Division I 106 Lbs.

Fini

Sophomore Hoffman starts Crusaders' championship run

LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament

Division I, 106 Pounds

May 30th, 2018 | Written by: Editor

Weight Class Synopsis

Early Championship Rounds

3rd and 5th

Sophomore Connor Hoffman of Brother Martin compiled a 31-1 record,
with his only loss coming from runner-up Jacob Frost of Holy Cross

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Name	Connor Hoffman	Jacob Frost	Hunter Goodson	Samuel Dreuil	Carter Duet	David Cuccia
School	Brother Martin	Holy Cross	Catholic	Jesuit	St. Paul's	Fontainebleau
Seed	1	2	4	5	4	7
Class	Sophomore	Eighth-grade	Sophomore	Junior	Freshman	Freshman

Weight Class Synopsis

This weight class was dominated by Brother Martin sophomore Connor Hoffman and Holy Cross eighth-grader Jacob Frost. For a day De la Salle's Zachary Lauland was a story, as was Teurlings Catholic's Matthew Carrier for about seven minutes. Lauland upset Frost via a first period fall in the second round of the Louisiana Classic, and backed that up with a fall over St. Louis senior Cameron Witherwax. Carrier decisively led Frost for the first two periods of the consolation finals. Frost, however, came back in the third period to defeat Carrier 10-8 and place third, while Lauland was unable to continue in the tournament after a semifinals loss to St. Paul's Carter Duet.

Frost's 6-3 win over Hoffman in a December 15th dual meet kindled the possibility that Holy Cross might repeat as Division I team champions. If a loss to Frost could be that important, Hoffman decided not to let it happen again. He won their next two bouts by 10-2 and 12-4 major decisions.

Hoffman brought a 38-1 Louisiana record into the tournament. After a first round bye Hoffman used pins in 0:47 and 5:21 to advance to the semifinals against Catholic's Hunter Goodson, whom Hoffman previously defeated by a 22-6 technical fall and a 13-6 major decision. This time Hoffman scored a fall in 4:28 to advance to the finals.

Frost was 27-4 in Louisiana, with three of those losses coming from Hoffman. He had not previously engaged any of the foes he faced en route to the finals. After a bye he scored falls in 0:48 and 0:46 before pinning St. Paul freshman Carter Duet in 3:38.

In the state finals match, Hoffman allowed the gutsy Tiger eighth-grader only four point via escapes. He scored two takedowns off single-leg shots in the first period, with a Frost escape between them, to lead 4-1 as the second period started. Starting on the bottom via Frost's choice, Hoffman scored a reversal with a stand-up switch, to increase his lead to 6-1. Frost escaped, and Hoffman scored another takedown with a head-and-shoulder shuck to the mat. Frost scored an escape and the match was 8-3 in Hoffman's favor after four minutes. On the bottom again for the start of the final period, Hoffman escaped and scored on another single-leg shot to make the score 11-3. Frost had one more escape left in him before the match ended in an 11-4 win for the sophomore Crusader.

Goodson had little trouble advancing to the consolation finals with a fall over David Cuccia of Fontainebleau. There he met Jesuit's Sam Dreuil, who just barely lost to Goodson in the quarterfinals 7-6. Dreuil used a 35-second fall and a 10-2 major decision to face Duet in the consolation semifinals. The Jesuit junior defeated Duet 7-2 to set-up a rematch with Goodson. But the Catholic sophomore prevailed again 6-0 to place third. Duet pinned Cuccia in 2:16 to place fifth.

Early Championship Rounds