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The fourth annual Jazz Town Duals, hosted by the New Orleans Wrestling Club, and held at the Xavier Convocation Center on June 4th and 5th, was a battle between 24 teams from Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Texas...and that one other team from Texas.

The Best Trained Wrestling Club out of Allen, Texas, demolished everyone in their path to win the 2016 event.  In four matches on Saturday they allowed only 21 points to be scored against them.  On  Sunday, when grouped as one of the 16 best according to Saturday's results, they allowed 40., and 18 of those were due to forfeits.

A couple of lists to ponder concerning the 2016 Jazz Town Duals champion Best Trained team:

A) 18, 0, 3, 0, 3, 9, 12, 16:  These are the points scored, including teams receiving forfeits, against the Best Trained team in their eight matches.

B) Shane Ulfers (Gator), Emilio Marquez (WDWRD), Tucker Witmer (WDWRD), Malcolm Wiley (WDWRD), Gavin Christ (RAY), Christian Febus (SPRG), Steven Shields (CRU A), Patrick Evans (CRU A), Antonio Stewart (CAM A), Raydan Wilder (CAM A), Denton Spencer (CAM A): The are the wrestlers who won actual matches against Best Trained - all 11 of them.

In fact, the most significant loss of all for Best Trained during the two-day event may have been the ejection of their head coach.  Based on the outcome, one has to wonder what he was objecting to that vigorously to merit being ousted?

Best Trained defeated the Rayne Wrestling Club 71-3 in the first round, Springstead, FL, 68-9 in the quarterfinals, the Crusader WC A 56-12 in the semifinals and Camden A, Georgia, 49-16 in the finals.

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Top Four Teams

After a third-place finish in the 2015 Jazz Town Duals, the Best Trained Wrestling Club from Allen, Texas, smoked everybody in their paths to win the 2016 championship trophy.

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[NOTE] Some teams have two photos.  This is simply because the editor likes them better than others.  Well, no, it's not.  Actually it is because some wanted something in the photo that took some emphasis off of the wrestlers, so another photo was cropped that gave better looks at the individuals.

The Camden, Georgia, A squad defeated the New Orleans Wrestling Club, Bayou Elite and Missouri's Major Decision to earn a spot in the finals against Best Trained.

Missouri's Major Decision defeated Paradigm of Texas and the Gulf Coast PINitentiary team before losing in the semifinals to Camden A.  In the consolation finals they defeated the Crusader A Wrestling Club.

The Crusader A team almost did not get to face Best Trained in the semifinals (which was, according to Coach Robert Dauterive, merely an invitation to compete in the consolation finals).  After one of their matches it appeared they barely lost, but later it was discovered a wrestler on the team that beat them was a senior and that his points were counted toward his team's totals.  Seniors are allowed compete in the event, but when they do their matches count as forfeits.  Letting them wrestle simply allows the senior and the other wrestler some mat time.

The Bayou Elite Wrestling Club placed fifth, falling to Major Decision (which placed third) 35-17 in Saturday's pool rounds, and to the Camden A team (which placed second) 42-21 in Sunday's championship quarterfinals. Bayou Elite defeated the Rayne Wrestling Club 69-14, Camden B 72-12 and Leonidas A 72-6 on Saturday.  In the first round of Sunday's championship bracket they defeated Cantonment, FL, 59-14, Gulf Coast PINitentiary 40-30and the Eagle Empire team 52-32 to place fifth.

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Top 16 Teams

The teams that finished in the top 16 are listed in the table below:

Top Louisiana Teams

The Bayou Elite Wrestling Club placed fifth over the Eagle Empire (FL) team 52-32. 

A very talented Baton Rouge Allstar Wrestling Club placed a surprising second in their pool on Saturday and ended up placing 9th overall after defeating the host New Orleans Wrestling Club, which placed 10th	The Rayne Wrestling Club, which included three Basilians, placed 13th.	The Belle Chasse Wrestling Club placed 14th.	River Parish Wrestling Club

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2016-17 Louisiana Team Tips

None.  The Louisiana clubs did not show a lot relative to the strength of their future respective high school teams.  Bayou Elite added two non-Holy Cross members who were the best in Louisiana last year, but will go back to their own schools come the fall.  The NOWC did not put forth a lot of the Jesuit wrestlers one might have expected.  As for Brother Martin, they showed they had a lot of kids, but everyone knew that.  If anything, the Crusaders could be considered "bottom heavy" and might sue for a couple of more low weight classes be added to the mix.  They did have one very studly Virginia state champion in Josh Wynn assisting them, though.  It is summer, though, and the kids have some growing and hopefully some eating to do before the fall, and team strengths cannot really be gauged until January anyway.

Outstanding Wrestlers and Sportsmanship Award

Floyd Central's Tristan Sellmer won the lower weights Outstanding Wrestler award.	Bryce Rogers of the Gulf Coast PINitentiary club won the higher weights Outstanding Wrestler award.	Indiana's Floyd Central won the Team Spirit Award and placed 12th.

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When Losing is News You are Doing Something Right

Sometimes upsets are unfathomable - like Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson in 1990.  In such cases the winners deserve the recognition for their accomplishment, and that recognition carries no weight unless the losing opponent is also named.  There are also cases in which two very good opponents find themselves facing each other, and somebody has to win.  Several such matches occurred in this event.

Logan Brown of Best Trained was on the wrong end of two matches, but by no means to slouches.  2016 Division III state champion Gavin Christ of the Rayne Wrestling Club (courtesy of Basile High School), got past Brown by a two point differential that Christ admits may not have lasted much longer had the match not ended after six minutes.  After that match Brown lost to three-time Brother Martin Division I state champion Steven Shields of the Crusader A Wrestling Club.  Prior to his match against Brown, Shields also lost a match, something that had not happened since December of last year. Master Brown losing any matches is newsworthy, but as the editor mentioned two of them, he hopes in the event taking home the team title was not quite enough, the editor will say he remembers very well how Brown, as a freshman, dominated a 106 lbs. weight class that included three 2016 Louisiana state champions, in the 2014 Trey Culotta Invitational (photo left).

Another star-studded match was between Airline's two-time defending Division I state champion Christian Walden and Gulf Coast PINitentiary's Bryce Rogers.  Rogers is a two-time Florida state champion and has a national championship on his resume, but his win over Walden helped him earn the Outstanding Wrestler Award in the heavier weight classes. 

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Best Uniforms

The editor only noticed two New Orleans-themed shirts - one by the team from Floyd Central (left) and another from the Crusader Wrestling Club (right). 

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However, the best singlet/warm-ups combination most certainly goes to the Gulf Coast PINitentiary team.  With their black and white horizontally-striped warm-ups, as well as the numbered "Orange is the New Black" singlets.  Give them a pole with a sharp end and put them on a neutral ground, and a New Orleans motif could be justified.

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Other Team Photos

Gulf Coast PINitentiary, Florida - 7th Place	Woodward, Georgia - 11th Place

Paradigm, Texas - 19th Place	Paradigm, Texas - 19th Place

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As they were all together in one spot the editor thought a team picture of the Live Oak Wrestling Club was in order.  It was certainly worth it to Camdyn Ingram, who was in the upper mezzanine and scurried down the stairwell perhaps less stealthily as he might have desired to be included.

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The Undefeated

This list is limited to those who wrestled at least five matches during the competition (forfeits not included), and is dependent somewhat on the suspect memory of the editor, and hopefully will be emended by coaches emailing those eligible for this list to editor@lawestlingnews.com.

Wrestler Team Wrestler Team Michael Lundin Bayou Elite Ethan Alphonso Live Oak WC Bryce Rogers GC PINitentiary Anthony Ingram Live Oak W.C. Evan Pickren GC PINitentiary Trevon Honor River Parish William Pickren GC PINitentiary Denton Spencer Camden A Tristan Sellmer Floyd Central Antonio Stewart Camden A Braden Redlin Best Trained Michael Gibson Camden B Juwan Robinson Best Trained Matthew Daner Crusader B

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Random Photos

Gavin Christ of the Rayne Wrestling Club shows off a hand puppet won by the editor's daughter's boyfriend in a claw machine at a Roswell, Georgia, Brunswick Bowling Alley arcade area.

All matches on all mats were streamed on FloWrestling. Click the logo left to go to the FloWrestling Website.

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