Fini

After the first day of competition at Baton Rouge Community College, Jesuit is clinging to a three-point lead over Brother Martin, 136 to 133.  Not far enough away to count out are the Holy Cross Tigers, who were in third place with 112 points.

The Crusaders have eight wrestlers in the semifinals.  The Blue Jays have seven and the Tigers have five.

If one goes by tournament seeding, the edge goes to Jesuit.  Four of their seven semifinalists are seeded higher than their opponents.  Only two Crusader semifinalists have that "luxury," and they also have three "long shots": #5 Ben Wisniewski (BM) vs.#1 Shane Ulfers (StP) at 138 lbs.; #6 Paul Elmer (BM) vs. #2 Raekwon Thomas (DLS) at 160 lbs.; and #6 Nathaniel Perdue (BM) vs. #2 Richard Hunter (BRU) at 182 lbs.   Jesuit has its "long shot" with Jackson DeGruy advancing to the semifinals unseeded.  Holy Cross has three semifinalists seeded higher than their opponents.

Head-to-head semifinals matches between those three schools include the following:

1. At 113 lbs., #2 Michael Lundin of Holy Cross faces #3 Daniel Croy of Brother Martin.  Last year these two split the two matches between them;
2. At 120 lbs., #2 Luke Eccles of Jesuit faces #3 Luke Cotton of Brother Martin, a rematch of last Wednesday's dual meet match, won by Eccles 9-6;
3. At 145 lbs., #2 Eli Larriviere of Jesuit and #3 Patrick Evans of Brother Martin is also a rematch from Wednesday.  Larriviere won that match 1-0.

No #1 seeds fell during the first day of the tournament.  The second seeds were not as fortunate:

1. At 106 lbs., #2 Chris Montalbano of Rummel lost to #7 Brandon Stein of St. Paul's 4-2;
2. At 132 lbs., unseeded Jackson DeGruy of Jesuit upended #2 Cole Clement of Holy Cross 5-3;
3. At 220 lbs., #7 Anthony Ingram of Live Oak defeated #2 Wesley Brady of Zachary in 1:33.

Third-seeded wrestlers from Brother Martin, Holy Cross and Jesuit who lost on Friday are Lane Boudreaux (126 lbs. BM), William Rosevally (160 lbs. JES), Brandon Greer (182 lbs. JES) and Randel Amos (285 lbs. HC).

The only fourth-seeded wrestler from Brother Martin, Holy Cross and Jesuit who lost on Friday was Spencer Rayes (195 lbs. HC).

Seven wrestlers are looking to defending their Louisiana Classic titles earned in 2016.  They are Blake Mateu, Cole Houser, Jake Rando, Joseph Foret, Christian Walden, Sage Nugent and Josh Ramirez.  Steven Shields is aiming for his third consecutive title.  Shields might have been aiming for his fourth championship, but in 2014 Brother Martin did not compete in the event due to a skin affliction affecting a lot of the team.

The reader probably should have skipped the text above - suffice to say this may be a very close tournament.

Semifinals are scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. with the finals being contested at approximately 4 p.m.

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