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Team Competition

Those rooting for a team to prevent the Brother Martin Crusaders from winning their fifth consecutive Division I team championship may take solace in the following:

• St. Paul's has more seeded wrestlers than the Crusaders;
• Airline and Holy Cross each have more #1 seeds than the Crusaders.

Yet thus endeth the solace.

The Crusaders may only have two #1 seeds, but five Crusaders are seeded second.  And of the 14 weight classes, 13 of them have Crusaders seeded in the top four spots.  Jesuit is next with seven wrestlers seeded fourth or better, followed by St. Paul's with six, Airline with five, and Catholic and Holy Cross with four apiece.

Division I Top-Four Seeds

Editor's best guess for his confusion:

Division I, 106 lbs. - #1 Luke Cotton (14-2, Brother Martin) over #2 Kiefer Fuselier (23-2, Sulphur):  These two have one wrestler in common, Rummel's Blake Mateu.  Mateu defeated Cotton 5-0 in the Trey Culotta semifinals.  He defeated Fuselier 12-0 in the finals of the Louisiana Classic.  That Cotton fared better against that one common opponent probably gave Cotton the nod.

Division I, 113 lbs. - #1 Adam Larriviere (Jesuit) over #2 Cole Houser (St. Paul's): This one answered a question I posed a while back about out-of-state matches, sort of.  They must count toward the requisite 10 matches in a weight class to be eligible for seeding in that weight class.  (Ten matches against opponents in one's LHSAA division also makes a wrestler eligible for seeding, which is why Cotton was able to be seeded at 106 lbs. (see above).  Before Larriviere was injured he defeated Houser twice.

Division I, 120 lbs. - Steven Shields over Seth Oubre (Comeaux) sole wrestler to defeat him: Shield's sole loss was to Comeaux's Seth Oubre in the Trey Culotta.  However, earlier in that event Shields beat Oubre, so that tournament might have been considered a "wash."  After that Shields owns every other LHSAA criterion over Oubre. 

Division I, 120 lbs. - Cameron Carpenter Catholic) at #3: Carpenter only competed in two Louisiana individual tournaments, the Warrior Open and the Greater Baton Rouge Championships, both of which he won en route to an 18-1 record in Louisiana.  The one loss was a close 3-2 decision by Joseph Dupre of Jesuit.  While he did not wrestle #4 (Jared Thieler of St. Paul's) or #5 (Seth Oubre of Comeaux), he did defeat an opponent who has wins over both of them (Robert Fairchild of Rummel).  He also defeated the #6 and #7 seeds, so a #3 for Carpenter is solid.

Division I, 126 lbs. - Eli Larriviere (Jesuit) at #2 over Rumney (Brother Martin) at #3 and Shane Ulfers (St. Paul's) at #4:  This one has me befuddled.  I get Rumney over Ulfers.  Rumney defeated Ulfers on January 2nd.  I do not get Larriviere over Rumney or Ulfers, though.  Yes, Larriviere defeated Rumney on January 20th.  Ulfers, however, defeated Larriviere at the Louisiana Classic. There looms the dreaded Mobius Loop: Rumney > Ulfers > Larriviere > Rumney.  (We all remember the "greater than" math symbol, right?)  Larriviere beat Beau Bush of Holy Cross, and Ulfers lost to Bush (albeit he also won via a forfeit).  Yet does that discount the head-to-head match between Larriviere and Ulfers?

Head-to-head does not work because Ulfers beat Larriviere.

Overall matches against common opponents?  The committee might have gone through all of the matches against common opponents, but nothing immediately came to light as the editor read the records.

Tournament finishes do not work because Rumney placed higher than Larriviere at the LA Classic.  Larriviere placed higher than Ulfers at the Louisiana Classic yet lost to Ulfers in the quarterfinals of that event.

It appears the 2015 state tournament places were used.  Rumney placed second, Larriviere third and Ulfers did not place.  In such situations the seeding committee votes on the issue.

Division I 132 lbs. - Jackson DeGruy (Jesuit) at #5 behind Seth Gambill (Brother Martin) at #2:  Some may wonder why DeGruy is not seeded higher than Holy Cross' Cole Clement after beating Clement on February 3rd.  Clement, however, has a 2-1 season advantage over DeGruy.  Yet that argument does not work against Gambill, who is 0-1 against DeGruy as of January 20th.  DeGruy behind Airline's Josh Partin (#3) and Comeaux's Jake Verret (#4) is fine, as Verret beat DeGruy at the Ken Cole and Partin is 2-1 against Verret.  Gambill has a win over Partin, so Gambill can be ahead of Partin.

Head-to-head seems to apply re Clement, Partin and Verret vs. each other and DeGruy, but not Gambill.  I cannot find common opponents between DeGruy and Gambill aside from Clement, so that may have been the factor used.  Gambill and DeGruy do not have common tournaments at the same weight, either.  The 2015 state tournament does not apply as neither Clement nor Gambill participated.

While I cannot explain this one the editor does agree with it as he had the same six top seeds in the same positions before my little article was so rudely interrupted by the timely release of the actual brackets.

Division I 182 lbs. - Keegan Gilligan (Airline) over Travis Viener (Brother Martin):  Gilligan placed higher in a common tournament (the Trey Culotta) and fared better against Josh Ramirez of Rummel than did Viener.

Division I 220 lbs. - Jacob Clapp (Brother Martin) over Stephen Cloud (Hahnville):  Clapp and Cloud are 1-1 and Cloud's win was at a tournament as opposed to Clapp's, which would rate a higher seed.  But a late season loss to St. Paul's Colin Francis cost Cloud the #2 spot.

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