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Division III - 138 pounds: Franklin earns third Division III title

March 25th, 2016 | Written by: Editor

Austin Franklin kept himself on pace to match the feats accomplished by the Schermer brothers, Austin and Trevor, in winning four consecutive Division III state championships. Austin won his fourth in 2012 and Trevor matched that in 2014. With three in hand, Franklin looks to put his name among that of the Schermers in February of 2017.

Synopsis

The 2014-15 season probably did not start as two-time defending Division III state champion Austin Franklin would have liked. At the Raider Invitational Franklin dropped three matches, albeit to good competition in David Clement of Holy Cross, Dawson Mire of Rummel and Billy Harrison of St. Paul's. BHe got back on track with a win over Mire the following week in the Brusly 8 finals, and in the next seven weeks Franklin only lost to Hahnville's Nicholas Lirette and two out-of-state wrestlers at the Deep South Bayou Duals (one of which was Arnold, FL's state champion Richard McClanahan). At the Brusly Invitational, Franklin dropped to 132 lbs. and was surprised in the finals by a 9-5 loss to De la Salle's Raekwon Thomas. Franklin stayed at 132 lbs. for the Louisiana Classic the following week, and proved he was not just a Division III threat. After two falls in his first two matches, Franklin eked out a 7-6 win over Live Oak's soon-to-be Division II state champion Ethan Alphonso. Then the Panther junior pinned top-seeded Seth Gambill of Brother Martin in 3:24 to advance to the finals, in which he lost a tough 6-3 match to Cole Clement of Holy Cross, who would later be the Division I 132 lbs. state champion. Prior to the Greater Baton Rouge Championships Franklin lost another match at 132 lbs. to Thomas, though this time in a Sudden Victory round. Franklin stayed at 132 lbs. and won the Greater Baton Rouge Championships with a 7-2 finals win over East Ascension's Landon Wheat. For the state championships, Brusly tried to muster the strongest team they could with only ten wrestlers, which meant putting Franklin at 138 lbs. The strategy worked well for the Panthers, as they did receive the Division III runner-up trophy, and for Franklin, who won his third Division III championship with a 12-7 win over second-seeded Matthew Matherne.

Leading the bottom half of the bracket was Ouachita Christian sophomore Matthew Matherne. Matherne did not lose a match until a dual meet with Brusly on January 23rd. That was to Franklin, who scored a fall in 5:08. Before that loss Matherne had won the Central Wildcat Open, the Evangel Eagle Open, the Zachary Big Horse (over Alphonso in the finals), the Brusly Invitational (over defending Division III state champion Glenn Gebo of De la Salle), and the John Curtis Invitational. Matherne would only lose one more match during the season, and that was his finals loss to Franklin.

Kaplan senior Tyrone Broussard lost four times to three Division III wrestlers, albeit none slouches in Glen Gebo, Devin Bazinet of Basile and North Vermillion's Rhett Maturin. That record only netted Broussard a sixth seed at the state championships, but he made his mark early with a second round technical fall over Doyline's Brittany Bates and then a 5-3 TB-1 win against the third-seeded Gebo. Matherne beat Broussard by a mere two points in the semifinals, but Broussard came back with a 6-3 win over fourth-seeded Robert Christman of St. Louis. He followed that with an 11-3 win over seventh-seeded Garrett Becker of North Vermillion to place third.

Placers

Place	Name	School	Seed	Year
1st	Austin Franklin	Brusly	1	11
2nd	Matthew Matherne	Ouachita Christian	2	10
3rd	Tyrone Broussard	Kaplan	6	12
4th	Garrett Becker	North Vermillion	7	9
5th	Robert Christman	St. Louis	4	10
6th	Devin Bazinet	Basile	5	12

1st	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th

Austin Franklin	Austin Franklin	Matthew Matherne	Tyrone Broussard	Garrett Becker	Robert Christman	Devin Bazinet