113 Pounds


Brusly's freshman "PHENOM" Kendon Lee-Kayser (left) completed a 2013-14 Louisiana competition sweep.

Division I

Twenty-three wrestlers competed in the Division I 113 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Defending Division I 106 lbs. state champion Mason Mauro brought an excellent record to the state championships - he was 31-1 against Louisiana competition.  His sole loss was an unexpected pin from a Devyn Breaud (of Rummel) hip toss in the finals of the Spartan Open.  After that he ran-off 27 straight victories against Louisiana competition, with his only other loss coming from a Tennessee wrestler in the finals of the Soddy Daisy Showdown in Texas, whom Mauro beat two days earlier.  He won the Mandeville Open, the Trey Culotta, went undefeated at the Deep South Bayou Duals and capped his season off with a Ken Cole championship.  Mauro avenged his loss to Breaud, whom he defeated in the 2013 106 lbs. state finals, 4-1 in a January 30th dual meet.  Breaud was seeded second behind him.  Of the remaining seeds at 113 lbs. he beat #3 Nicky Charles twice (5-1 and 4-1), #4 Joseph Foret of Holy Cross (2-2 UTB), #6 Steven Van Zandt of St. Paul's (1:41) and Javarious Jones of Airline (16-3).

Due to a dual meet win over Charles, Rummel's Devyn Breaud was seeded third.  Breaud had a 17-5 record and won the Spartan Open and the St. Paul's Invitational.  Charles of Jesuit, at 24-5, was third due to a 4-3 win over Holy Cross freshman Joseph Foret (13-4), and the Tiger, who won the Mandeville Open prior to being injured in Las Vegas, was seeded fourth.  Three points, an injury and a failure to escape from Mauro in a 30-second UTB round kept the talented freshman from an undefeated season.

Rounds 1 and 2

All of the seeded wrestlers advanced through rounds one and two unscathed.

Quarterfinals

Mauro had little trouble with the eighth-seed Fitch of Comeaux, defeating the Spartan in 5:19 via 15-0 technical fall (photo left).  Breaud had a harder time with the #7 seed Jones, but won 9-6.  Charles scored a fairly easy 8-0 major decision over the #6 Van Zandt. One upset was recorded when Catholic senior Mitch Napoli, the #5 seed, used a Sudden Victory period to get past the #4 seed Joseph Foret 6-4 (photos center and right).

On January 22nd Breaud scored a fall over Jesuit's Nicky Charles in 3:30, but in this match neither wrestler was inclined to even expose their backs to the mat.  In the low scoring affair, Charles scored a takedown and Breaud could only answer with an escape, which propelled Charles into the finals and a rematch against Mauro (Mauro defeated Charles 4-1 in the Ken Cole finals).

Consolation Rounds

(Photo left: Sulphur's Geoffrey Como pins Fontainebleau's Michael Sheppard in 2:11 in the second round of consolation matches.) Foret advanced to the consolation semifinals with a fall in 0:58 and a forfeit to meet Breaud.  Foret actually defeated Breaud 5-2 in a February 5th dual meet, but Breaud received the higher seed via his wins over Mauro and Charles.  The two wrestled to a 5-5 tie after five minutes and it was Foret again coming out on top, this time in a Sudden Victory period, 7-5. Airline's Javarious Jones used a 7-5 Sudden Victory win and a1-0 decision to meet Napoli in the other consolation semifinals.  The Catholic senior had little trouble with the Airline sophomore and scored a major 12-1 decision to advance. Breaud defeated Jones 12-7 to place fifth for the Raiders. Napoli ended his Catholic career with a 5-4 win over the freshman Foret to place third.

Finals: #1 Mason Mauro (Brother Martin) versus #3 Nicholas Charles (Jesuit)

Mason Mauro does not allow opponents to score many points against him.  He allowed only 24 points scored against him in the 11 matches in which he did not score a fall.  In his two matches against Charles, he held the Blue Jay to one point each time.  Neither wrestler could manage a takedown in the first period.  In the second Mauro scored an escape after 25 seconds and the he converted a single-leg shot into two takedown points as time was running out to take a 3-0 lead.  Charles scored his one escape point quickly, in 10 seconds, but he could not break through Mauro's defense during the remaining 1:50, and Mauro had his second consecutive Division I state title by virtue of a 3-1 score.

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Division II

Eleven wrestlers competed in the Division II 113 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Live Oak senior #1 seed Jacob Chenevert was a defending Division II state champion at 113 lbs. and had a 2013-14 record of 55-10.  He had wins at the Warrior Open, the Wildcat Open and the Parkway Division II "Lone Survivor" tournament.  He had beaten Alex Simmaly of Parkway and Luke Kilchrist of Teurlings Catholic in the Division II ranks, and he split matches with both Nicky Charles of Jesuit and Devyn Breaud of Rummel.

Simmaly, with a record of only 8-4, was the second seed due to his loss to Chenevert.  The #3 seed, Daniel Trappey of Carencro (16-14), had two victories and a loss against Teurlings Catholic's Luke Kilchrist (19-15), who was the fourth seed.

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

All six seeded wrestlers advanced through the first round and the quarterfinals without incident. Three of the quarterfinals were over relative quick.  Chenevert needed only 11 seconds to get past Shaw junior Zachary Collins, and Simmaly required 13 seconds to defeat East Jefferson freshman Ronald Kimball (photo right).  Trappey had a harder time with the sixth-seeded Huntington freshman, David Diggs, but managed a fall in 3:29. It was #4 Luke Kilchrist, who had a tough go of it for six minutes in his quarterfinals match, surviving a 6-5 against the #5 seeded Chase Bates of North Desoto (photo left).

Semifinal #1

(1) Jacob Chenevert (Live Oak) vs. (4) Luke Kilchrist (Teurlings Catholic)

Chenevert had two previous victories against Kilchrist, a fall in 4:25 at the Spartan Open and a 17-2 technical fall in a dual meet.  In this match, though, he wasted as little time as possible, taking down his Rebel opponent and scoring a fall in 39 seconds to advance to another Division II 113 lbs. finals match.

Semifinal #2

(2) Alex Simmaly (Parkway) vs. (3) Daniel Trappey (Carencro)

Simmaly and Trappey did not meet during the regular season, and the two juniors went the full six minutes.  Simmaly, though, controlled the match, putting Trappey on his back several times during an 18-6 major decision.

Consolation Rounds

Andre` Trahan of St. Thomas More advanced to the consolation semifinals via falls in 3:42 and 1:31, but the fourth-seeded Kilchrist proved to be harder to handle, and Trahan was defeated by the Rebel in 2:15.  The fifth seed, Chase Bates of North Desoto, advanced with a 27 second fall and a 9-7 decision in "Sudden Victory" to meet Trappey in the other consolation semifinals.  Bates wrestled a good match, but the third seed ended up winning by a 12-8 score.

Bates recovered against Trahan in the form of a 17-2 technical fall in 4:35 to place fifth for North Desoto.

Trappey, who had previously defeated Kilchrist 11-6 and 17-9, did so again by a score of 15-8 to place third for the Bears of Carencro.

Finals: #1 Jacob Chenevert (Live Oak) versus #2 Alex Simmaly (Parkway)

The finals match gave Simmaly another chance against Chenevert, who beat the Parkway junior 7-3 on January 11th, and who knocked him out in the semifinals in 2013.  At first this appeared to be a close match as neither wrestler could gain an advantage in the first period.  In the second period Chenevert started on the bottom and escaped in 45 seconds.  Chenevert subsequently took Simmaly down straight to his back with a head-and-arm cradle that netted the Live Oak senior a fall in 2:48.  Chenevert had his second state title, Live Oak had two in succession and the Eagles were still in the hunt for the Division II team championship.

Page of photos by Shannon Miller of

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Division III

Fourteen wrestlers competed in the Division III 113 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Of all the wrestlers participating in the 2014 state championships only two could boast that they were undefeated against competitors from Louisiana.  C.E. Byrd senior Quin Gilliam, at 220 lbs., who did not lose to anyone, was one of them.  The other was Kendon Lee-Kayser of Brusly, a freshman who could not decide on the weight class in which he would participate until the Louisiana Classic on January 18th.  Prior to that he wrestled at 126 lbs. and could claim, among his 33 victims in that weight class, wins over Comeaux's Connor Stampley, Teurlings Catholic's Tristan Lee and Airline's Christian Walden.  At that weight he won the Warrior Open, the South Walton Border Wars (and associated Outstanding Wrestler award).  It was also at 126 lbs. that Lee-Kayser lost his only match of the season, a 6-5 loss to Tristan Rupert of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, on November 23rd.  (Rupert formerly wrestled at Live Oak.)  Lee-Kayser cut down to 120 lbs. for his home school's Brusly Invitational, and in the finals he met Rupert for the second time, this time defeating him 4-3 to avenge his earlier loss.  In the next week he dropped to 113 lbs. and basically ran away with the Louisiana Classic title, winning his matches via pins in 3:00 and 1:21, and a decision of 10-0 and, in the finals against Jesuit's Nicky Charles, 8-1.  At the Ken Cole Lee-Kayser took a week off from cutting down to 113 lbs. and thus missed the opportunity to face Brother Martin's 113 lbs. starter, Mason Mauro.  Lee-Kayser, though, would have been the top seed there due to his 10-0 defeat of Rummel's Devyn Breaud, an opponent with whom Mauro had split matches.  Lee-Kayser also added a Greater Baton Rouge Championships title to his resume with a fall over defending and soon to be again Division II state champion Jacob Chenevert of Live Oak.

Suffice to say that with a 29-0 record against Louisiana foes, Lee Kayser was the #1 seed at 113 lbs.  North Vermillion sophomore Gavin Becker, at 15-6, was seeded second and had a Teurlings Catholic Invitational championship to his credit.  Seeded third due to a Ken Cole loss to Becker was Thomas Jefferson's defending 106 lbs. state champion Logan Griffin (31-10), who had a GNO DIII Championship and a Jefferson Parish Championship to his credit.  In the fourth spot was Ouachita Christian eighth-grader Billy Smith, whose 2-0 record only reflected matches in the Tri-State Regionals (ARK-LA-TEX) but included a 14-6 win over Doyline's Brittany Bates.

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

A minor upset occurred in the first round as the #9 seed, freshman Ezra Grant of Istrouma, defeated #8 David Rollins of Episcopal in 1:16.

In the quarterfinals the top four seeds advanced.  Lee-Kayser just need 30 seconds to get past Rollins.  Becker used 3:43 to score a fall over #7 Chris LeBoeuf of South Plaquemines and Griffin only 1:24 to pin #6 Bailey Strezinger of John Curtis.  Smith had a harder time with the fifth seed, Basile's Gavin Christ, but prevailed 7-3.

Semifinal #1

(1) Kendon Lee-Kayser (Brusly) vs. (4) Billy Smith (Ouachita Christian)

Having wrestled only three matches during the season (one was a loss to a Texas opponent), Ouachita's Billy Smith did not have the pleasure of a prior match with Lee-Kayser.  The courtship did not last long, though, as Lee-Kayser advanced to his first Division III finals match in 31 seconds.

Semifinal #2

(2) Gavin Becker (North Vermillion) vs. (3) Logan Griffin (Thomas Jefferson)

Becker had "put a whippin" on Griffin in the Ken Cole in a mere 37 seconds, which is why the North Vermillion sophomore was seeded higher than the junior defending state champion.  But this match was not like the first.  For one thing, Griffin was not the only one to expose his back to the mat - Becker did as well.  Both came close to pinning the other, but in the end Griffin reached his second finals match by eking out an 11-10 decision.

Consolation Rounds

Strezinger of Curtis made the trip to the first consolations semifinals with decision of 10-5 and 12-2.  But then he ran into the Ouachita Christian eighth-grader Smith, who took Strezinger apart to the tune of a fall in 1:33.  Fifth-seeded Gavin Christ of Basile reached the other consolation semifinals via falls in 2:45 and 4:57, but Becker proved too much for him in scoring a 10-1 major decision to advance to the third place match.

Christ rebounded with a major 10-1 over Strezinger decision to place fifth for the Bearkats.

Becker showed little regard for Smith's youth (there was only a two-grade difference, anyway) and scored a 16-1 technical fall in 4:59 to place third for North Vermillion.

Finals: #1 Kendon Lee-Kayser (Brusly) versus #3 Logan Griffin (Thomas Jefferson)

The junior from Thomas Jefferson had the pleasure of Lee-Kayser's acquaintance at the Louisiana Classic, which ended up being a 3:00 match in favor of the Panther.  This match was all too similar for the Patriot.  Lee-Kayser scored a takedown in the first 25 seconds.  After a Griffin escape Lee-Kayser took Griffin down with a single-leg trip and then, sitting through on a double chicken-wing twice, scored six nearfall points to take a 10-1 lead into the third period.  Lee-Kayser escaped in the third period to increase his lead to 11-1, but Griffin got in for a takedown next, cutting Lee-Kayser's lead down to 11-3.  Lee-Kayser escaped, and took Griffin down to lead 14-3.  Lee-Kayser escaped again and his points-fest continued unto 5:31 had elapsed, at which point Lee-Kayser had a 24-6 lead and a technical fall.  Brusly had their second state championship in as many finals matches and Lee-Kayser had the first of what may be several Division III titles.

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