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| Louisiana Wrestling News "Best of 2015-16" Rankings |
| April 1st, 2016 | Written by: Editor |
Louisiana Wrestling News "Best of 2016-17" Rankings
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"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once
more." Unlike Henry V at Harfleur, however, I do so without an
army or even a longbow. For those readers who are unfamiliar with my end-of-season paperweight dispersal, it is my attempt to give credit to those who, in my unregulated opinion, had the best overall wrestling seasons. More often than not the recipients won state championships, but not always. This is in no manner an attempt to belittle winning a state championship, and I would not expect any wrestlers to trade their brackets for my little paperweight. As many of us saw last February, the wrestlers with the best seasons did not always win. Some wrestlers have great state tournaments while some do not. Hence, my intent is to recognize a season rather than just one event. I try to use a methodology to determine my choices, but circumstances often require I stray from it. The main problem usually stems from wrestlers who compete in different weight classes throughout the season, aside from expected drops in January. Dropping a weight class just for the state championships also makes standardized methodology more difficult. More credence, in some cases, is given to the weight class one chooses for the Louisiana Classic, although competing in that event is not a requirement for this recognition. Some of the picks are "no brainers." For others I will try to explain my reasons.  |
Let the flaying begin! Email: Muller, you're an idiot!
This got tough immediately due to Blake Mateu's domination of the 106 lbs. and
113 lbs. weight classes. I chose to put Mateu at 106 lbs. because that is
where he competed during the Louisiana Classic. The real
problem was who would not get the paperweight between Luke Cotton, who won a
Division I state championship for Brother Martin at 106 lbs., or Cole Houser,
who won one at 113 lbs. Mateu beat them both, but Houser was 2-0 against
Cotton, so I put Mateu at 106 lbs. and Cotton at 113 lbs. as that is the weight
in which he participated at the Louisiana Classic and during the vast majority
of the season.
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106 Pounds Mateu was undefeated against Louisiana competition at 106 lbs., 113 lbs. and 120 lbs. He cut to 106 lbs. for the Louisiana Classic, which must have been important to him as that was the only time he competed in that weight class. Re his stint at 120 lbs., that was probably a calculated move by Coach Jon Orillion to bolster the Raiders' chances for a Division II team title. |
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113 Pounds Very tough one to call here, primarily due to Luke Cotton, who won a Division I state title at 106 lbs. If I had put Mateu in this weight class, then Cotton would get the paperweight for 106 lbs. Houser gets the nod because he defeated a Division I state champion (Cotton) twice and a runner-up twice (Schmidt). And again, I think Mister Cotton would rather his championship medal and bracket over the paperweight. |
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120 Pounds Pretty easy one here re Shields and Dupre. Oubre gets the nod for third for a couple of reasons. One was his Trey Culotta championship which included wins over Shields and Thieler, who both beat him in the pool rounds of that event. Another was coming back in the state championships after a quarterfinals loss to Thieler by a point, to pin Thieler in the consolation finals. |
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126 Pounds This was the hardest one to choose by far. Anyone who was there should recall the flip Larriviere did to Jones in the finals. It confounded most people (the editor still has nightmares about it), in particular Jones, who afterward could not regain his earlier composure. One cannot take away Jones' accomplishments over the entire season, however, in which he was undefeated in Louisiana. Larriviere, albeit not so much at 126 lbs., stumbled a few times at 132 lbs. (albeit two of those matches were against the Division I 132 lbs. finalists). I do not think Mr. Larriviere would trade his state tournament decorations, either. |
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132 Pounds Clement was easy. Second and third were a mess between Ethan Alphonso of Live Oak, Austin Franklin of Brusly, Seth Gambill of Brother Martin and Raekwon Thomas of De la Salle. The deciding factors were common tournaments, strength of tournaments and the state championships. Thomas only won Division III tournaments, and only placed third at the Division III state championships. Gambill and Franklin both won Division I tournaments. All four competed in the Louisiana Classic, in which Franklin placed second, Alphonso placed third, Gambill fourth and Thomas did not place. Thomas gets a lot of credit for defeating Franklin twice, but over the season he did not compete in enough events against the competition Alphonso, Franklin and Gambill did. Franklin gets the nod over Alphonso for his Louisiana Classic win over him. Alphonso gets the nod over Gambill for his Louisiana Classic win over him, as well as for the Spartan Invitational, in which Alphonso won at 138 lbs. whereas Gambill placed third at that weight. |
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138 Pounds No brainer here - Lirette was 3-1 vs. Gambill. Bonin and Gambill each only lost to each other (aside from Gambill's losses to Lirette) in the Trey Culotta, but Gambill placed second and Bonin fourth. |
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145 Pounds Rando and Bourgeois were easy. Aucoin was also, as his only losses at 145 lbs. were to Brennan Webb of Live Oak, whom he defeated in the Division II state finals, and to Rando at the Louisiana Classic and the Ken Cole. |
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152 Pounds The top spot was settled in the Division I finals when Foret won to take a 2-1 season series against Brownell. Pitts' only loss on the season was to Foret in the Ken Cole finals, but the Parkway wrestler did not have a win over Foret as Brownell did. |
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160 Pounds Walden was an easy pick as he was undefeated against Louisiana competition. Fereday was easy as his only losses were to Walden and one to Sam Dufour at the Trey Culotta. However, Fereday had an earlier win over Dufour and garnered another one at the Louisiana Classic. |
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170 Pounds Another simple one as Pierce Williams tied his season series with Nugent at 2-2 in the Division I state finals. As for Miller, his only losses came from Williams and Nugent. |
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182 Pounds Ramirez competed at 182 lbs. for the majority of the season and was undefeated in all of his matches at any weight. Viener only lost to Ramirez, to East Ascension's Chris Reaux at the Culotta, which he avenged later in that event, and his Division I state loss to Putnam, after having beat Putnam once. Putnam had a great state tournament, but too many other losses, including to Division II and Division III competition, hurt his listing here. Averette's only losses on the season were two to Viener, and one can only speculate how the Division I 182 lbs. weight class would have gone were Averette allowed to participate. Two of the top seeds losing before the finals is rare enough. Three doing so involves some serious odds. |
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195 Pounds Patron, Jr.'s only loss was in Kansas City, and nobody from Louisiana lasted six minutes with him. Sonnier's only losses were two to Patron, Jr. and one to Carencro's Austin Gary, whom Sonnier beat four other times. Honor only lost to Patron, Jr. and Sonnier, and to Brother Martin's Cole Alfonso. After losing his first match to the Crusader, Honor won their next three encounters. (Every one of their four matches required overtime periods.) |
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220 Pounds Diaz was about five seconds away from retaining a perfect record and a second shot in a Division I title match. But Barbe's Darian Mitchell had been getting better against the Lafayette opponent, losing twice by early first round falls but then going the distance in a 4-1 Ken Cole finals match. Diaz made one mistake all year. However, Clapp only made one mistake also, in an overtime loss to Hahnville's Stephen Cloud, which he avenged twice. Common opponents are the difference makers here. Against Catholic's James DeLee, Clapp won in a TB-1 and an SV match. Diaz pinned DeLee in 1:42. Against Cloud, Clapp had a 4-3 win, a TB-1 win and a late third period fall. Diaz pinned him in 4:31 and 2:10. Against Dunham's Mason Rabel, Clapp had a 5-3 win whereas Diaz pinned Rabel in 0:29. Aside from Diaz and Clapp, Cloud only lost to Colin Francis of St. Paul's, whom he later defeated at the state championships. |
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285 Pounds Blair had as good a season as a big guy could ever want. He won every tournament he entered and he only had one dual meet loss to Jesuit's Corey Dublin. Blair, however, had defeated Dublin in the Trey Culotta, and won the Louisiana Classic in which Dublin placed third. Additionally, Dublin had a 2-2 record against Catholic's K.J. Wilson, and Blair defeated Wilson in two tournament finals. Though tied 2-2, Dublin gets the nod over Wilson for his win in the Division I state finals. |
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© 2016-17 by Louisiana Wrestling News |
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