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Crusaders lead after the first day of the Trey Culotta Invitational

12-23-2015, 2015 | Written by: Editor

The host Brother Martin Crusaders will carry a 26 point lead and a distinct advantage into Friday's championship brackets at the Trey Culotta Invitational. The Crusaders netted 305 points, followed by St. Paul's with 279 and Vestavia Hills, Alabama, with 209.

The Crusaders and the Wolves each have 14 starters in the eight-man championship brackets, which gives St. Paul's a chance to win the event. Vestavia Hills is out of the team championship race as they only have nine wrestlers in the championship brackets. Should the Rebels win all of those weight classes, they would only add 63 points to their total. If their other four each place 9th, it still will not be enough to break into the top two team spots.

113 lbs.: In a great match, fourth-seeded Cole Houser of St. Paul's scored a takedown in a Sudden Victory period to defeat second seeded Luke Cotton of Brother Martin. The match determined who would be in the half of the bracket with Blake Mateu, the #1 seed from Rummel.

113 lbs.: In a possible Division II finals match, Rummel's Blake Mateu pinned Cooper Simon of Rayne in 1:36.

126 lbs.: Airline's Javarious Jones took care of Crusader sophomore Michael Kospelich in 2:54.


126 lbs.: Stephen Rumney scored a 24-6 technical fall against Josh Hebert of Teurlings Catholic.	132 lbs.: Patrick Evans of the Crusaders defeated Jake Verret of Comeaux 5-3.	138 lbs.: Hahnville's Nicholas Lirette defeated Billy Harrison of St. Paul's via a fall in 3:56.	145 lbs.: Brent Torres of Catholic scores a takedown on Brother Martin's Paul Elmer during a 9-4 win for the Bear.	182 lbs.: Hahnville's Hunter Dempster gets behind Vestavia Hills' Zachary Nelson before taking Nelson down to the match for a 10-8 Sudden Victory win.

138 lbs.: Despite suffering two losses on Tuesday, Brother Martin senior Taylor Gambill should not be underestimated on Wednesday. He lost a3-1 decision to Jack Stoves of Vestavia Hills (left) via a takedown in the waning seconds of the match. A little later he decisioned a tough Dawson Mire (right) from Rummel 8-4. He pinned his first two opponents prior to the Stoves and Mire matches, but then lost his last one 5-3 to Teurlings Catholic's Brock Bonin.

132 lbs.: Fourth-seeded Landon Wheat of East Ascension scored a takedown and nearfall points in the waning stages of the third period to defeat #2 seed Seth Gambill of Brother Martin.

Brother Martin has an edge over the Wolves with four top-seeds. St. Paul's has two top seeds but are by no means out of the championship hunt. Crusaders-Wolves scenarios are presented below (seeds are for Wednesday, as determined by Tuesday's matches):

Weight	Brother Martin (Seed)	St. Paul's (Seed)	Possible Meeting	Possible Scenarios	Edge
106	Daniel Varnado (2)	Brandon Stein (1)	Finals	If the seeding holds, these two will meet in the finals.	Wolves
113	Luke Cotton (4)	Cole Houser (2)	Finals	Cotton, due to a Sudden Victory loss to Houser, will have to get past top-seeded Blake Mateu of Rummel to earn a rematch in the finals.	Wolves
120	Steven Shields (1)	Jared Thieler (3)	Finals	Thieler has to get past Rummel's #2 seed Robert Fairchild, who defeated Thieler in 1:11 on November 7th.	Crusaders
126	Stephen Rumney (1)	Shane Ulfers (6)	Finals	Ulfers will have to get past two higher seeds to make the finals, including Catholic's Daniel Gunn. Gunn beat Ulfers 6-3 on November 28th.	Crusaders
132	Patrick Evans (1)	Grant Hughes (3)	Finals	Hughes will have to get past second-seeded Landon Wheat of East Ascension if he survives a tough first match versus Rummel's John Doyle. Evans, however, could meet teammate Seth Gambill in the semifinals. Gambill, though wrestling unattached, was originally the second seed but lost that spot on Saturday via a last second loss to Wheat on Tuesday.	Crusaders
138	Taylor Gambill (5)	Billy Harrison (4)	First match	The winner of this match can only finish fourth at the worst, while the other can only place 5th at best. Gambill was originally the top seed, but may be a little "rusty" after a late start to the season. Two losses (Jack Stoves of Vestavia Hills and Brock Bonin of Teurlings Catholic) in one day, however, is a rare experience for Gambill, so one should not be surprised if he and second-seeded Nicholas Lirette of Hahnville meet in the finals. Bonin, of course, will be a substantial hurdle for Gambill, as the three-time Division II state champion defeated the Crusader 5-3 in their last match on Tuesday.	Crusaders (by a hair)
145	Paul Elmer (4)	Hunter Bourgeois (1)	Semifinals	Elmer was knocked out of his original second-seed spot by Catholic's Brent Torres in their last match on Tuesday, putting him in Bourgeois' half of the bracket.	Wolves
152	Kevin Casey (2)	Seth Dragon (5)	Finals	Casey is expected to meet either Houston's Matthew Dale, whom he upset 6-4 on Tuesday, or Shaw's Brad Albarado, with whom he is 1-1 one the season but lost their last encounter. Dragon will have to get past unattached Crusader Cal Palermo to face top-seeded Bowman Hill of Vestavia Hills.	Crusaders
160	Brad Guidry (5)	Sam Dufour (4)	First match	As with 138 lbs., the Crusader and Wolf (if that is what an individual St. Paul's athlete is called) will face each other in the first match Wednesday. The winner will probably have the pleasure of a match with undefeated 2015 Division I state champion Christian Walden of Airline. Dufour has better common opponent wins versus Michael Benton of Holy Cross and Josh Edwards of Belle Chasse.	Wolves
170	Pierce Williams (1)	Blake Huff (5)	Semifinals	Huff will need to get past Teurlings Catholic's Lee Schwarzenbach, who gets an edge via his four wins Tuesday versus Huff's three.	Crusaders
182	Travis Viener (4)	Kyle Schech (7)	Finals	If Schech gets past East Ascension's Chris Reaux he still faces Airline's Keegan Gilligan or an upset-minded Hunter Dempster of Hahnville in the semifinals. As the Wednesday fourth seed, Viener will face fifth-seeded Cameron Bertot of Shaw. Viener has a better common opponent win over Michael Mason of Belle Chasse, giving him an edge over Bertot. The winner should face top-seeded and undefeated 2015 Division I state Champion Josh Ramirez of Rummel in the semifinals.	Crusaders
195	Cole Alfonso (2)	Josh Mascaro (4)	Finals	Mascaro was injured in his last match on Tuesday against Alfonso, but if he does compete and get past Vestavia Hills' Morgan Long, he will have a hard time with Teurlings Catholic's Kynan Sonnier in the semifinals. Alfonso should expect a tough semifinals match against Hahnville's Trevon Honor, against whom Alfonso eked out an 8-5 TB-1 victory in the Jefferson Invitational finals.	Crusaders
220	Nathaniel Perdue (4)	Colin Francis (3)	Finals	Francis ended up the #3 seed on Wednesday due to his first loss of the season against top-seeded James Edwards of Vestavia Hills. The #2 seed, Trevon Honor of Hahnville, also only has one loss on the season, which should make for an interesting semifinals match if both win their first matches on Wednesday. Perdue has a much harder road as Edwards should loom in the semifinals.	Wolves
285	Mohammed Mohammed (6)	Christian Fortner (4)	Finals	Jordan Campbell has a TB-1 win over Mohammed, but Campbell needs to get past #2 seed K.J. Wilson of Catholic to make the semifinals. Mohammed has to get past a surprising Corey Dublin of the Jesuit-B team, who won four matches on Tuesday. Fortner should make the semifinals, but there he will most likely meet Shaw's undefeated Matthew Blair. Should Fortner and Mohammed meet somewhere, Fortner has the advantage via a fall in 1:06 over the Crusader on November 7th.	Wolves

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