138 Pounds


Austin Meyn of Brother Martin scores nearfall points on Acadian's Gage Landry in the 138 lbs. semifinals.

Division I

Twenty-six wrestlers competed in the Division I 138 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

The Division I runner-up at 126 lbs. in 2013, Brother Martin's Austin Meyn had a record of 24-1 and wins at the Mandeville Open, Spartan Invitational and the Trey Culotta.  He had previously beaten Catholic's Brennan Taylor, who defeated him in the 2013 finals, as well as Jesuit's Will LaFranca.  His only loss of the season was to Brusly's Trevor Schermer during the 138 lbs. Ken Cole finals.  Meyn was the top seed at 138 lbs.  The Catholic state champion Taylor was 27-2, with his losses coming from Meyn and Schermer, and he owned championships from the Warrior and Wildcat Opens, the Scott Rohrer Hoover Invitational and the Greater Baton Rouge Championships. Taylor was seeded second.  Jesuit's Will LaFranca, also with a Warrior victory in his 18-5 record, was seeded third and Lafayette Metro tournament winner Gage Landry of Acadiana, at 20-8, was seeded fourth.

Rounds 1 and 2

Nothing spectacular happened in the first round but in the second McKinley's Jevon Wiley stunned #3 Will LaFranca of Jesuit with a fall in 1:51.  Rummel's #7 Zack Bowman was then upset 6-3 by Mandeville's Nicholas Ernst.  The remaining five seeds advanced to the quarterfinals relatively easily.

Quarterfinals

With LaFranca out it was #6 Timothy Ellender who advanced to the semifinals with a 4:47 fall over Wiley.  Top-seeded Austin Meyn scored a fall over Chalmette's Ala` Aldi Hussein in 1:40, Taylor used 1:22 to pin Ernst and #4 Gage Landry of Acadiana pinned #5 Hunter Bourgeois of St. Paul's in 1:06.

Semifinal #1

(1) Austin Meyn (Brother Martin) vs. (4) Gage Landry (Acadiana)

Austin Meyn just controls people, and that is exactly what he did to the fourth-seeded Landry from Acadiana.  He used tilts to put Landry on his back and finished the match with two seconds remaining in the first period, scoring another fall for the Crusaders.

Semifinal #2

(2) Brennan Taylor (Catholic) vs. (6) Timothy Ellender (Sulphur)

Ellender and Taylor had not met this season, but the defending state champ was too experienced for the Sulphur senior and scored a fall in 2:59, setting up a rematch of the 2013 126 lbs. finals versus Meyn.

Consolation Rounds

It is worth noting that Abigail Nette of Destrehan became the second female wrestler to notch a victory in a Division I state championship, which she did in the first consolation round via a pin in 1:40.  Acadiana's Raven Guidry won a winners bracket match and a consolation rounds match earlier in the event.  Nette is the daughter of 1978 Bonnabel state champion John Nette.

The second round loss by LaFranca meant he was a long way from living up to his #3 seeding.  But he took little time to make his way back into contention, scoring falls in 0:25, 2:31, 3:44 and 3:58 to set up the match he would have had in the quarterfinals had he not lost in the prior round.  There he faced Ellender and the Blue Jay scored a technical fall, 18-2 as time ran out, to advance to the third place match (photos left).  Holy Cross junior Parker Wilkins made a similar trip to meet #4 Landry in the other consolations semifinals match.  Wilkins took advantage of a forfeit, decisions of 8-0 and 6-0, and falls in 3:40 and 3:57 to get there.  The Tiger put up a good fight against Landry, but the senior persevered 7-4 Ellender defeated Wilkins 9-5 to place fifth for the Golden Tornadoes of Sulphur.

Finals: (1) Austin Meyn (Brother Martin) versus (2) Brennan Taylor (Catholic)

Meyn and Taylor were the finalists in 2013 at 126 lbs.  Taylor was the third seed while Meyn was seeded first, but Taylor prevailed 9-3.  This year Meyn was again the top seed, and again owned a victory over Taylor from the Spartan Invitational finals.  Meyn won that match 7-2, but Taylor may not have been at his best after suffering a nasty cut in his eyebrow during his semifinals win over Holy Cross' George Benoit.

Meyn was pretty impossible to score upon all season.  Against Louisiana competition, Rick LaCava of Rummel managed seven points on him and Will LaFranca scored six (both in Meyn victories).  Only Brusly's Trevor Schermer scored more points on Meyn (eight) in a match won by Schermer.

Meyn started the scoring in this match with a double-leg shot to take a 2-0 lead with a minute remaining in the first period.  In the second period Meyn reversed Taylor and put the Catholic wrestler on his back for three nearfall points to take a 7-0 lead.  Taylor escaped and took Meyn down near the end of the period, which ended 7-3 in Meyn's favor.  Taylor escaped in the third to cut Meyn's lead to 7-4, but Meyn reversed Taylor out for a 9-4 lead.  Taylor managed an escape but that was all, and Meyn owned a 9-5 state championship, Brother Martin's third of the first six finals matches.

Back to Top

Division II

Sixteen wrestlers competed in the Division II 138 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Seth Bosarge was the defending Division II 138 lbs. state champion and had a record of 40-5 that included championships at the Griffin Open and the Parkway Division II Lone Survivor Tournament.  His only losses were to Division I opponents (Taylor, LaFranca and LaCava) and to Division III's Trevor Schermer.  Bosarge was an easy choice to be the top seed.  Parkway's Hunter Huckaby was 20-5 on the season and won the Northwest Louisiana Regional Championships.  But he had two losses to Bosarge and was thus seeded second.  Benton's Jeffrey Lewis was 18-12 and seeded in the third spot as he had two losses to Huckaby.  St. Michael's Michael Ensminger, with a record of 21-17, was the fourth seed.

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

Two minor upsets occurred in the first round when Shaw sophomore Cameron Bertot defeated #6 Daniel Seither of Pearl River 8-0 and Grace King's Antonio Diaz defeated the #7 seed Ethan Sarpy of North Desoto.  The top four seeds all advanced to the semifinals.  Bosarge pinned #8 Russell Ball of Central in 0:47 while Huckaby did the same to Diaz in 0:38.  Lewis was taken the distance by Bertot but survived 7-3, and Ensminger had a harder time with #5 Dante` Hebert of Teurlings Catholic, winning 6-4.

Semifinal #1

(1) Seth Bosarge (Live Oak) vs. (4) Michael Ensminger (St. Michael)

Oddly enough the two Baton Rouge area seniors had not met during the regular season.  But Bosarge was sharp, using cradles to put Ensminger on his back for a 15-7 major decision and his third trip to the Division II finals (Bosarge lost in the finals to Charles Morgan of St. Michael in 2012).

Semifinal #2

(2) Hunter Huckaby (Parkway) vs. (3) Jeffrey Lewis (Benton)

Huckaby and Lewis had met twice in the regular season with Huckaby scoring decisive wins of 18-9 and 13-4.  In this match Huckaby scored even more points, garnering an 18-2 technical fall as time ran out in the third period.

Consolation Rounds

The unseeded sophomore from Shaw, Cameron Bertot, continued his winning ways in the consolation rounds with a 15-0 technical fall and a 5-3 decision to meet Ensminger in the consolation semifinals.  Bertot still wrestled hard and the match required a Sudden Victory takedown by Ensminger for a decision.  In the other bracket Teurlings Catholic's #5 Dante` Hebert used a fall in 4:35 and took advantage of a forfeit to meet Lewis in the consolation semifinals.  He gave the Benton senior all he could ask for, yet it was not enough as Lewis advanced 9-7.

Hebert had enough left to defeat Bertot in 1:19 to score a fifth place spot for the Rebels.

Lewis proved the seeding committee almost flawless (aside from the unexpected effort by Bertot) and took third place with an 8-1 win over Ensminger.

Finals: (1) Seth Bosarge (Live Oak) versus (2) Hunter Huckaby (Parkway)

The top-seeded Bosarge had previously beaten #2 Huckaby 14-8 and 12-6, and entered the finals still with hopes of a Live Oak team championship.  Huckaby put forth a much better effort in this match than in his previous ones, though.  Huckaby scored first but Bosarge escaped and took Huckaby down to end the first period ahead 3-2.  Huckaby escaped in the second period to tie the score, but Bosarge got behind him and took him to the mat for a 5-3 lead.  Huckaby cut the lead to 5-4 with another escape, but then Bosarge caught the Panther off-balance and pushed him back to the mat, put on a double-grapevine and utilized that for a fall in 3:06.  Bosarge had his second Division II state title and Live Oak had four champions in the first six matches.

138-1 138-2  138-3  138-4

Back to Top

Division III

Seventeen wrestlers competed in the Division III 138 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Lakeside's Cameron Corley was the top seed with a record of 23-8 and wins at the ARK-LA-TEX Regionals and the Teurlings Catholic Invitational.  Corley had a win over Holy Rosary's Reid DiMaggio who, with an 18-10 record, was the second seed.  South Plaquemines' Deiontae James (20-12) was seeded third as he had a loss to DiMaggio.  Brusly senior Toby Hebert, with a 14-9 record, was given the fourth seed. 

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

None of the top nine seeds were upset in round one and the top eight advanced to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals Corley scored a fall over #8 Augustus Sole of St. Louis in 4:00.  On the other side of the bracket, though, #7 Gavin Cortez of Basile just dominated (as DiMaggio later described the match) Reid DiMaggio of Holy Rosary, scoring a 26-9 technical fall over the second seed in 4:00.  The third seed fell also as #6 Cody Bedgood of Calvary Baptist defeated Deiontae James 9-2.  Hebert kept the top half of the bracket "as seeded" with a fall in 5:47 over De la Salle's Drew Tortorich (photos left).

Cortez again proved unstoppable, this time dispatching of Bedgood in a mere 34 seconds to reach the finals.

Consolation Rounds

Tortorich battle back for the Cavaliers with a fall in 2:04 and a major 10-2 decision to reach the consolation semifinals against Bedgood.  That match required an extra period and it was the Calvary Baptist freshman who scored the winning takedown in Sudden Victory.  DiMaggio had a longer path and used falls of 2:35 and 4:46 to set-up the predicted finals match in the second consolation semifinal.  Twenty-eight points were scored by the top two seeds, but DiMaggio netted 15 of them and advanced to meet Bedgood.

It was Tortorich proving too much for Corley this time, scoring a fall for De la Salle in 4:38 to place fifth.

DiMaggio, who like LaFranca in Division I scored more points for Holy Rosary than he would have in getting to the finals (unless he had won), spent little time with the freshman Bedgood, recording a fall in 2:20 to place third, the highest place yet at a state tournament by a Holy Rosary wrestler.  After his quarterfinals loss DiMaggio dedicated the rest of the tournament to a friend who, despite suffering from cancer, was able to manage a 300 score for Holy Rosary in bowling.  If his friend could do that under those circumstances, DiMaggio said, then he could at least give all he had to try to place third.  That he did by defeating Bedgood via a fall in 2:20.

Finals: (4) Toby Hebert (Brusly) versus (7) Gavin Cortez (Basile)

Basile freshman Gavin Cortez, while seeded only seventh, had an 11-4 record, with a win over the Division II fifth place winner Dante` Hebert of Teurlings Catholic.  He placed fifth at the 2013 state tournament but evidently did not have the resume required for a higher seed.  But that mattered little as he made it to the finals.  The senior Hebert, though, who flip-flopped with his teammate Trevor Schermer a lot (Schermer got to wrestle whatever weight class he wanted), had too much experience for the Bearkat freshman.  The Greater Baton Rouge Championships runner-up, Hebert scored a takedown in the first minute and allowed Cortez to escape twice, adding a takedown each time to open a 6-2 lead.  The Panther's last takedown was a head-and-arm toss, though, which put the Basile freshman on his back and ended the match in 1:53.  The fourth-seeded senior, given the chance, took full advantage of it for Brusly's sixth state championship of the night.

Back to Top