas, returning for the Louisiana Classic.  John Curtis had no intention of entering the Louisiana Classic as they had success last year, and even more so in 2013, in luring Class AA, A, B & C teams from across the state to their own tournament, allowing them more experience against the wrestlers they would face at State.  Brother Martin had not scheduled the Ken Cole and John Curtis had not scheduled the Greater New Orleans Championships.

Neither wrestler "ducked" the other, or was made to do so by their coaches.  In the end, the two wrestlers had different goals, and both achieved them.  And between them, they beat just about everybody.

Division I

Fifteen wrestlers competed in the Division I 285 state championships.

Introduction

Brister was the obvious first seed and basically reduced the rest of the field to a battle for the runner-up spot.  East Ascension junior Conor Karwath though, earning a second seed via a "last win" scenario over Jesuit's Zachary Creel, was the only seeded wrestler not to be pinned by Brister, losing to the Crusader 5-2 on December 28th.  But with these young men weighing up to 285 lbs., a simple mistake can be catastrophic.  Jesuit's Zachary Creel was the #3 seed and Carencro's Gregory Peltier was seeded in the fourth spot.

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

Eighth-seeded Blake Pacheco of Dutchtown was the only seeding casualty of the first round, falling to Hahnville's Blade Rager 5-2.  The freshman Tiger lost to Brister next, but won his first consolation round to score points for Hahnville. Top seeds to advance in the quarterfinals round were #1 Brister, with a 1:00 pin of Rager, #3 Zachary Creel of Jesuit with a 5:04 pin over #7 Holmes and second seed Conor Karwath of East Ascension, by virtue of a 5:52 pin over #7 Zachary Mangrum, who had previously pinned Karwath twice.  The #5 seed syndrome made itself noticed once again when Ty Simpson of Zachary pinned #4 Gregory Peltier of Carencro in 5:01 (photo left).

Semifinals

Brister and Simpson had not met previously during the season, and Simpson gave Brister his toughest match of the tournament, making the top seed earn an 8-4 win.  Karwath and Creel had two previous meetings.  On December 1st Creel nipped Karwath 5-4 in a dual meet.  But Karwath returned the favor with a 7-3 win at the Louisiana Classic, The later date and the importance of the tournament were probably heavy factors in Karwath's choice as the second seed.  But it was Creel who took the "rubber match" between the two 4-1.

Brister scores a takedown on Simpson.	With 25 seconds left in the 2nd period, a half against Creel accidentally slipped into a full-nelson, giving Creel a penalty point.  Creel escaped at the end for a 2-1 lead.	Down 2-1 after scoring an escape in the third, Karwath battles for a match-winning takedown.	Karwath registers his disappointment when his takedown attempt backfires, giving Creel a 4-1 win and a berth in the finals.

Consolation Rounds

In the consolation rounds it was St. Paul's Mangrum who travelled the farthest.  After losing to Karwath in the quarterfinals Mangrum defeated #8 Pacheco, #6 Holmes and #5 Simpson to set-up a rematch with #2 Karwath, who defeated (4) Peltier in the consolation semifinals.  Peltier made it that far by pinning Chalmette's Aaron Pohlmann in 3:37 and Hahnville's Rager in 0:11.  Avoiding a possible 2-2 season split with the junior from East Ascension, the senior Mangrum pinned him in 2:30.  Peltier took fifth place unopposed as Simpson forfeited the match. 

Finals: #1 Ross Brister (Brother Martin) versus #3 Zachary Creel (Jesuit)

Brister had met Creel only once before the state finals, at the January 23rd dual meet between the Crusaders and Blue Jays.  Brister just needed 0:53 seconds on that evening.  Whether by Creel's resolve or Brister's design, this match went almost the entire six minutes, ending with only 11 seconds remaining when Brister recorded a 16-0 technical fall.  Brister finished his senior season with a 28-0(43-3) record.  Creel's record was impressive as well at 30-9 (39-17).  His placing second instead of third was certainly a vital part of the reason the Blue Jays finished in the runner-up place over Catholic.

Brister scores nearfall points...	...and then some more...	...and then takes a little break with coaches Dauterive and Pierre.

Back in action, Brister scores a takedown...	...and works on scoring more nearfall point before...	...the entire Crusader contingent celebrates his state championship.

Brister's state championship and the accomplishments of the whole Crusader team during the season, were dedicated to Brister's stepfather, former Brother Martin wrestler Jay Rink, who is currently battling ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).  The Louisiana Wrestling News was unaware of this story until after the state tournament and refers the reader to the NOLA.com article of February 16th, 2013, either on NOLA.com or on the LHSWA Website. Rink, while not seeded even in the top four at the 1986 state championships, defeated the #1 seed in the semifinals and went on to win the heavyweight state championship.  The Louisiana Wrestling News was able to find the 1986 Times-Picayune articles below in the "Media Coverage" section of the Louisiana High School Wrestling Archives mentioning Jay Rink and his 1986 state championship:          02/15/86  02/15/86  01/16/86  01/16/86

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Division II

Twenty wrestlers competed in the Division II 285 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Picking the top seed in Division II was pretty easy.  Huntington's Reginald Markray had two losses all season.  Both were to John Curtis' Spencer Lemoine who was in Division III.  Northside's second-seeded Allen Kincade had lost to Carencro's Gregory Peltier and Central's Wesley Lee, whereas Markray had pinned both of them in a combined 2:11.  The rest of the seeding leads one to ponder.  This is not to suggest that it was wrong, but the committee was faced with a quandary.  It makes decent sense until one looks at St. Michael's Michael McLennan, seeded 7th, who pinned #3 Jordan Showalter as late as January 26th.  Showalter got "the nod" over Travis Santiago of Teurlings Catholic via a January 4th pin.  But that was Showalter's first match of the season.  The Tiger entered the tournament with an 8-4 record whereas Santiago had 29 wins versus 18 losses.  Showalter had a victory over Grace King's Maycol Rizo, and Rizo had a win over McLennan on the same day Showalter lost to McLennan.  The records of the remaining wrestlers were of little help.

Regardless, the results proved to be more baffling than the seeding. 

Round 1, 2 and Quarterfinals

Rounds 1 and 2 provided no upsets, but the quarterfinals were a different story.  Once again being seeded fourth proved detrimental to the cause.  Fifth-seeded Cameron Ferguson of Sam Houston, avenging a 3-2 loss in the consolation finals of the Jacob McMillan, pinned Travis Santiago in 3:26.  The other quarterfinals went as predicted as Markray advanced with a 1:49 fall over #8 Wesley Lee and #3 Showalter with a pin over #6 Maycol Rizo of Grace King in 6:00.  #7 McLennan proved very difficult for #2 Kincade, going the full six minutes, but the second seed prevailed 9-2.

Markray takes down Wesley Lee, leading to a fall in 1:49.

Showalter and Rizo "lock horns" in the quarterfinals.

Semifinals #1

Oddly enough the only seeds to have won any tournaments this season were #1 Markray, who won the North Louisiana Regional Championships on February 2nd, and #5 Ferguson, who won the 1st Annual Southwest Wrestle-off on the same weekend.  The two met in the first semifinal.  At first it appeared that Markray would dominate Ferguson with his size, but when attempting to put Ferguson on his back, Ferguson used Markray's momentum to turn the Huntington wrestler onto his back and scored a 3:26 fall.

Semifinals #2

Although he had 14 more matches under his belt than Showalter did before the tournament, it was the #2 seed Kincade who showed inexperience in the second semifinal.  Unless interrupted by a fall, Kincade once had what could be considered a comfortable lead at 285 lbs.  But the lead dwindled as Kincade committed his first, second and third penalties.  Showalter had crept to within a point when Kincade committed his fourth technical violation, resulting in his disqualification and a trip to the finals for Showalter.

Consolation Rounds

With a #3 and #5 seed in the finals, one might think the losers of the semifinal matches, needing only one victory to reach them, would meet in the consolation finals to battle for third place.  But not this time.  After first getting past Heberling in 1:31, #6 Rizo edged out a one point win over McLennan and then, in another surprise, a 5-0 victory over Markray in the consolation semifinals.  #8 Lee barely eked out a one point win over Belle Chasse's Joseph Boutte but then gained momentum, pinning #4 Santiago in 1:41 and #2 Kincade in 2:07 to meet Rizo.  Markray and Kincade finally met, but in the match to determine who placed fifth, which the #1 seed did with a fall in 1:36.  Rizo finished off a year that started 10-0 and included a Trygg Memorial championship with a third place finish via a fall over Lee in 3:47.

Finals: #3 Jordan Showalter (Holy Cross) versus #5 Cameron Ferguson (Sam Houston)

This was the only meeting between the two senior wrestlers.  Ferguson scored first and was ahead 5-1 entering the third period.  As Holy Cross wrestlers had done all tournament long, Showalter came back and with 55 seconds remaining cut the lead to two, 5-3.  With 15 seconds left Showalter tied it up with a reversal.  But Ferguson had found it in himself to stand-up, turn and score a reversal of his own for a two-point win and Sam Houston's first state championship.  Ferguson finished the season at 23-11 and Showalter at 11-5.

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Division III

Fourteen wrestlers competed in the Division III 285 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Lemoine, with his undefeated record (24-0) and victories over #2 Lyle Greary of Holy Rosary and #3 Logan Williams of Evangel, was the obvious #1 seed.  Greary's #2 seeding is questionable.  He entered with an 8-5 record and all of his opponents, with the exception of Lemoine, were from Divisions I or II.  Williams had a 23-5 record that included a lot of DIII opponents, as well as opponents from the other two divisions.  But the two had to be #2 and #3 because both had defeated Benton's Jeremiah Robins and Robins had a win over #4 Roytrez Williams of Bossier.  Logan Williams had also defeated #5 Kirk Wilson of Dunham and #7 Javonte Wheeler of Brusly.  Wilson had defeated #6 Spencer Schiele of Grand Lake, who had defeated # 7 Wheeler, and, well, #8 Jacob Fontenot of Church Point was 2-4.

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

The first round went as predicted, as did the quarterfinals matches, with the exception of #5 Wilson defeating #4 Roytrez Williams 3-1 in their quarterfinals match.  Otherwise Lemoine had a bye and an 18-second pin.  Logan Williams had pins of 1:30 and 1:28 and Greary had a little tougher time with a bye and a 4:41 pin over Wheeler.

Semifinals

Dunham's Kirk Wilson proved a worthy opponent for Lemoine, who pinned 19 of his last 25 opponents.  But the #1 seed spent his six minutes on the mat well, scoring a 13-3 major decision and his second trip to the Division III finals in as many years. Evangel's Williams exposed the minor flaw of his being seeded #3 with a 3:00 pin over #2 Greary.

Consolation Rounds

Greary spent little time proving that he was worthy of at worst a #3 seed.   #4 Roytrez Williams pinned Redemptorist's Sean O'Brien in 3:48 and Church Point's Fontenot in 3:24,but Greary pinned Williams in 0:53 in the consolation semifinals.  Brusly's Wheeler received a forfeit from Loyola's James Moore which probably helped him win a 1-0 "Ultimate Tie-breaker" match against Grand Lake's #6 Schiele.  He then was able to pin #5 Wilson of Dunham in 3:51 to meet Greary.  Dunham's Williams proved his seeding was "spot on" by taking fifth place with a 1-0 victory over Bossier's Williams.  The second seed placed third with a 2:21pin over Wheeler.. 

Finals: #1 Spencer Lemoine (John Curtis) versus #3 Logan Williams (Evangel)

Despite living in opposite extremes of the state, Lemoine and Williams were not strangers.  Such matches are why John Curtis and Evangel may eschew larger events and travel to meet each other instead.  Lemoine pinned Williams in 3:07 their first meeting at Evangel on December 27th.  When Evangel travelled southeast to the John Curtis AA, A, B & C Championships on January 19th, the two wrestlers met in the finals.  Lemoine found himself in a hole early as he missed two lateral drops and Williams took advantage to score 10 points.  But in between them Lemoine scored 16 points to win the match. 

Lemoine scored the first points of the match with a takedown in 40 seconds.  Early in the second period it was still a close match, with Lemoine holding a 3-1 lead.  Lemoine avoided trouble this time and pinned Williams in 3:21, capping an undefeated season with the state championship he was denied last year.  Lemoine finished at 29-0.  Williams is in a prime spot to take the reins next season, ending his junior year as a state runner-up with a 26-6 (28-12) record.

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