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After a seven week hiatus Sam Houston senior Christian Satchell nipped Rummel's Chris Montalbano of Rummel, becoming the third Mustang state champion

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium
Name	Christian Satchell	Chris Montalbano	Ryder Hawley	Jacob Pepiton	Justin Gaubert	Brandon Turner
School	Sam Houston	Rummel	Rayne	Teurlings Catholic	Shaw	Parkway
Seed	2	1	5	3	4	6
Class	Senior	Senior	Sophomore	Senior	Senior	Sophomore
Final Record*	16-3	43-8	25-11	30-7	38-15	24-13

*    Louisiana opponents only, not including any types of forfeits, byes or junior varsity events.

Weight Class Synopsis

On paper this weight class was a two-man affair between 2018 runner-up Chris Montalbano of Rummel and Christian Satchell of Sam Houston.  Third-seeded Jacob Pepiton of Teurlings Catholic and Justin Gaubert from Shaw were "dark horse" candidates for the finals, but both had previously lost to top-seeded Chris Montalbano of Rummel.  Fifth-seeded Ryder Hawley of Rayne evidently did not get that memo as after a quarterfinals loss to Gaubert the Rayne wrestler won his next four matches to place third over Pepiton.

Montalbano won the Raider 8, the Jesuit Invitational, the Trygg Memorial and the Billy Duplessis Invitational.  He placed second to Gavin Christ of Basile in the Ken Cole and to Brother Martin's Daniel Croy in the Catholic League District Championships.  He finished fifth at the Louisiana Classic over Brusly's Calep Balcuns, but had losses from Gavin Christ and Division I runner-up Peyton Ward of St. Paul's.  He lost a close 5-2 decision to Division I state champion Luke Eccles in a dual meet against Jesuit, but if he had one nemesis all season it was Ward, to whom he lost three times.  His "quality" wins came over Division III state champion Andrew Trahan of Brusly, Division I fourth-place finisher Gage Sonnier of John Ehret, Gaubert, Pepiton, Catholic's Peter Kelly, Division I third-place finisher Caruso Signorelli of Holy Cross, and in the Louisiana Classic quarterfinals he avenged his earlier loss to Eccles via a fall in 0:53.  His path to the finals included a first-round bye, a second-round pin in 0:59, a quarterfinals pin in 0:33 and a tough 9-6 decision over Gaubert in the semifinals.

Satchell's season, although short, was very good.  Of his three losses, two came from Gavin Christ and the other from Division I runner-up Dyllon Bernard of Comeaux.  And his matches against Christ were good ones.  The first was a 9-0 Major Decision in a dual meet against Basile.  A week later Sam Houston and Basile held another dual meet, and Satchell only lost to Christ 3-0.  He won the Warrior Open over Byrd's Jacob Yawn and had a win over Sonnier in the Warrior as well.  He placed second at the Spartan Invitational on November 20th but did not compete again until the state championships.  To reach the finals he recorded a pin in 2:58 in round-one, a round-two pin in 2:38, a quarterfinals 6-0 decision and a semifinals pin in 1:58 over sixth-seeded Brandon Turner of Parkway, who previously defeated the third-seeded Pepiton.

Early Championship Rounds

R1: (4) Justin Gaubert (SHW) pinned Parker Thombs (NOMMA in 1:44

R2: (5) Ryder Hawley (RAY) pinned Sherell Manuel in 1:27

R2: (3) Jacob Pepiton (TC) defeated Alex Fann (LO) 7-2

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Quarterfinals

(1) Chris Montalbano (RUM) pinned Sherell Manuel (BC) in 0:33

(4) Justin Gaubert (SHW) defeated (5) Ryder Hawley (RAY) 16-0 TF

(6) Brandon Turner (PKY) pinned (3) Jacob Pepiton (TC) in 3:35

(2) Christian Satchell (SH) defeated Isaiah Cates (ND) 6-0

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Semifinals

(1) Chris Montalbano (RUM) defeated (4) Justin Gaubert (SHW) 9-6

(2) Christian Satchell (SH) pinned (6) Brandon Turner (PKY) in 1:58

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Alex Fann (LO) defeated Parker Thombs (NOMMA) 15-2 MD

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Championship Consolation Rounds

(5) Ryder Hawley (RAY) defeated (3) Jacob Pepiton (TC) via an injury default to place 3rd

(4) Justin Gaubert (SHW) defeated (6) Brandon Turner (PKY) 17-0 TF to place 5th

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Finals

(2) Christian Satchell of Sam Houston defeated (1) Chris Montalbano of Rummel 7-6

Satchell initiated the first points of the match with a single-leg shot.  Montalbano reacted by draping himself over Satchel's back.  Satchel was able to turn around to face Montalbano, and still had a grasp on the Raider wrestler's leg.  He lifted Montalbano's leg until Montalbano was completely off of the mat.  Montalbano attempted to lean down and get Satchell's ankle, but Satchel responded by throwing in a half-nelson, and he also still had Montalbano's leg.  Montalbano landed on his back and Satchell quickly change his hold to a barb-wire and was awarded three nearfall points.  Thus, the early lead went to Satchell 5-0 in the first minute of the period.  Montalbano, however, did not remain on his back very long as he bridged off of his back and caused Satchel to ride too high on him.  Montalbano backed-out from beneath Satchell to get behind him, and the match score changed to 5-2 in favor of Satchell.  This sequence lasted about 60 seconds.  Montalbano rode-out the remainder of the first period.  He almost turned Satchell over with a head to Satchell's arm pit, but that was stopped when the hold was deemed potentially dangerous. Satchell won the toss but deferred to Montalbano, who chose to start on top of Satchell.  Montalbano successfully rode Satchell with a cross-body ride and almost turned him over again, this time with a bar-arm chicken-wing.  Satchell could not get away from Maldonado, and the second period ended with Satchell still in the lead 5-2. Satchell had the choice for the third period, and he chose to start fin the neutral position.  Why, the editor does not know.  Had Satchell taken the bottom position he would force Montalbano to try to turn him to his back, which Montalbano could not do for the entire second period.  If Montalbano let him escape, and used an escape-takedown strategy, Montalbano would need three takedown simply to tie Satchell.  By starting neutral Satchell effectively gave up a point, and the Rummel wrestler only needed two takedowns to tie, or three to win.  That scenario almost played out. Montalbano scored on a missed shot by Satchell to get his first takedown in 15 seconds.  As expected, Montalbano gave Satchell an escape prior to the restart of the period.  This time Montalbano dove for and got Satchell's left ankle.  Satchell tried to use an under-hook and Montalbano's head to pull Montalbano backwards, but they both went down with their backs facing the mat.  Montalbano caught Satchell's arm while they fell backwards and used it to almost put Satchell on his back.  But Montalbano scored the two points he needed to knot the match at 6-6 with 90 seconds remaining.  Twenty seconds later Montalbano almost put Satchell on his back when he caught the Mustang wrestler leaning to far over, allowing Montalbano to just push Satchell backwards to the mat.  Satchell got out of the move before Montalbano could score any nearfall points, though.  With 50 seconds remaining Montalbano let Satchell escape, giving Satchell a 7-6 lead but hoping for one more takedown to win the match.  Satchell looked exhausted, which makes sense as it had been well over a month since he last wrestler competitively, and with 40 seconds remaining he was warned for stalling.  But he found he had enough "gas in the tank" to go for another 40 seconds, and with 30 seconds remaining he shot a single-leg on Montalbano.  Montalbano got out of Satchell's grasp with 10 seconds remaining and he shot on Satchell.  But Satchell did not allow Montalbano to get his leg and held on to Montalbano's head and should for the last eight seconds to preserve the 7-6 score and win a state championship.

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