Status: Fini

Day one of the 2015 Louisiana Classic went pretty much as expected.  The Brother Martin Crusaders opened up a probably insurmountable 68.5 lead over Holy Cross (171 points).  Jesuit is in third place with 90.5 and Madill, OK is fourth with 80.  Expect Brother Martin's lead to increase drastically on Saturday as the Crusaders have 11 semifinalists, including all six of their #1 seeds.  The Tigers of Holy Cross should increase their lead over Jesuit and Madill with seven in the semifinals, although only four are favored to continue to the finals.

There were a few first day upsets and, as is usual, most of them involved #5 seeds.  Josh Averett, seeded #5 at 138 lbs., defeated #4 Mitch Vidrine of Catholic 7-3.  At 160 lbs. Dutchtown's #5 Kaleb Faul defeated #4 Jarrett Moss of Baton Rouge in 3:56.  At 195 lbs. # 5 Travis Viener of the Crusaders defeated #4 Travis Santiago of Teurlings Catholic 7-4.

The biggest upset of the day, as in the highest seed to fall, occurred at 220 lbs.  The circumstances are unknown to the writer at this time, but the result was a disqualification win by #7 Jacob Clapp of Brother Martin over #2 Rodrigo Diaz of Lafayette. 

Three unseeded wrestlers advanced to the semifinals.  At 120 lbs. Carencro's Daniel Trappey defeated #4 Raymond Bushnell of Basile 6-2, and followed that with a win over #5 Dominic Dewey of Catholic.  Eighth-grader Grant Rabel of Dunham, at 182 lbs., pulled an upset first over the #5 seed, Connor Ortego of Catholic, via a fall in 3:56, and continued with an 11-10 win over #4 Austin Gary of Carencro.  At 195 lbs. it was St. Paul's Kyle Schech upsetting first #3 Nicholas Cashio of Catholic 5-3, and then #6 Calvin Griffin of Comeaux with a Sudden Victory pin in 6:31.

The most anticipated match of the first day was probably the quarterfinal match-up of former Brother Martin teammates Taylor Gambill and Mason Mauro at 126 lbs.  Gambill, seeded first, was a 2014 Division I state runner-up at 126 lbs.  Mauro, now competing for Archbishop Shaw and seeded 6th (his only two matches prior to this event were on January 7th), is a two time defending Division I state champion, having won titles for the Crusaders at 106 lbs. in 2013 and 113 lbs. in 2014.  In the "reunion" it was Gambill coming out on top via a fall in 4:20.

On Saturday all eyes will be on 132 lbs. when Brusly's #4 Kendon Kayser has another shot at #1 Paul Klein of Brother Martin.  Kayser showed he can compete with Klein in a 7-5 loss to the Crusader at the Deep South Bayou Duals in a match in which he was able to score three escapes and a takedown on the three-time defending Division I state champion.

The semifinals matches are listed below with notes as necessary:

Back to Top