Fini

East Ascension leads after Friday's competition at the 2022 Public School Wrestling Championships at the Lamar-Dixon EXPO Center in Gonzales, Louisiana.  The Spartans scored 119 points on the first day.  Barring a complete Spartan meltdown on Saturday, the race will be for the runner-up team honors between Zachary (89), Dutchtown (85.5), St. Amant (84.5), Fontainebleau (78) and Chalmette (77).  Thirty teams chose to participate in the event.

Top Ten Team Scores after Friday:

Despite the missile silos outside the EXPO Center, a meltdown is unlikely for the Spartans.  East Ascension has eight semifinalists, six of whom are seeded higher than their Saturday morning opponents.  Dutchtown, St. Amant and Fontainebleau each have four wrestlers in the semifinals.  Zachary has three and Chalmette has two.

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An unsupervised group of ruffians threw a bottle at the photographer to get their photo taken, or perhaps to try to elicit an earlier 2022 reaction.  That part of the plan failed.

The seeding went as expected for the most part.  The majority of "upsets" came from fifth seeds defeating fourth seeds, which is generally not surprising.

One of them was very interesting.  What could possess someone drop into the 120 lbs. weight class is beyond comprehension.  Just in this event the weight class has two Division I state champions in Sam Houston's Tyson Roach (2022) and Landon Reaux of Southside (2021).  It has Dutchtown's Cole Mire, a 2022 Division I runner-up, and Walker's Kye Karcher, a sixth-place winner in 2022.  Now it has East Ascension junior monozygote Jesse Maneckshaw, who made his first appearance at the weight class in style, via a second-round fall in 0:39 and a 4-2 win over Karcher.  For that, he gets the pleasure of Reaux's company shortly after 11 a.m. on Friday.

Senior Landon Reaux, the top seed at 120 lbs., appears to take a "hands off" approach to Sulphur sophomore Karlin Ducote, winning via n 18-1 Technical Fall.  Later in that weight class fifth-seeded Jesse Maneckshaw defeated Kye Karcher of Walker, the fourth seed, 4-2.

The biggest upsets of the day were in the 126 lbs. weight class.  Fontainebleau's seventh-seeded Asher Wilson knocked off second-seeded Jacob Britt of Destrehan via a 13-4 Major Decision.  He will meet sixth-seeded Ephram Craddock of St. Amant, an 8-3 winner over the third seed, Pollex Coleman of Sam Houston.

Sam Houston senior Pollex Coleman had his way with Lakeshore's Austin Veillette via a 1:58 fall in Round Two.  He was less fortunate with St. Amant's sixth-seeded senior Ephram Craddock, however, as the Gator, making his debut at 126 lbs., advanced to the semifinals with an 8-3 victory.

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Chalmette's Mohammed Gaber, the second seed at 132 lbs., pinned Walker's Asa Rutherford in 2:41 in Round Two.  At 145 lbs. Seth Lewis of Fontainebleau, seeded second, pinned East Ascension's Dylan Amedee in 2:44 to reach the semifinals.

Another six-over-three upset came at 145 lbs. when Sulphur's Conner Butter defeated Ian Theriot of Southside 7-5.  Another seven-over-two event occurred at 285 lbs. when Southside's Ethan Peron defeated second-seeded Ryan Dennis of Zachary in a quick 0:27 match.

Fourth-seeded Ryan Fobbs of Erath made things difficult for Comeaux's Royal Lazard, pinning the Spartan in 3:08 in a quarterfinals match.

Thursday's competition finished early as close to 50 wrestlers either failed to make weight or did not make the trip.  Saturday's schedule will remain as listed on the tournament's flyer, with the semifinals starting at approximately 11 a.m. and the finals slated for four p.m.

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