170 Pounds


Jesuit's Jake Eccles sizes-up Brice Duhe of Holy Cross in the 170 lbs. Division I finals.

Division I

Twenty-five wrestlers competed in the Division I 170 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Brice Duhe of Holy Cross started the 1013-14 wrestling season pretty flawlessly.  In November he won the Mandeville and Spartan Opens.  In December he won the Raider Open and he placed 4th at the Las Vegas Holiday Classic.  In January he won the Louisiana Classic and the Ken Cole.  He had wins over Brother Martin's Travis Quarterman twice, Shaw's Kody Woodson twice, Mandeville's Frankie Arena twice, Catholic's Matthew Moreau and Jake Eccles of Jesuit (4-3 in the Louisiana Classic finals).  The Tiger junior looked to be unstoppable.

Duhe's win streak came to an end in the when he lost to Eccles in the finals of the Greater New Orleans Championships by a score of 6-2.  A week later in a dual meet against the Blue Jay's Eccles beat Duhe again, 7-2.  Eccles also had a good year prior to state, posting a 21-1 record which included wins at the Warrior Open and the Greater New Orleans Championships.  "Eccles is back" was a common Blue Jay phrase last season, although it never came to fruition as the then junior did not wrestle a match in 2012-13.  But in the 2011-12 state championships he took runner-up Dominic Casadaban to two overtimes before finally losing in the semifinals.  This year, though, Eccles was back, and by virtue of his 2-1 record over Duhe after the Holy Cross-Jesuit Dual meet, Eccles was seeded first and Duhe was seeded second.  John Ehret's Blaze D'Aquin, a finalist at the Ken Cole and a Jefferson Invitational winner, was seeded third due to his loss to Duhe.  Mandeville senior Frankie Arena, the St. Paul's winner, was seeded fourth, and had a St. Tammany Parish Championship and a St. Paul's Invitational title to his credit.

Rounds 1 and 2

No seeds were victims of upsets in the first round.

Quarterfinals

Only two of the top seeds advanced to the semifinals.  The 4th seeded Arena was upset by #5 Matthew Moreau of Catholic in a 4-3 match.  On the bottom half of the bracket #3 Blaze D'Aquin was upset by Brother Martin senior Nicholas Comardelle 12-9.  Eccles advanced (after receiving two forfeits) with a 12-2 major decision over Zachary's Nicholas Wallis (photos left - courtesy of Rip Rittell) and Duhe recorded a major decision, 12-0, over #7 Harrison Hooper of Airline.

Semifinal #1

(1) Jake Eccles (Jesuit vs. (5) Matthew Moreau (Catholic)

The two wrestlers from Jesuit and Catholic had not previously met and it was Eccles who proved too strong for the Catholic senior.  Eccles controlled Moreau on top with lifts back to the mat and only gave up two points while scoring seven en route to the finals.

Semifinal #2

(2) Brice Duhe (Holy Cross) vs. (6) Nicholas Comardelle (Brother Martin)

At the Ken Cole Invitational Duhe defeated Comardelle 12-2.   This time he held Comardelle scoreless, and in 4:53 had scored 15 points of his own to earn a technical fall and another chance against Eccles for the state title.

Consolation Rounds

Mandeville's #4 Frankie Arena won decisions of 7-5 and 6-2 to reach the consolation semifinals against Comardelle.  Arena had beaten Comardelle 8-3 at the Ken Cole and 10-5 at the St. Paul's Invitational.  This match was closer, but Arena survived again 4-1.  Harrison Hooper came back from his quarterfinals loss with falls in 3:44 and 1:41 to meet Moreau in the consolation semifinals.  His streak continued, if just barely, with a 1-0 victory.

Comardelle defeated Moreau 5-3 in the Brother Martin-Catholic dual meet of December 11th, which led to some seeding criticism for Moreau being seeded 5th, one spot ahead of Comardelle at 6th.  But the seeding committee won that debate as Moreau registered a 6-4 win to place fifth for the Bears.

The 7th-seeded Hooper of Airline took the 4th-seeded Arena of Mandeville to two 30 second overtime periods but came out ahead 8-4 to place third for the Vikings.

Finals: #Jake Eccles (Jesuit) versus #2 Brice Duhe (Holy Cross)

Back to Top

Division II

Fourteen wrestlers competed in the Division II 170 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Shaw's Kody Woodson was a state runner-up in 2012, placed third in 2013 and only had five losses in the 2013-14 season, all to Division I opponents (Blaze D'Aquin, Brice Duhe twice, Jake Eccles and Travis Quarterman).  He beat Grace King's Aaron Maddox and De la Salle's Alex Martin.  He won the Jefferson Open, the Mandeville Last Chance and placed third at the Louisiana Classic.  His overall record was 32-6.  Grace King's Aaron Maddox was 29-13 but one of those losses was a 4-3 decision by Woodson.  Woodson was seeded in the top spot and Maddox at #2.  Teurlings Catholic's Peyton Cortez with a 16-5 record was seeded third, and due to a loss to Cortez Pearl River's Jason Moran, with a record of 29-12, was seeded fourth.

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

Two seeds fell in the first round.  Rayne's Tanner Leger, at #8, had to forfeit his match and Carencro sophomore Noah Emfinger advanced to the quarterfinals.  The #6 seed, Laytin 'Ob Spears of Benton, lost to North Desoto freshman Justin Atkins in 3:54.

The quarterfinals went as expected.  Woodson pinned Emfinger in 1:21 and was followed by #4 Moran's major 9-1 decision over #5 Christopher Hall of Bossier.  Cortez won a hard 6-4 victory over Atkins while Maddox scored a technical fall, 19-3 in 4:32, over #7 Dylan Bennett of Live Oak.

Maddox and Cortez had also not faced each other before, but the Grace King senior minded little more than Woodson did, scoring a major 12-4 decision for the right to face Woodson in the finals.

Consolation Rounds

After losing his first match to #4 Moran, Central senior Cade McAdams took advantage of a forfeit and then his next two opponents via 5-2 and 5-1 scores to face Moran again in the consolation semifinals.  This time McAdams was on fire, scoring a major 9-1 victory in the rematch.  Benton's Laytin 'Ob Spears scored a fall in 1:54 before also advancing via a forfeit, and then scored another fall in 1:20 to meet Cortez in the consolation semis.  But the senior Cortez proved superior and pinned the junior in 3:54.

Moran regrouped and defeated Spears in 2:34 to place fifth for Pearl River.

Cortez and McAdams had not wrestled previously, but Cortez proved to be worthy of his #3 seed with a 6-2 victory for the Rebels.

Finals: #1 Kody Woodson (Shaw) versus #2 Aaron Maddox (Grace King)

With only a 4-3 score in their first meeting, Woodson and Maddox again looked like they would have a very close match.  That theory was scuttled with seven seconds remaining in the first period when Woodson threw Maddox to his back for a quick 5-0 lead as the period ended.  Woodson started the second period with a reversal to take a 7-0 lead, but Maddox was determined not to go quietly.  He reversed Woodson to his back and scored two nearfall points, decreasing Woodson's lead to 7-4.  Woodson escaped but Maddox again took him down.  After another escape by Woodson the second round ended with the Eagle leading 9-6.  On top in the third period, Woodson stopped a Maddox stand-up-turn-in with an overhook-underhook throw after 40 seconds had elapsed, and then turned that into a head-and-arm pinning combination, scoring a fall in 4:50.  Woodson added another state championship to the Woodson family pedigree, as his father, Mark Woodson, won a state championship for Bonnabel in 1986.

Back to Top

Division III

Eleven wrestlers competed in the Division III 170 lbs. state championships.

Introduction

Jesuit's G'Corey Fullilove was 14-4 in 2013-14, with three of his losses coming from opponents from Division I and Division II (Comardelle, Maddox and Moran).  His other loss, an 11-10 decision by John Pruitt of St. Louis in a dual meet, was avenged the next day in the John Curtis tournament finals via a 10-1 decision.  Fullilove won the Brusly Invitational with a 9-3 decision over Brusly's Blaze Olano.  Fullilove was the #1 seed and Olano was seeded second with an 8-6 record that included wins over the #3 seed, Logan Sylve of De la Salle and #4 seed Griffin Miller of Dunham.  Sylve was seeded over Miller due to a 3:29 fall over Miller at the Ken Cole.

Round 1 and Quarterfinals

The first round matches went as expected.  But the quarterfinals saw the top seed go down and the second and third seeds barely escape. For the second year in a row being top-seeded at 170 lbs. did not work out for a John Curtis wrestler.  Last year it was Baron Clofer being pinned by Fisher's Matt Adams in 31 seconds.  This year, Fullilove met the same fate against Basile's #7 seed Mason Deshotel.  Deshotel took a little longer, as it was in the second round that he caught Fullilove in a cradle and scored a fall in 2:55 (photo left).  Second-seeded Olano came close to a similar fate at the hands of #7 John Inocencio of Doyline, requiring a Sudden Victory period to prevail 6-4 (photo right).

The third-seeded Logan Sylve of De la Salle had the easiest time in the quarterfinals, pinning St. Louis' John Pruitt in 1:26. Dunham senior Griffin Miller had a much harder time with 2013 Division III third-place winner Brody LeMaire of North Vermillion.  In a match in which Miller often found himself behind, he finally put LeMaire on his back to eke out a 9-8 win (photos left).

Semifinal #1

(8) Mason Deshotel (Basile) vs. (4) Griffin Miller (Dunham)

Deshotel proved superior to Miller despite being seeded four spots below his Dunham opponent.  He allowed Miller one point while scoring eight of his own to advance to the finals.

Semifinal #2

(2) Blayze Olano (Brusly) vs. (3) Logan Sylve (De la Salle)

Sylve evidently liked his previous pin time of 1:26 and that is the time the #3 seed used to score a fall over #2 Olano and avenge his previous 6-5 loss at the Brusly invitational.  The Cavaliers had their second finalist of the evening.

Consolation Rounds

St. Louis's Pruitt took advantage of a forfeit and then a fall in 3:50 to set-up a consolations semifinals match with Miller.  The sixth seed proved the stronger as Pruitt earned a 6-2 decision.  Fullilove also received a forfeit and won a close 7-5 decision over LeMaire to reach the consolation semifinals against Olano.  This time the Brusly wrestler got revenge for his Brusly Invitational loss to Fullilove, though just barely in a 3-2 decision.

Fullilove placed fifth by winning his second actual match of the tournament, pinning Miller in 2:57.

Olano salvaged third place for Panthers by scoring a fall over Pruitt in 3:00.

Finals: #3 Logan Sylve (De la Salle) versus #4 Mason Deshotel (Basile)

After receiving a penalty point from Olano in the first 40 seconds of their finals match, Sylve went on a scoring tear.  With not even 30 seconds having elapsed in the second period he had put Deshotel on his back twice with a nearside cradle and forged an 8-0 lead.  He put the Basile senior on his back once again to take a 10-0 lead into the third period.  In the third Olano managed a reversal, but Sylve tacked on four additional points to prevail with a major 14-2 decision and give De la Salle their second individual state championship in a row.

Back to Top