Status: Fini

Some serious seeding speculation can finally begin as the last major tournaments are over in the Greater New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles areas.  Division I is easiest and will be dealt with here.  More research is required for Divisions II and III, and those will be dealt with later.  By no means, though, consider this the final seeding recommendations (well, OK, guesses) of the Louisiana Wrestling News.  First, though, a recap of the weekend's results.

Greater Baton Rouge Championships

Catholic regained the title it lost to Brusly last year, amassing 245.5 points, far outdistancing second place St. Amant (168 points) and third place Live Oak (148.5 points).  Brusly was right on Live Oak's heels with 147.5 points to place fourth, followed by fifth-place Zachary with 139 points.  Dutchtown and East Ascension each had 119 points but the sixth-place award went to the Griffins.  Catholic had eight finalists and won two weight classes.  St. Amant had no champions, but in addition to two runners-up at 138 and 152, placed nine other wrestlers in the top six, including third-place winners Clinton Brownell at 145 lbs. (who took eventual champion and OW Brandon Cowell of Dutchtown to a Sudden Victory period in the semifinals) and Jordan Averett at 182 lbs.

Mitch Vidrine Matthew Mire

For the Bears, Mitch Vidrine scored a last second reversal over St. Amant's Josh Averett, to win the 138 lbs. championship 5-4.  Two matches later defending Division I state champion Matthew Mire scored a 12-3 major decision over St. Amant's Sam Nugent. Live Oak had three champions.  Colt Olinde defeated Catholic's Cameron Carpenter by a 12-4 major decision, Brody Bonura won his second GBR title with a pin of McKinley's Tyler Ventress in 4:00, and Nicholas Simoneaux held off a fierce Mason Rabel of Dunham to win the 220 lbs. championship by a 4-3 score.

Colt Olinde

East Ascension also had three champions.  Landon Wheat started back-to-back Spartan wins with a 10-3 decision over top-seeded Dominic Dewey of Catholic.  Following Wheat's match was a rematch of last year's 120 lbs. finals between East Ascension's Jacob Bernard and Catholic's Joshua Matthews.  Last year it was Matthews winning 7-6 in the last seconds of the match, and Matthews did the same thing in a 4-3 Ken Cole semifinals match last week.  This year, though, Bernard was not to be denied and, while at the Ken Cole he dominated the early part of the match before Matthews caught up, Bernard did not make that mistake again by scoring a barrage of points in an 18-2 major decision.  The Spartans last championship came at 195 lbs. when Austin Guedry narrowly defeated Zachary's Kevin Tate 3-2. The defending champions had two champions.  Kendon Kayser won his second GBR championship for the Panthers with a fall in 3:53 over Live Oak's Brennan Webb.  At 160 lbs. Koby Mancuso ran-off his 23rd win in a row (including championships at the Brusly Invitational, Louisiana Classic and the Ken Cole Invitational) with a 14-5 major decision over Jarrett Moss of Baton Rouge.

Brody Bonura Nicholas Simoneaux Landon Wheat Jacob Name Austin Guedry Kendon Kayser Koby Mancuso

Brandon Cowell Luther Jones

The Dutchtown Griffins also had two champions.  Brandon Cowell defeated Zachary's Samuel Johnson, for the second time in eight days, 2-0 to win the 145 lbs. title.  The two met in the Ken Cole finals last Saturday in which Cowell prevailed 5-3.  At 170 lbs. Luther Jones, the third seed, avenged a January 3rd loss to Baton Rouge's Thomas Stremlau by a 9-5 score. At 106 lbs. Central's Austin Gouedy use two falls and a 14-0 major decision in reaching the finals, in which he pinned McKinley's Jeremiah Johnson in 1:42.  On the other end of the weight class spectrum Dunham's Kirk Wilson pinned Catholic's Aaron Wiltz in 1:12 to win the 285 lbs. title.

Austin Gouedy Kirk Wilson

Dutchtown's Brandon Cowell (left) was the Outstanding Wrestler in the lower weight classes; individual weight class champions (center); Brusly's Koby Mancuso (right) was the Outstanding Wrestler in the higher weight classes.

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St. Paul's Invitational

Twelve of the 14 Brother Martin first-string wrestlers competed Saturday at the St. Paul's Invitational, their last competition before the LHSAA State Wrestling Championships, and they made the most of it.  The Crusaders netted eight championships and scored 268 points, far outdistancing runner-up St. Paul's (161 points) by 107 points.  Jesuit placed third with 146.5 points while the Holy Cross Tigers placed 4th with 131 points.  However, the Blue Jays and the Tigers wrestled very few of their starters.

At 106 lbs. Luke Cotton of the Crusaders needed a Sudden Victory period to stop Jesuit's Adam Larriviere, last week's Ken Cole champion, 11-9.  Next, Brother Martin's Steven Shields kept his Louisiana record unblemished with a 7-2 decision over Holy Cross' Beau Bush at 113 lbs..

Holy Cross' Collin Guerra made his debut at 120 lbs.  This move was the latest of the Tigers' late season weight class drops in which Bush, Dylan Soileau, Joey Foret and Jake Rando have participated so far. No doubt unexpectedly to some, the move did not work out as the Tiger coaching staff may have wished.  Guerra was defeated in the finals by Mandeville's Nicholas Des Bordes, himself a relative newcomer at 120 lbs., 6-2. 

The Crusaders did not have Taylor Gambill available at 126 lbs., and the Tigers did not enter Soileau, and that left the door open for John Ehret's Joseph David-Lucas to take the title over Taylor's younger brother Seth in a 7-2 win.

The Crusaders did, however, have the services of Paul Klein at 132 lbs., who scored a 14-5 major decision over Holy Cross' Joey Foret and remained undefeated on the year (not only in Louisiana but in Texas, Tennessee and Alabama as well).

Of the Tigers who recently dropped a weight class no one seems to be more at home than Jake Rando at 138 lbs.  Rando cruised through last week's Ken Cole en route to an Outstanding Wrestler award, and he scored a major 11-3 over Brother Martin's Blaine Eisensohn, who probably would have been the #1 seed at the state championships until that match.  Brother Martin then got back on track with successive victories.  Mason Williams, at 145 lbs., defeated Jesuit's Griffin Mason via a 15-5 major decision, followed by a tough 3-2 decision by Seth Williams over host St. Paul's Sam Dufour at 152 lbs.

In what many may consider a significant upset, top-seeded Danny Evans of the Crusaders was defeated 5-2 by Destrehan's Chase Menendez in the 160 lbs. finals.  Menendez had possibly the toughest tournament of anyone, needing 5:43 to get past Belle Chasse's Brice Fisher, a Sudden Victory period to defeat St. Paul's Blake Huff, and then the 5-2 win over Evans.  For his efforts Menendez was voted the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler.

The Crusaders' Pierce Williams continued his late-season onslaught at 170 lbs. with a major 17-5 decision over St. Paul's Chase Cochran, and he was followed by Yehia Riles, who won the 182 lbs. finals due to an injury to Fontainebleau's Brandon Verges.

Jesuit's Guy Patron won another 195 lbs. title even though he only wrestled a semifinal match against St. Paul's Kyle Schech, which ended in a fall in 1:41.  Patron received a first round (quarterfinals) forfeit from Covington's Austin Huff and then a finals forfeit by Brother Martin's Travis Viener.

Fontainebleau's Ethan Eisenhardt, the third of only three wholly undefeated wrestlers in Division I (with Klein and Holy Cross' George Benoit), kept his record spotless with a 10-2 major decision over Brother Martin's Jacob Clapp at 220 lbs.  The Crusaders got the final word in, though, when Matt Montalbano pinned St. Paul's Christian Fortner in 4:11 for the 285 lbs. title.

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Lafayette Metro Championship

The Comeaux Spartans scored 213.5 points, edging out a somewhat depleted Teurlings Catholic team's 185 points, to reclaim the Lafayette Metro Championship, held at Northside High School.  Lafayette placed third with 140 points, Basile fourth with 114.5 points, and Rayne was fifth with 110 points.

The Spartans had four champions in Blake Menard at 106 lbs., Malik Boutte at 126 lbs., Jake Verret at 132 lbs. and Pierce Richard at 138 lbs.  The Rebels of Teurlings Catholic had three titlists.  The Hebert brothers, Dante and Dakota, won at 145 and 152 lbs., and were followed by Brennan Trosclair at 160 lbs.  The Rebels were without the services, however, of Josh Hebert at 113 lbs., Brock Bonin at 132 lbs., Kynan Sonnier at 170 lbs. and Travis Santiago at 285 lbs.

Carencro had two champions in Daniel Trappey at 120 lbs. and Austin Gary at 182 lbs., as did Lafayette in Colton Sebastian at 170 lbs. and Rodrigo Diaz at 220 lbs.  Other champions were North Vermillion's Gavin Becker at 113 lbs., David Quiring of St. Thomas More at 195 lbs. and O'Shea Dugas of Northside at 285 lbs.  Dugas registered falls in 0:29, 0:36, 0:42 and 1:32 and, for the second week in a row, won and Outstanding Wrestler award (he won one last weekend at the Ken Cole).

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Jesse James Southwest Shootout

Team trophies are not awarded, but according to TrackWrestling computations Sam Houston High School, with five champions, won the 2015 Jesse James Southwest Shootout at Sulphur High School on Saturday.  Barbe was second, followed by St. Louis and then host Sulphur.

Sam Houston's Champions were Tristan Andrews at 126 lbs., Andrew Aucoin at 132 lbs., Anthony Bailey at 138 lbs., Aaron John at 145 lbs. and Kellen Lockhart at 285 lbs.  St. Louis' had two champions in Adam Verrett at 120 lbs. and Wyatt Mallet at 195 lbs.  Sulphur had champions in Kiefer Fuselier at 106 lbs. and Trey Duhon at 160 lbs.  The remaining champions were Barbe's Jarden James at 113 lbs., James Hebert of South Cameron at 152 lbs. and Grand Lake's Anica Logan at 170 lbs.  No competitions were held at 182 or 220 lbs.

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Division I Seeding Possibilities - Stab #1

In the interest of publishing this before midnight (Pacific Time), only the Division I seeds that seem "no brainers" to the editor are presented below.  Entries marked with an asterisk are not debatable in the mind of the editor.  This list will no doubt be updated as more research is performed and scathing emails are received.  Weight classes are based on the wrestlers' last events.

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