WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

The first official blow of a whistle on Friday at the Lamar-Dixon EXPO Center will mark the beginning of the 50^th Louisiana Classic wrestling tournament.  Founded by current Baton Rouge High School and then Lee High School coach Bill Bofinger in 1973, the Louisiana Classic (known as the Lee High Invitational until 2010) is unquestionably the hardest tournament to win during the LHSAA wrestling season.  Unlike the LHSAA state tournament, which sorts schools into three divisions based on enrolment size, the Louisiana Classic (LACL), aside from some LHSAA mandatory trivialities, requires only that an entrant makes weight.

Aside from the historic nature of being the 50^th anniversary of the event (for the math wizards, the tournament was not held in 1988), this year’s event may have deeper significance. 

Brother Martin has won this event 20 times, including the last eight.  The Crusaders even won it when they were not supposed to in 2017 and 2021.  The Jesuit Blue Jays are second on that list with 18 titles and were the last team to win it aside from the Crusaders, in 2014.  Catholic has five titles and East Jefferson, Rummel and Lee High each have one.  Out-of-state teams have won it three times. 

The ”no divisions” factor makes it possible for wrestlers from Divisions II and III to stake their claims as the best in the state.  In 2018 six did just that.  Five wrestlers from Division II and Division III won LACL titles. 

In its first 49 years no Division II or Division III teams posed serious threats to win the team title.  Teurlings Catholic (TC) made a run in 2022, but they fell 45.5 points short of the Crusaders’ final team score.  This season the Rebels should be considered a serious threat, if not a favorite, to break the mold.  And they have precedent on their side.  On December 28^th they defeated the Crusaders 33-28 in a dual meet.

(OK, this photo makes me think wrestlers have to rethink how they designate they are "Number One")

While a lot of teams were preparing for the Public Schools Wrestling Championships or the Division III Duals Championships, nine others (including Belle Chasse and John Curtis, who were at the other events also) competed in the second Beast on the Bayou duals tournament at Shaw.  Jesuit and Catholic did not bring the majority of their elite wrestlers, but Holy Cross, Brother Martin and TC did.  Holy Cross may surprise a lot of people come the state championships, as should Jesuit, in Division I, and Shaw will make it tough for Basile to win their fifth-consecutive Division III title, but none were matches for the Crusaders or Rebels.  Brother Martin sent Holy Cross to the third-place match with a 53-7 pasting.  TC did the same to Shaw, 61-12, and Jesuit, 56-15. In the finals each team won seven matches, but the Rebels scored four falls to the Crusaders’ two plus a Major Decision, to win the event 33-28.

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It has been posited that the Brother Martin loss was due to the absence of  Jacob Elsensohn and Gabriel Brewer.  It was re-posited that the Rebels were also without at least one starter and had to finagle their lineup to fill all 14 weight classes.  At 120 lbs., a six-point swing might have occurred were Elsensohn there, as he pinned TC’s Brennan Romero earlier this season.  But the outcome could have been worse for the Maroon and Gold.  One Crusader win was by two points only.  Two others were decided by one point.  Suffice to say neither team can afford any major mistakes this weekend.  Each has a finalist returning.  2022 champion Richie Clementi, probably at 132 lbs., is undefeated this season.  Three other 2022 LACL placers will be with him.  TC’s Ethan Boudreaux, at 138 lbs., is also undefeated and has two other 2022 LACL placers with him. 

DISCLAIMER: In order to keep the editor from metacarpal trauma he asked the opinions of the top minds he could think of to aid him in the below list of how the editor believes the event should be seeded (and not, I repeat in uppercase and bolded letters, NOT whom he would bet on to win).

I asked, or consulted...

Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom ...her Roman counterpart, Minerva ...Thor Odinson ...I visited the Oracle ...I asked this lady ...I rolled bones Not him... Him Not these... these

Below is the wisdom of age and ages, real and imagined.

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NOTES: Wrestlers are placed in the last weight class in which the editor knows they competed.  Certain wrestlers have competed in weight classes in other states that do not match Louisiana weight classes.

106 lbs.

If TC’s Alex Rozas moves to 113 lbs., be aware that another freshman lurks up north.  North Desoto’s Jacob Kershaw has a win over Oubre.  Oubre and Judice have yet to meet this season and may not until the semifinals of the LACL.  Between those two, the nod goes to Judice, as he has lost to Rozas via a 12-4 MD and a fall, whereas Oubre has lost via a TF and a fall.  Lakeshore’s Bryce Latino has losses to Judice and Oubre, and at fifth should get another shot at the Crusader.

There is also an eighth-grader at St. Paul, Scott Cascio, whom nobody should overlook.

113 lbs.

Alex Rozas has 25 Technical Falls, one Major Decision and five falls in his 31-0 record.  The Teurlings Catholic freshman has wins over Shaw’s Caden Judice and Brother Martin’s Anthony Oubre, also freshmen.  Last weekend he moved the 113 lbs. to score two of his 25 TFs.

Bodi Harris dropping to 113 lbs. should make nobody currently there happy.  Not so at 120 lbs., though, at which Harris’ exit most certainly opened a spot on the LACL’s “virtual podium.” 

Logan Olsen is undefeated against Louisiana wrestlers, but he has only competed against seven of them.  One was Dylan Duvernay of De la Salle, whom Olsen defeated in the Warrior Open finals.  He has done well in out-of-state events, but does not have the pedigree, like teammate Ernie Perry, III, to justify a higher seed just yet.

120 lbs.

Peace, I beseech thee, naysayers.  Anyone who can read TrackWrestling results, which is pretty easy to do (says the half-blind guy), knows Elsensohn defeated Goodson 1-0, whereas Elsensohn scored a third-round fall over the Sam Houston junior, Roach.  Normally that would be justification to seed the one-loss Goodson higher.  But that match was at 126 lbs.  Goodson has yet to wrestle the plethora of elite wrestlers at 120 lbs. this year.  The state champion from 2022 should have to go through a 2022 runner-up to get to a 2021 state champion to get to the finals.  At 126 lbs., Goodson only faced and defeated one 2022 state placer, Brusly’s Division III champion Cameron Redditt.  This is a weight class in which one really has to earn ones spurs.

126 lbs.

Perry is a regular in the LACL finals - this marks the senior’s fourth LACL and he has won the previous three.  No one can lay claim to four LACL titles. 

132 lbs.

The sophomore Clementi is also entering the tournament undefeated and is seeking his second title. 

138 lbs.

Boudreaux the Shark gets the nod over Boudreaux the Rebel due to his two wins over the Rebel in 2022.  Ethan (yep – I am going to use first names for this whole weekend) is undefeated, with five tournament wins this season.  Wiley has four titles to his credit and only one loss, to Clementi, at the Trey Culotta, in which he placed third.  Flip a coin.

145 lbs.

Burandt and Babineaux are one of the one-point matches mentioned earlier at the Beast on the Bayou.  De la Salle’s O’Connor is also dangerous.  His only losses have been to Burandt, 12-7, and Babineaux, 2-0.

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152 lbs.

Were it not for the number of matches wrestled I might have Bergeron seeded first, here.  He placed third at the Trey Culotta, but that was his first event of the year.  In his second event, the Public-School Wrestling Championships, he defeated previously undefeated and five tournaments winner Foster Shank of Dutchtown in the finals.  Johnson’s only loss was to Sharon, but the Rebel defeated the Bearcat in their last match.  Sharon also has a loss to Holy Cross’ Gunner Guidry, but Guidry has two losses to Shank.

160 lbs.

Choosing between Clement and DiGeralamo came down to two factors.  Clement avenged his only loss to a Louisiana wrestler, and, while both have falls over a common opponent in the second period, Clement has one over the same opponent in the first two minutes.  Ty Parker of Airline and Hunter Addison of North Desoto have competed, at their lightest, in the 165 lbs. weight class in other states.  The editor does not know in which weight class they may compete.  It should be 160 lbs. or 170 lbs.

170 lbs.

The 2021 and 2022 Division III runner-up from De la Salle has three tournament wins and a win over East Ascension’s Gabriel Bonin.  He was off of the mats for six weeks during late November and most of December, a time when Bonin won three tournaments.  During that time Bonin faced, and defeated, some of the better 182 lbs. and 170 lbs. wrestlers, including Simoneaux, Brusly’s Anthony Denova, Rummel’s Neil Borne and Samuel Riles of Brother Martin.  He won the last of five meetings so far with Mathis and owns a 3-2 edge.  Oh, yes, the defending Division I champion.  St. Paul’s Landry Barker has 26 matches.  Three have gone six minutes.  Two of those were against out-of-state opponents, in tournament finals, and Barker gave up a total of six points in those matches.  The other was against Catholic’s Zach Pellerin, a 13-3 major decision.

182 lbs.

The Blue Jay has two wins over Domangue, which are the Bear’s only losses to Louisiana wrestlers.  Krail has five loses.  None of them have lost at 182 lbs. yet, though.  Calderaro and Krail each have wins over Bergeron.  Peak has not lost to a Louisiana wrestler this season, but he has not faced the competition he will see at the LACL.

195 lbs.

Senior Jacob Schexnaydre lost his first match of the season to Catholic’s Domangue, as he did in 2021.  But since that match he has never looked back.  He won the Warrior Open over Calderaro of Jesuit.  He won the Tiger Invitational over St. Paul’s Peak.  He beat Wyatt Burk of Comeaux in the Spartan Invitational finals, and he gave Baton Rouge’s Adam Landry his first loss of the season in the Big Horse finals.  Tyler Maher of Live Oak fell to Schexnaydre at the District 5-5A Championships and he beat Landry again in the Public-School wrestling championships.  At the Battle of New Orleans, he defeated Pearl River’s Bennett Whitfield in the finals.  Landry’s only two losses were to Schexnaydre.  Just as dominating, although not with as hard a schedule, is John Curtis sophomore A.J. Smith.  Smith is 20-0 with wins at the Bulldog Brawl (LA version) and the Jimmy Vidrine DIII. 

220 lbs.

The senior Latilois is 22-0 with wins over Ellis, Catholic’s David Russell (at 285 lbs.), Walker’s Gabriel Milbern and a 1-0 victory over Destrehan’s Gideon Bowman.  Ellis’ only loss is to Latitois.  Huling’s only blemish to a Louisiana wrestler was a loss to Catholic’s Nick Migliacio.  Bowman, despite his one-point loss to Latitois, has two losses to Burmaster, who has a loss to Rist.  Things get rather tricky after Huling.

 285 lbs.

The defending Division I state champion and LACL champion from Jesuit will make his debut for the second straight year at the LACL.  As such he has no 2022-23 season matches, but the same scenario happened last season.  Hayes is undefeated in nine matches, but one of those wins was over Shaw’s Howard.  Russell is undefeated aside from his one loss to Latitois.  Simmons has losses to Hayes and Russell but wins over Hannan’s Joel Marchand and Ehret’s David Billiot.

The reader may do with this as the reader likes.  Just do not pin it to a mirror, a ceiling, a forehead, or anything of that nature to try to make it mean more than it does.  These are suggestions for seeding which, most probably, has already been started as 55 teams with entrants are already listed on TrackWrestling.

CONFUSED?

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