Status: Fini

If something is really easy then it is not much of a challenge, is it?  And challenges are nothing new to wrestlers.  One does not get better by avoiding them.

The USAW Cadet Duals in Daytona, Florida, have proven to be quite a challenge so far for the thirteen young men from Louisiana who made the trip.

For instance, as a high school wrestler, when was the last time Brusly's Kendon Kayser lost two matches in a tournament?  How about a season?  NEVER!  IT WAS NEVER!  Yet that happened in Daytona.

Mr. Kayser knows to expect stellar competition in such events, and also knows every loss will make him better in the future.  And even at a young age he know that if it is newsworthy when he loses, it means he is doing something right.

Give the young man his due, though, as he also won two matches convincingly by technical falls of 20-7 and 19-8. 

Joining Mr. Kayser with two wins so far in the competition were Hahnville's Division I runner-up Nicholas Lirette.  Lirette also suffered two defeats, which is in every way another example of the high level of competition.

Posting the best record of the day for Louisiana was Jake Rando, now of Holy Cross.   The fourth-place Division I placer won three matches by technical falls of 10-0, 10-0 and 18-8.

Other wins on the day were recorded by Holy Cross' Joey Foret, Hahnville's Trevon Honor, Rummel's Josh Ramirez and Teurlings Catholic's Kynan Sonnier.

As a team the group gave up 25 points immediately as they had to forfeit the 88 lbs., 170 lbs., 182 lbs., 220 lbs. and 285 lbs. weight classes.  Hence winning an actual dual meet in the competition was all that much harder, aside from the level of competition they faced.

The group was initially in Pool "A" with teams from Pennsylvania, Colorado, Florida, New York, South Carolina and Oklahoma.  The Pennsylvania-Red team defeated Louisiana 67-10 in the first round.  After a bye in the consolation round Louisiana succumbed to the Florida-Red team 56-26.  In the match for fifth-place they fell to the team from New York 43-29.

The sixth-place finish relegated Louisiana to the Red & Green pool of fifth-place and sixth-place pool placers.  In their last match on Friday they lost to Ohio 64-19.  On Saturday they will face teams from Virginia and Georgia.

The match scores get a little better when adjusted to negate forfeits and the one point a team receives when a match is not decided by a fall or a technical fall.  As such the scores were 40-8 (vs. PA-Red), 30-18 (vs. FL-Red), 28-9 (vs. New York) and 34-11 (vs. OH-Blue).  Their best meet of the day was their second, against the Florida-Red team, in which Louisiana won four matches to Florida's seven.

Synopsis of Friday's results:

*    Combined for both teams with positive numbers in Louisiana's favor in the official match scores.

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