Status: Fini

Much remains to be clarified on Saturday, but this week has already been helpful re determining who will be seeded where come the state championships on February 20th and 21st.  After Saturday's Greater Baton Rouge Championships and St. Paul's Invitational most of the Division I seeds should be set.

Greater Baton Rouge Championships - After Day One

Brusly High School, Brusly, Louisiana  - The Catholic High Bears are in control of the 2015 Greater Baton Rouge Championships after the first day of competition, having scored 97.5 points, which is 26 points better than 2nd-place Brusly, 26.5 points better than 3rd-place St. Amant and 30.5 points better than 4th-place Zachary.  The Bears are trying to bring the GBR championship trophy home after losing it to Brusly last year, and they are in fine shape to do just that.  Catholic has 10 semifinalists and all 13 of their wrestlers remain in contention for points on Saturday.  Live Oak (56 points) and Baton Rouge (54 points) are still in contention but will require a total Saturday meltdown by the Bears, Panthers and Gators to have a legitimate shot at taking home the title.

If the semifinals go according to the seeding, Catholic will have four finalists, Brusly will have five, St. Amant two, Zachary three, Live Oak three and Baton Rouge four.  This is not meant to sound like a Catholic "hit list" (were Catholic not in the lead someone else would be featured), but if any other teams are to have a chance, the following are crucial matches (records against each other follow dashes):

106 lbs.; #1 Austin Gouedy (CEN) vs. #5 Perry Jude Franklin (CAT) - first meeting; 115 lbs.: #2 Austin Franklin (BRU) vs. #3 Cameron Carpenter (CAT) - first meeting; 120 lbs.: #1 Dominic Dewey (CAT) vs. #4 Christopher Marson (DS) - first meeting and a lot of teams will want Marson to play the spoiler role; 126 lbs.: #2 Micah Roby (BR) vs. #3 Josh Matthews (CAT) - Roby is 3-0; 132 lbs.: #1 Kendon Lee (BRU) vs. #5 Daniel Gunn (CAT) - Kayser is 3-0; 138 lbs.: #2 Mitch Vidrine (CAT) vs. #6 Brendan Warner (DUT) - Vidrine 1-0; 145 lbs. consolations: #5 Jacob Fereday (CAT) vs. Kamrin Griffin (EA) - first meeting; 152 lbs.: #1 Matthew Mire (CAT) vs. #4 Richard Hunter (BRU) - first meeting; 160 lbs.: #1 Koby Mancuso (BRU) vs. #5 Denver Denison (CAT) - first meeting; 170 lbs.: #6 Clayton Kavanaugh (DUN) vs. #7 Andrew Messina (CAT) - Kavanaugh is 1-0; 182 lbs.: #6 Connor Ortego (CAT) vs. #7 Christian Nguyen (StM) - first meeting; 220: #1 K.J. Wilson (CAT) vs. #4 Mason Rabel (DUN) - first meeting; #2 Ja'Vonte Wheeler (BRU) vs. #4 Aaron Wiltz (CAT) - 1st meeting.

Interestingly enough, of these matches, while the Bears are higher seeds in six of them, the two opponents in five of those matches have not met this season.  In four of the other matches the Bears' opponents have a winning record against their Bear opponents.  Hence, for any other teams to have a chance, unproven wrestlers will have to defeat higher seeded Catholic ones, and no Catholic lower seeds can score upsets.  Possible...yes.  Probable...that's a different matter altogether. 

The finals are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Brother Martin 54-Rummel 19

Brother Martin rolled off another dual meet win Wednesday, 54-19 at home against a quality Rummel team that forfeited five weight classes, but not without some noteworthy matches.

At 170 lbs. Pierce Williams, coming on strong late in the season, notched a season tie-breaking win over Joseph Kerry, 5-1, which should place Williams as the second seed in Division I behind Holy Cross' Brice Duhe.  Kerry should be #3, followed probably by Baton Rouge's Thomas Stremlau.

At 285 lbs. Rummel's Ryan Hanley may have secured a second seed at the state championships with a fall in 3:20 over Matthew Montalbano.  Hanley is only 2-2 on the season, but his other win, on January 21st, was over Travis Gardner of Holy Cross.  Hanley's losses have come to Jesuit's Dominic Carmello, who should be the #1 seed in Division I, and Teurlings Catholic's Travis Santiago, who is a Division II wrestler.  The Santiago match was Hanley's first of the year, and unfortunately it happened at the Louisiana Classic.  Santiago was defeated in the quarterfinals by Gardner, which knocked Hanley out of the consolation rounds. 

Holy Cross 39-Jesuit 20

Some other important matches were held across town at Holy Cross, where the Tigers defeated the Jesuit Blue Jays 39-20 on Wednesday.  Jesuit's Brody Martin won his fourth match over the Tiger's Chris Zea, but while in their first two matches Martin won by three points, in his last two both victories have come by a mere one point.  Martin should be seeded 1st at 106 lbs. in Division I, followed by Rummel freshman Blake Mateu and then Zea.

Dylan Soileau made a strong case to be a second or third seed at the state championships with a 10-4 win over Ken Cole champion Joseph Dupre.  Odd are, with a good finish in the Greater Baton Rouge Championships, East Ascension's Jacob Bernard will take one of those spots, relegating Dupre to #4.

At 138 lbs. Jake Rando recorded his second win over Jake Rovira by a 7-1 score.  Rando's previous win over Rovira was 3-1 at the Mandeville Open.

Holy Cross' George Benoit remained undefeated at 152 lbs. with a 19-7 decision over Will Lafranca.

At 285 lbs. Jesuit's Dominic Carmello all but locked up the #1 seed at State with a 6-4 win in Sudden Victory over Travis Gardner.  Should Carmello and Fontainebleau's Christian Ponson meet in Saturday's St. Paul's Invitational, a Ponson win could give the #1 seed to the Bulldog.  Those line-ups, however, were not available at of the publishing of this article.

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