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After last season the mark rose to 8 of 10.
That was how many times the winner of the
Trey Culotta Invitational later won the
LHSAA Division I state championship.
Brother Martin is hoping to make it 9 of 11.
The Brother Martin Crusaders won the Trey
Culotta Invitational with 522 points,
outdistancing runner-up Vestavia Hills,
Alabama (405 points) by 117 points.
Rounding out the seven teams scoring over
200 points were Jesuit with 362 points,
followed by Cushing, OK with 334.5,
Unattached wrestlers with 328 points, Rummel
with 258 points and East Ascension with
236.5 points.
Dalton Campbell of Vestavia Hills, Al was
voted the Outstanding Wrestler of the
tournament at 220 lbs. East
Ascension's Conor Karwath won the Trey
Culotta Award for winning the 285 lbs.
weight class. |
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106 Pounds
Brother Martin's Steven Shields defeated
Jesuit's Brody Martin 8-5. |
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Top-seeded Steven
Shields was upset 6-4 by Jesuit's Brody
Martin on Friday. Martin's was thus
Saturday's top seed and Shields, relegated
to the #3 position, had to face his
teammate, Steven Rumney, who, while
wrestling unattached, won Pool B via a win
over Live Oak's Colt Olinde. Shields,
who evidently won a wrestle-off with Rumney
for the top spot earlier, did so again by 1
3-1 score. Martin defeated Rummel's
Robert Fairchild 6-2 to make the finals.
Fairchild pulled an upset of his own,
defeating Olinde 6-0 in Saturday's first
round.
In the finals the first period ended with
Shields leading 2-0 after scoring on a
single-leg shot. Martin escaped within
the first 15 seconds of the second period,
but Shields was right back in on him with a
double-leg takedown. The second period
ended with Shields up 4-2. After an
escape gave Shields a 5-2 lead, Martin
scored two points with a single-to-a-double
on the edge of the mat, but Shields escaped
at the restart and led 6-4. Shields
would score another takedown, and Martin
another escape, but when the time elapsed
shields owned the 8-5 win. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Rummel's Robert Fairchild defeated
Brother Martin's (UN) Steven Rumney
10-7.
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113 Pounds
Brother Martin's Mason Mauro defeated
East Ascension's Alex Betteridge 10-3. |
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The sophomore from
Brother Martin defeated the East Ascension
senior last year in the state semifinals
10-6. But Betteridge surprised him
this summer at the Jazz Town duals, when
down by five points, he caught Mauro with a
rip and scored a fall. In 203-14 both
wrestlers had suffered one setback.
Mauro was stung by the state runner-up he
defeated in 2013, Devyn Breaud of Rummel, at
the Spartan Invitational. Betteridge
was forced to withdraw from the South Walton
Border Wars after tearing an MCL against
eventual tournament winner James Gieger of
Lincoln High.
Mauro dominated with speed once the
wrestlers had "felt each other out" in the
first round. Mauro scored on s
single-leg shot to open a two point lead in
the first. On bottom for the second,
Mauro scored a reversal for a 4-0 lead.
After an escape made the score 4-1, Mauro
used the remaining 11 seconds to score
another takedown and two nearfall points,
bringing an 8-1 lead into the third period.
Mauro controlled Betteridge on the bottom
for over a minute before the Spartan
wrestler was able to escape, but the
Crusader took him down again. After
another escape Mauro did not get close
enough for Betteridge to try a match ending
fall, time ran out and Mauro had the victory
10-3.
These two will probably not meet again as
Betteridge will wrestled in the 106 lbs.
weight class starting at the Deep South
Bayou Duals. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Jesuit's Nicky Charles defeated
Cushing's Austin Walsh 2-1.
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120 Pounds
Cushing's Daniel Hood defeated Jesuit's
Ben D'Antonio 6-0. |
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The 120 lbs.
wrestler from Oklahoma dominated this weight
class with four falls and a 17-3 decision in
Friday's pool matches. The 17-3
decision was over his finals opponent, Ben
D'Antonio of Jesuit. Having regained a
starting spot for the Blue Jays, D'Antonio
did what he does very well - get better
fast. While 17-3 is not hard to best,
Hood still was. A takedown in the
first 45 seconds put him up 2-0.
Thirty seconds into the second period he
used a standing-switch and reversed
D'Antonio for a 4-0 lead. IN the third
period D'Antonio chose to start in the
neutral position, but Hood took him down to
ear two more points. It was not a
repeat of the 17-3 match earlier, but the
6-0 did fine and Cushing had a Culotta
champion. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Mandeville's Nicholas des Bordes
defeated East Ascension's Jacob Bernard
5-2.
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126 Pounds
Rummel's Tyler Mire defeated Brother
Martin's Taylor Gambill 5-4. |
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Sophomore Taylor
Gambill was undefeated going into the Trey
Culotta finals. He had four pins and a
major decision on Friday. One of his
victories was over Andrew Munn of St.
Thomas, who lost The Woodlands finals 8-7 to
Comeaux's Connor Stampley. In the
finals of the Mandeville Open, Gambill
handled Rummel's Tyler Mire convincingly
with a first round pin.
After 1:20 it was Gambill scoring first with
a takedown. Mire managed to escape and
the round ended 2-1. Gambill was able
to switch positions with Mire in the second
for a 4-1 lead and looked to be in control
of the match. But he would not score
again. With 18 seconds left Mire
escaped, halving Gambill's lead to 4-2.
On bottom for the third period, Mire escaped
in the first four seconds, and required a
takedown to take the lead. He got it
with a double-leg with 90 seconds remaining.
Riding Gambill and stopping Granby-rolls for
the remainder of the round, he avenged his
first loss of the season. (This was
not Mire's first "payback" to a wrestler who
previously bested him - Collin Guerra of
Holy Cross beat Mire 7-5 at East Ascension
but Mire returned the favor, by the same 7-5
score, at a dual meet with Holy Cross.) |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Brother Martin's David Drago (UN) won
over Cushing Blake Burden via
disqualification.
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132 Pounds
Brother Martin's Paul Klein defeated
Live Oak's Cody Hill 9-2. |
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132 was feasibly
the toughest weight class of the tournament.
As if just Cody Hill of Live Oak were not
enough, it had the only wrestler to defeat
Hill aside from via fluke in Brother
Martin's undefeated Paul Klein.
Cushing's Mason Roberts was an Oklahoma
state runner-up. Vestavia Hill's
Jeremy Strong placed third in the Alabama
state finals.
While the score was similar to that of their
first meeting (Klein defeated Hill 9-3 in
the Spartan Open finals), this match was
different in a couple of ways. Hill
was able to get in on Klein's legs, and he
was able to escape. But he could not
break down the Crusader's defense. It
took 90 seconds for Klein to gain a takedown
advantage. After an escape, another
takedown netted Klein a 5-0 lead. Hill
got on the board with an escape with 1:45
left in the third period, but Klein scored
defending against another shot by Hill.
Hill got away again, but Klein fought off
last second attempts and prevailed 9-2.
The Crusader junior is now 22-0, but was
impressed with his friend.
"He wrestled a lot tougher than last time,"
said Klein. He's a tough wrestler."
Hill took his second loss to Klein in stride
- "We've been wrestling since we first
started. He's solid this year.
All I can do is go up there and butt heads
with him."
Hill is not one to make excuses. He
will be dropping to 126, as he weighed-in at
124.5 for the Culotta. Size can make a
difference even if one's heart does not
recognize it.
When asked if he would miss Cody at 132 lbs.
Klein responded "Nah, I'm not going to miss
him." |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Cushing's Mason Roberts defeated
Houston's Grayson Young in 2:40.
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138 Pounds
Brother Martin's Austin Meyn defeated
Rummel's Rick Lacava 5-0. |
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The 138 lbs. final
featured two 2013 state runner-sup in
Brother Martin's Austin Meyn and Rummel's
Rick Lacava. Lacava avenged one of his
three losses this season at the Raider Open
when he defeated George Benoit of Holy
Cross. But his other two losses were
to Meyn, who was 20-0 and relies on a
stellar defense. Lacava, though, was
the only wrestler to score more than two
points against Meyn this season.
But not this time. Meyn defended
Lacava's single-leg attempts and managed a
takedown with a little under a minute left
in the first period. On bottom for the
second period, Meyn escaped for a 3-0 lead
and at the end of the second round, stopped
another Lacava single-leg shot, flattening
the Raider wrestler and spinning behind for
another two points. Meyn
rode Lacava out in the third period and
prevailed 5-0. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Vestavia Hills' Hayden Hill defeated
Jesuit's Will Lafranca in 3:00.
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145 Pounds
Brother Martin's Danny Evans (UN)
defeated Brother Martin's Pierce
Williams 4-3. |
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The 145 lbs.
championship was a Brother Martin affair,
pitting two Crusaders who have been battling
for the starting roster spot all season.
Both have very good seasons behind them.
Pierce Williams placed second at the
Mandeville Open and won the Spartan.
Evans won the Mandeville Open, and placed
second at the Trygg. Sometime earlier
in the week Williams must have won a
wrestle-off as he was the Brother Martin
designated scorer. But Evans does not
prefer the understudy role.
Evans started the scoring after a
minute-and-a-half had elapsed, going under a
single-leg shot and coming out on top for
the takedown. Starting the second
period on bottom, Williams could not escape
until a little less than 30 seconds
remained. He was behind 2-1 with Evans
having the advantage of choice in the third
period. Evans did escape, increasing
his lead to 3-1, but after 45 seconds
Williams took down Evans to tie the match.
Unable to turn Evans to his back, Williams
let him go, allowing a go-ahead point but a
chance for another takedown that could win
the match. But Evans has a solid
defense as well, and held off his teammate
for a 4-3 championship. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Jesuit's Ashton Queyrouze defeated
Cushing's Jacob Miller 6-1.
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152 Pounds
Jesuit's Efosa Eboigbe defeated Vestavia
Hills' Morgan Paugh 11-7. |
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This finals,
between a 2013 third place winner in Alabama
and a 2013 state runner-up from Jesuit was
just too fun to watch. Efosa Eboigbe
has not lost since that day last February;
he has allowed only one opponent to avoid a
pin or a technical fall. He had five
falls on Friday - one over Brother Martin's
previously unbeaten Mason Williams.
Eboigbe started off with a takedown in the
first 17 seconds. Paugh was able to
escape but it seemed like Efosa had things
well in hand. Then Eboigbe tried a
lateral drop which was disastrous.
Paugh caught him and scored a quick five
points, taking a 5-2 lead. Eboigbe was
nonplussed and routinely escaped to close
the gap to 5-3 and then scored a takedown of
his own to tie the match at 5-5 as the
second round ended. Paugh started on
the bottom in the third and took a 7-5 lead
after reversing Eboigbe. But Eboigbe
escaped and scored his own takedown for an
8-7 lead, lifting Paugh off of the mat for
what seemed like a very long time. He
had 11 seconds left, so he scored three more
back points and prevailed 11-7. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Brother Martin's Mason Williams defeated
East Ascension's Dequan Jackson 3-1.
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160 Pounds
St. Paul's' Tanner Leblanc defeated
Jesuit's Gaston Eymard 4-3. |
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Jesuit's Gaston
Eymard has had a great season so far.
His one loss, though, was to his Culotta
finals opponent from St. Paul's, Tanner
Leblanc. That was a 4-3 victory.
In the pools on Friday Leblanc notched
another win over the Blue Jay, also by a
mere point,6-5. So there was every
reason to believe this would be a close
match, which it was.
Neither wrestler could score in the first
period and it took over a minute for Eymard
to solve Leblanc's crab-ride enough to a
escape and take a 1-0 lead. In the
third period, though, Tanner switched Eymard
to take a 2-1 lead, but Eymard was able to
escape and tie the match at two apiece.
With 45 seconds left Leblanc scored the only
takedown of the match, and took a 4-2 lead.
Eymard was again able to escape but, as in
the other two previous matches between the
two, Leblanc prevailed by a single point. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Brother Martin's Travis Quarterman
defeated Vestavia Hills' George Dazzio
5-4.
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170 Pounds
Vestavia Hills' Kyle Meding defeated
Mandeville's Frankie Arena 7-2. |
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Mandeville's
Frankie Arena barely made it into Saturday's
championship bracket, but it really doesn't
matter how one gets someplace as opposed to
what one does when one is there. Arena
made the most of it by defeating Brother
Martin's Friday top-seed Nicholas Comardelle
8-3 and then Chase Cochran of St. Paul's for
the second time in two days. In the
finals he would meet Kyle Meding of Vestavia
Hills, who easily got past his first round
match and then impressively pinned Live
Oak's Brody Bonura.
Meding started the scoring with an
ankle-pick takedown with 60 seconds
remaining in the first period. Arena
was able to escape and Meding's lead was 2-1
after one round. Arena tied the match
with an escape in the second period, but
with 11 seconds he left allowed a takedown
by Meding and fell behind 4-2. Meding
score and escape for a 5-2 lead in the
third, and deftly repelled a single-leg shot
by Arena to score the final two points of
the match for a 9-7 championship. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Live Oak's Brody Bonura defeated St.
Paul's' Chase Cochran 13-3.
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182 Pounds
Jesuit's Guy Patron, Jr. defeated
Brother Martin's Yehia Riles 3-1. |
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A buzz went around
the Comeaux High School gym last January
when Sam Lites of Airline was beaten in the
first round by some Jesuit freshman.
That freshman was Guy Patron, Jr., who ended
up placing third in the Ken Cole Memorial.
He later placed fifth at the state
championships.
Brother Martin's Yehia Riles was a 2013
State runner-up at 195 lbs. for the
Crusaders, and while his one loss was to a
quality opponent in Covington's Brennan
Allen, his record included two wins over
Holy Cross' Daniel Relayson.
Friday the Blue Jay sophomore pulled the
upset, defeating Riles 6-3 in the pool
matches. Relegated to the third seed in the
Saturday bracket, Riles wasted little time
with Vestatvia Hills' James Edwards and
handled Fontainebleau's Ethan Eisenhardt 6-3
to meet Patron again.
Patron shot, and shot a lot, and finally,
with 17 seconds left in the first period,
scored on an inside single-leg.
Starting the second period on the bottom,
Patron opened a 3-0 lead and fought off some
deep Riles single and double-leg shots.
Patron can ride as well. It took Riles
over a minute-and-a-half to score his first
point via an escape but that was all the
Jesuit wrestler allowed. With two wins
over an opponent he should expect to see
several times again this year, Patron also
had a Trey Culotta championship. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Fontainebleau's Ethan Eisenhardt
defeated Rummel's Jimmy Young in 1:51.
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195 Pounds
Brother Martin's Josh Tapia defeated
Cushing's Daniel Rowell 7-4. |
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Top-seeded Joshua
Tapia had already defeated Cushing's Daniel
Rowel 7-4 on Friday. After getting
past two Louisiana opponents to make the
finals, Rowell was up again.
Nothing Changed.
Tapia scored the first takedown but Rowell
managed an arm roll to tie the score at 2-2.
Tapia switch Rowell for another two points
and as the period neared an end Rowell
looked to have switch Tapia, but was awarded
only an escape point. Tapia led 4-3
after the first. Tapia escaped from
Rowell in the second for a 5-3 lead and then
took Rowell down on a single-leg shot he
parlayed into a shuck duck-under.
Needing point opportunities, Rowell tried to
escape via a Granby-roll but Tapia caught
it, and then rode Rowell to the end for
another 7-4 victory. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
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220 Pounds
Vestavia Hill's Dalton Campbell defeated
Cushing's Trevor Hubble 16-5. |
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In 2012 Dalton
Campbell of Vestavia Hills won the Trey
Culotta finals in 18 seconds. On
Friday he pinned everyone. Cushing's
Trevor Hubble had four pins on Friday.
He did something nobody else could do in the
finals. He went six minutes.
Hubble started the match trying a throw, but
Campbell is too quick to fall for that
early, and used it to his advantage for his
first takedown. Hubble could do little
in the first and second periods against
Campbell, who amassed points with tilts,
takedowns, escapes - all were working.
There is a negative side to quick pins -
that being not used to going six minutes.
By the third period Campbell looked tired.
He was not as sharp, not as fast. He
rolled himself to his back and allowed
Hubble a two-point reversal. But it
was too late for Hubble as Campbell had
almost scored enough for a technical fall.
Campbell had his second Culotta championship
with his 15-5 win but, even more accolades
were to follow as he was voted the
Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Rummel's Tyler Fontana defeated Brother
Martin's Jacob Clapp 7-3.
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285 Pounds
East Ascension's Conor Karwath defeated
Fontainebleau's Christian Ponson 3-1. |
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With the Trey
Culotta Award at stake, East Ascension's
undefeated Conor Karwath faced
Fontainebleau's Christian Ponson, who's two
previous losses had been to Jesuit's
Nicholas Carmello, and to Karwath on Friday.
Ponson gained revenge on Carmello on Friday
with a fall in 4:58 (an injury may have been
involved, but it is not known how, if in any
manner, the injury affected the match).
Now he had a chance to do the same vs.
Karwath.
After a scoreless first period Ponson took
the lead first with an escape in the second.
But with 22 seconds remaining, Karwath was
able to spin around Ponson and garner
takedown points, a 2-1 lead, and a third
period in which he would start in a position
of advantage. Karwath scored the third
period escape for a 3-1 lead, and that is
how the match ended. Karwath is now
31-0 and remains undefeated, amidst the
likes of Klein, Meyn and Eboigbe. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Jesuit's Dominic Carmello defeated St.
Thomas' Campbell Clarkson in 1:36.
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