Fini

Central's Austin Gouedy won his third consecutive Division II 106 lbs. championship with a fall in 3:30 over top-seeded Chris Montalbano of Rummel.  At right, the OW award presenter looks for Gouedy, but the Central team had already left the premises.

Central senior Austin Gouedy came to the tournament with a record of 38-5 and two state titles already.  He was seeded second, though, as two of those losses were to Rummel's Chris Montalbano (the other losses came twice from Daniel Varnado of Brother Martin and once to St. Louis' Alex Yokubaitis).  In his three years of being in the Division II state finals, he was only the #1 seed in 2015, his sophomore year.  This year Gouedy won the Warrior Open, the Central Wildcat, the Griffin Open, the Jefferson Invitational, The Zachary Big Horse and the Greater Baton Rouge City Championships.  He placed second at the Spartan Invitational, fifth in the LA Classic (losing to Varnado and Montalbano) and third in the Ken Cole (losing to Yokubaitis).

The #1 seed was Chris Montalbano, a sophomore from Rummel.  Montalbano was 36-3 and had two wins during the season over Gouedy.  His losses came from Brandon Stein (StP), Daniel Varnado (BM) and Caruso Signorelli (HC), whom Montalbano had beaten three times).  He placed second at the Raider 8, first at the Brusly 8, first at the Teurlings Catholic Rebel Open, second at the South Walton Border Wars and third at the LA Classic.  Montalbano also had victories over Division I finalist Caruso Signorelli (HC) and Alex Yokubaitis of St. Louis.

Gouedy had two wins over third-seeded Colton Sonnier and, in this event, he gained his third via an 8-1 semifinals victory.  Montalbano had also met his semifinals opponent once before.  He defeated Live Oak's Clayton Hill in 1:00 in a dual meet, and in the state semifinals Montalbano needed just 2:58 to ascend to the finals.

In 2015 Gouedy became Central's first individual state championship. This one made it three-in-a-row for Gouedy in the finals.

1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Austin Gouedy	Chris Montalbano	Colten Sonnier	Clayton Hill	Francisco Castro	Ronnie Golding
Central	Rummel	Teurlings Catholic	Live Oak	Belle Chasse	East Jefferson
#2 Seed	#1 Seed	#3 Seed	#4 Seed	Unseeded	#7 Seed
Senior	Sophomore	Sophomore	Freshman	Freshman	Freshman

The top-three represented Lafayette, Baton Rouge and the Greater New Orleans areas.

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Early Championship Rounds

Round 1 (far left): #5 Josh Keeler (PKY) pinned Matt Bowen (SH) in 0:59; Round 1 (middle and right) #2 Austin Gouedy (CEN) pinned Beau Blackmon (StM) in 1:02.

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Quarterfinals

#1 Chris Montalbano (RUM) pinned Brady Mier (NS) in 0:29.

#4 Clayton Hill (LO) pinned #5Joshua Keeler (PKY) in 5:43.

#3 Colten Sonnier (TC) pinned Ashton Surrency (SHW) in 1:41

#2 Austin Gouedy (CEN) pinned #7 Roney Golding (EJ) in 1:09.

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Semifinals

#1 Chris Montalbano (RUM) pinned #4 Clayton Hill (LO) in 2:58.

#2 Austin Gouedy (CEN) defeated #3 Colten Sonnier (TC) 8-1.

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Consolation Rounds

C1: Matt Bowen (SH) pinned Collin Finley (StMo) in 2:20.

Jordan Clark (NW) pinned Beau Blackmon (StM) in 4:34.

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Championship Consolation Rounds

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Finals

#2 Austin Gouedy (CEN) pinned #1 Chris Montalbano (RUM) in 3:30.

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