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Fini

2020 State Wrestling Championships - Division I 285 pounds

April 15th, 2020 | Written by: Editor

Catholic's Connor Finucane only needed a total of nine matches to take home the 285 Division I state championship via a 3-0 decision over East Ascension's Gavin Soniat.

Photo
Place	1	2	3	4	5	6
Name	Connor Finucane	Gavin Soniat	Donald Paul	Jaden Ben	Cole Baiamonte	Logan Ahlborn
School	Catholic	East Ascension	Comeaux	Chalmette	Holy Cross	Fontainebleau
Seed	1	3	2	4	5	6
Final Record	9-0	34-6	34-2	35-7	20-3	32-10
Grade	Senior	Junior	Senior	Senior	Sophomore	Senior

Synopsis

Catholic's Connor Finucane wrestled a total of four matches before the state championships. He won the Greater Baton Rouge Championships with a 4:35 pin over East Ascension's Gavin Soniat. To make the finals Finucane pinned his first two opponents in 1:12 and 0:34. His quarterfinals match took a bit longer as Finucane needed 4:26 to register a pin. But normalcy arrived as Finucane pinned fourth-seeded Jaden Ben of Chalmette in 1:52.

Comeaux's Donald Paul looked to be a shoo-in to win the state championship up until January 30th when he lost his first match of the season, succumbing to a fall in 1:09 to Sulphur's Caleb Harris, whom Paul had previously defeated in 1:34. That little chink in Paul's armor did not go unnoticed by East Ascension's third-seeded senior Gavin Soniat, who had also previously lost to Paul via a 9-2 decision and a fall in 3:19.

Soniat had an excellent 2019-20 season. Two of his five losses were to the then undefeated Donald Paul of Comeaux in the Trey Culotta Invitational semifinals and the Louisiana Classic finals. He also lost twice to Chalmette's Jaden Ben, but also defeated Ben twice. Ben had lost to John Drake of John Curtis twice, though, and Ben lost to the Curtis junior. Hence, Paul was seeded second and Soniat third. His last loss was to Finucane in the finals of the Greater Baton Rouge Championships.

Soniat did not win any tournaments, but he placed second at the Zachary Big Horse, the Battle of New Orleans, the Louisiana Classic and the Greater Baton Rouge Championships. Soniat also placed third at the Trey Culotta Invitational.

To advance to the finals Soniat pinned his first two opponents in 2:30 and 1:25. Then sixth-seeded Logan Ahlborn of Fontainebleau pushed Soniat to the limit in a 3-2 quarterfinals match. In the semifinals against Paul, against whom Soniat was 0-2, he pinned the second-seed in 2:34.

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