|
"Four" is the winning number at the 2015 LHSAA State Wrestling Championships |
April 25, 2015 | Written by: Editor; Photographs by Editor and Camille Tyra |
Division I | Division II | Division III | All-Academic & Golden Whistle Awards | Paul Klein | George Benoit |
"Four" is definitely a magic number for the 2015 LHSAA State Wrestling Championships:
° | Robert Dauterive's Brother Martin Crusaders won their fourth consecutive Division I team title; | |
° | Teurlings Catholic in Division II and Brusly in Division III each won their fourth team titles in the last five years; | |
° | Paul Klein of the Crusaders won his fourth consecutive Division I state championship; | |
° | Holy Cross' George Benoit, a runner-up for three consecutive years, won a Division I title in his fourth and last state finals match; | |
° | Four wrestlers went undefeated on the season., |
The championship teams remained the same as they were in
2014, as did two runner-up teams and 13 individuals.
Division I Team Champions Brother Martin |
Division II Team Champions Teurlings Catholic |
Division III Team Champions Brusly |
Klein, Benoit, Kendrick Jones of Hahnville and Ethan Eisenhardt of Fontainebleau went undefeated (including out-of-state matches for Klein and Benoit) during the course of the 2014-15 season. Brother Martin's Steven Shields, Jesuit's Ben D'Antonio and Brother Martin's Yehia Riles were undefeated against Louisiana opponents.
Shields, a Crusader sophomore, won his second Division I state title and is well on his way to following in Klein's footsteps as another Crusader to win four in a row.
Teurlings Catholic junior Brock Bonin is one more championship away from matching Brusly's Tim Leblanc, Chad Buras of Buras, Carmen Cortez of Basile, Brad Macha of Redemptorist, Ernie Payton of Hackberry and Micah Easley and Cade Felps of Zachary, to win four consecutive Division II state championships.
Brusly's Austin Franklin and Kendon Kayser, both sophomores, are now both two-time Division III state champions, and are halfway through matching the feats of fellow Panthers Austin and Trevor Schermer, by winning four consecutive Division III state championships.
Repeating as state champions in Division I were Brother Martin's Steven Shields, Paul Klein and Yehia Riles, as well as Hahnville's Kendrick Jones. In Division II Live Oak's Colt Olinde, Brock Bonin of Teurlings Catholic and Parkway's Zach Funderburk successfully defended their 2014 titles. In Division III Brusly's Austin Franklin, Kendon Kayser and Koby Mancuso defended titles they won in 2014.
Additionally, Shaw's Mason Mauro won the 126 lbs. championship in Division II. In the previous two seasons he won individual Division I titles as a Brother Martin Crusader. Basile's Raymond Bushnell, injured prior to the state tournament last season, took home his third Division III title in four years.
All-Academic and Golden Whistle Award
The 2014-15 All-Academic Wrestling Award Winners | 2015 Golden Whistle Award Winner - Jeff Domangue |
The Jesuit Blue Jays, however, surprised a lot of people by finishing second by one point over the Holy Cross Tigers, after a season in which Holy Cross beat the Blue Jays soundly in the Louisiana Classic, the Mandeville Open, the GNO Championships and 39-20 in a dual meet. Jesuit had three state champions: senior Brody Martin at 106 lbs., senior Ben D'Antonio (his second) at 120 lbs. and senior Dominic Carmello at 285 lbs. The Blue Jays had runners-up in Joseph Dupre (a surprise finalist after a surprising Ken Cole victory as an unseeded and non-scoring participant) and junior Guy Patron, Jr.
Jesuit eked out second place by unexpected performances, including the
second-place finish by the fourth-seeded Dupre, a third-place finish (and
major decision) by fourth-seeded Max Grosch, a fourth-place finish by
seventh-seeded Jake Rovira, and a third-place finish (and a major decision) by
fifth-seeded Will Lafranca.
Holy Cross had the most state champions with four: seniors
George Benoit, Dylan Soileau and Brice Duhe, and sophomore Jake Rando.
Junior Beau Bush and sophomore Joey Foret placed second.
After the Crusaders thrashed the runner-up Tigers in the Louisiana Classic by
122.5 points, five of the most experienced Tigers dropped weight classes to try
to increase their chances to win the Division I team title. The strategy
worked as the Tigers won the Ken Cole, as they did the
Spartan Open and, for all practicable purposes, the Mandeville Open, but four
of the five wrestlers (Beau Bush, Collin Guerra, Dylan Soileau and Jake Rando)
were placed in opposite halves of the brackets than the Brother Martin entrants.
They all finished as seeded or higher, but none kept their Brother Martin
counterparts out of the finals (although Jesuit and St. Paul's wrestlers knocked
off two of them).
The remaining Division I state champions were Hahnville's Kenderick
Jones (his second), Rummel freshman Josh Ramirez, Airline sophomore
Christian Walden and Fontainebleau senior Ethan Eisenhardt.
Complete Division I
Brackets Set in PDF
|
|
Klein wins fourth Division I state title and second state Outstanding Wrestler award
|
||||||||
Klein's four state championships: | ||||||||
Note: Jimmy Vidrine of Basile never lost a match and won five state championships from 1960-1964. However, that was in a timespan in which only a maximum of six teams participated in the sport. |
Benoit finally breaks through with a championship
A pensive Benoit finally atop the state awards podium |
|
50 years ago Brother Melchior's Holy Cross Tigers won their 20th team championship at the NOAC. | ||||||||
|
25 years ago Coach Sam Harnsongkram's Jesuit Blue Jays won their third consecutive and 11th overall Division I state championship. | ||||||||||||||
|
10 years ago Coach Mark Strickland's Jesuit Blue Jays won their second consecutive Division I championship. Additionally, Mandeville's Caleb Levee, after missing all but the final week of the season due to a football injury, successfully defended his Division I title from 2004 as the fifth-seed of the 130 lbs. weight class. | ||||||||||
|
Synopsis
Teurlings Catholic, behind state champions Brock Bonin and Travis Santiago, as well as seven runners-up, won their fourth Division II championship in five years under coaches Kent Masson and Brad Macha. The Rebels scored 285 points, comfortably ahead of runner-up Shaw with 211 points and third-place Live Oak with 180 points.
Paul Hatty's Archbishop Shaw team, albeit with only one state champion in senior Mason Mauro, placed second with 211 points, tying their highest place since the 2009 state championships.
Complete Division II
Brackets Set in PDF
|
|
With three state champions - Colt Olinde (his second), Brody Bonura and Nicholas Simoneaux - Live Oak placed third with 180 points. |
|
25 years ago Coach Pat Davis' Buras Wildcats won their fourth consecutive Division II state championship. | ||||||||
|
10 years ago Northside High school of Lafayette, behind state championships by Keven Brooks, Javand Duhon and Dustin Glover, successfully defended their 2004 Division II team championship. |
Synopsis
Coach Jimmy Bible's Brusly Panthers won their 11th Division III championship (Brusly's 13th, including two by Coach Camille Plaisance's Division II teams in 1995and 1996). The Panthers scored 247 points, 52 more than runner-up De la Salle.
For the second year in a
row Coach Rod Cusach's De la Salle Cavaliers were the Division III
runners-up, scoring 195 points, 52 points behind champion Brusly.
That's a far cry from the 167 points the Panthers had on De la Salle last
year.
Complete Division III
Brackets Set in PDF
|
|
|
10 years ago Coach Jimmy Bible's Brusly Panthers won their third Division III title behind state championships by Garrett Couvillon, Cody Rodriguez and Jake Leveron. |
© 2015 by Louisiana Wrestling News |
You may not make electronic copies of these copyrighted materials nor redistribute them to 3rd parties in any form without written permission. |