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| Pretty routine first day at the Ken Cole |
| January 31st, 2015 | Written by: Editor |
| The 39th annual Ken Cole Memorial Tournament began Friday, January 30th, at Comeaux High School in Lafayatte, Louisiana. Fifty-six teams and a few "B" squads are competing in the last event that will hold significant clout re seeding determinations come the LHSAA State Wrestling Championships on February 20th and 21st. |
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The Jesuit Blue Jays have a slim lead over the St. Paul's Wolves and the Teurlings Catholic Rebels after the first day of competition at the 2015 Ken Cole Memorial Tournament. Jesuit has 90 points, eight more than the Wolves and 10 more than the Rebels. Comeaux is in fourth place with 65.5 points, closely followed by Catholic (61.5), Fontainebleau (60.5), Brusly (59) and Lafayette (58). Baton Rouge and McKinley, with 54 and 46 points respectively, round out the top 10 teams.
Some of the days best photos are presented below:
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The Jesuit Blue Jays have a slim lead over the St. Paul's Wolves and the Teurlings Catholic Rebels after the first day of competition at the 2015 Ken Cole Memorial Tournament. Jesuit has 90 points, eight more than the Wolves and 10 more than the Rebels. Comeaux is in fourth place with 65.5 points, closely followed by Catholic (61.5), Fontainebleau (60.5), Brusly (59) and Lafayette (58). Baton Rouge and McKinley, with 54 and 46 points respectively, round out the top 10 teams.
UPSET SPECIAL?
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A National Enquirer headline could
look like this to describe the 126 lbs. match between Shaw's 3rd-seeded
Mason Mauro, a two-time defending Division I state champion for the
Brother Martin Crusaders, and Jesuit's Joseph Dupre, who is competing on
the Blue Jays' "B" squad. Such an article, though, would have to
be given the same amount of credence as any other "articles" in that
ridiculous periodical. This was, however, the only loss by a top-four seed that did not entail an injury. |
On paper this was a big upset. Only one other active wrestler can claim title to owning two Division I state championships as Mason Mauro can, and that happens to be one Paul Klein of Brother Martin, Mauro's former teammate. And Dupre is, at the moment, wrestling for the Jesuit "B" squad behind senior Payton Markey, who is scoring points for the Blue Jays this weekend.
This match, however, was not as much of an upset as it might seem at face value.
Mauro cannot be expected to be at his best just yet. He did not wrestle his first matches until January 7th, on which he won two matches against some stalwart competition in John Ehret's Joseph Davis-Lucas and Thomas Jefferson's Ryan Vedros. But things got harder fast as, with no matches for 10 days, his next event was the Louisiana Classic. Keep in mind, and meaning no disrespect to the wrestling program at Shaw, Mauro is not facing the same day-to-day competition at practice that he did for the last two years. He is not sparring against Paul Klein and Taylor Gambill every day, nor with the myriad of other good Crusader wrestlers who make thier starters so good. He got to meet one of them in his second match at the Classic, that being Gambill, who is having an excellent season (undefeated in Louisiana), and his former teammate came out of that match ahead. Mauro won his next two matches, including one against Jesuit's starter at 126 lbs. this week, before falling to an Oklahoma wrestler and suffering a 3-2 loss to Baton Rouge's Micah Roby, who is also having an excellent year. Two months off during a season is a lot to catch-up for anyone.
On the other hand, while Dupre may be wrestling on Jesuit's second squad this weekend, he could easily start on 90% of any other teams in the state. The Jesuit junior has 21 wins vs. only five Louisiana losses, all to top-notch wrestlers: Mandeville's Nick Des Bordes (twice), East Ascension's Landon Wheat, Carencro's Daniel Trappey and Collin Guerra of Holy Cross. Plus, he won the GNO Championships over very tough Jesuit teammate Jordan Giewat.
Dupre dominated the match with two takedowns and an escape, whereas Mauro was only able to manage three escapes in the 5-3 match. The end was dicey for Dupre, though, as Mauro got hold of and lifted up Dupre's leg, and Dupre had to fight off a match-tying takedown for the better part of a minute.
Suffice to say the two were pretty evenly matched on this day and Dupre
simply was more aggressive. Dupre's road to the finals leads through St.
Paul's Steven Van Zandt and then probably Roby. Should he not get past
both of those, another match with Mauro on Saturday is a distinct possibility.
If that is the case then "enquiring minds" will not be needed, as it will simply
be deemed a good match between two excellent competitors.
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Happy 17th Birthday to Beau Bush of Holy Cross!
But...
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Bush is making his first start at 113 lbs. this week, so cake was not an option on Friday. He did, however, received a number one seeding at 113 lbs. and advanced to the quarterfinals with a pin in 2:24 over Shaw's Zachary Collins (photos below) and a pin over De la Salle's Cameron Leblanc in 0:43. Bush faces St. Paul's Jared Thieler in Saturday's quarterfinals.
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