WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA
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WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA |
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| Areas large and small determine champions |
| January 29th, 2023| Written by: Staff writer |
According to Google Maps St. Paul High School is approximately 42 miles from Brother Martin High School. Springfield High School is 40 miles from Catholic, but the one Knight of Springfield went to the Greater Baton Rouge Championships. Basile is 65 miles from Southside High School, but the Bearcats went to the Lafayette Metro tournament held there. Terrebonne High School is 66 miles from Chalmette High School, yet the Tigers travelled the distance to compete in the District 7-5A & 8-5A Championships. They drove 66 miles to compete against, not 16 other schools as the one Springfield Knight did, nor 11 other schools as Basile did, but against four other schools, only one of which exceeded their team count of 11. Two weight classes had five wrestlers. Two wrestlers competed in as many as three matches. In eight weight classes, if the top-seed won, he wrestled one match. Whoever lost their first match got a bye to place third. The Tigers drove 66 miles so five of their 11 wrestlers could wrestle one match. Six wrestled two matches (one of the five-man brackets included a consolation round forfeit or one may have wrestled three times). When the event was over the Tigers drove 66 miles home.
I mentioned St. Paul not because of the rigorous crossing of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway generally used to get to Brother Martin, but because the Wolves did not go to Brother Martin. Instead, they travelled less than 10 miles to Mandeville High School for the St. Tammany Parish Championships. It only had nine teams but it was a very competitive tournament. Only one wrestler, however, will be a #1 seed to win a Division I championship in Bossier City. One may be top-seeded in Division II. None looked to be top-seeds in Division III, including a Division III defending state champion.
Sure, the Northshore area including Covington and Mandeville has had a Walmart now for 10 years, and it has crime, police and political corruption and a homeless population, just like a real big city, but it is still considered, by many without a college degree in geography, but also by the U.S. Census Bureau, as a part of the Greater New Orleans area, formally known as the GNO Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). All of the wrestling area championships have teams within, and many exceeding, their MSAs, except for Greater New Orleans. Last weekend, instead of one tournament to determine a Greater New Orleans wrestling championship, there were four tournaments determining the champions of a parish named for a saint who does not exist, or districts that do not apply to wrestling as much as they do for football, and one that was created by the schools it seems that nobody else wanted to invite.
In 2022 only eight Division I wrestlers, five Division II wrestlers and seven Division III wrestlers (20 total) won state championships. That is less than half of the total of forty-two available, and somewhat lessens the argument about wrestling being a southeast Louisiana formed and dominated sport that many posit when the state championships, as they are again this season, are in Bossier City. I expect GNO MSA wrestlers will win fewer than that this year. Perhaps a Greater New Orleans Championship hoodie would look a little better when state brackets stop adorning as many walls of GNO area bedrooms.
A summary of all of the events held in the interest of areal dominance is below. Shaded results indicate matches that may significantly affect the state championships seeding for the weight classes and divisions in which the wrestlers compete.
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Greater Baton Rouge Championships Tommy Prochaska won his 21st Greater Baton Rouge
City Championship title, going back to 2000. The Bears dominated
the 2023 event with six champions and three runners-up, outscoring
runner-up east Ascension 319-240. St. Amant placed third in the
17-team event, with 159.5 points, just nipping Live Oak's 159 points.
Zachary placed fifth with 150 points. The GBRs were again an event which area wrestlers
thought was more important than seeding at the state championships or
protecting records. |
Teurlings Catholic had five champions and two runners-up as they easily
won the Lafayette Metro by 67.5 points over runner-ups Comeaux and
Southside. The Rebels scored 222.5 points while the Spartans and
Sharks tied at 159. Basile was fourth with 121 points, followed by
St. Thomas More with 91 points. Barring a nightmare of in-practice injuries following last weekend's Ken Cole Invitational, this event appeared to be a "wrestle if you want to" affair. A lot of feasible top seeds in all three divisions did not participate, but that should not depreciate the efforts of the wrestlers who did. One can only wrestle those who show up. That's a rule. And some very good ones did show up. |
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The wrestlers take pride in this event, also.
Tyson Roach did not compete, bit I am still fatigued after
watching his Ken Cole finals match win over Southside's Landon Reaux, so
he certainly gets a pass. Meriting
mention of another sort, though, are Zach Preece and Ian Barnes of
Rosepine, a school that will not have a page on the LHSAA until later in
February. Both were
runners-up: Preece at 106 lbs. and Barnes at 145 lbs.
Ditto to Jordan Rogers of Vinton, who won the 170 lbs.
championship. I would be remiss not to mention South Beauregard's CeCe Butler, who placed second at 113 lbs. There was not a JV-Select division in this tournament as there was in Baton Rouge (listed farther below.) That leads to Miss Chevy Coleman, the champion at 106 lbs. Miss Coleman has not wrestled a JV-Select event this season, and, thanks to the LHSAA, certainly will not in Bossier City in less than two weeks. |
The Chalmette Owls won the Districts 7A-8A Championships, which was not wholly surprising. The surprising team was Terrebonne which, with only 11 entrants, placed second. The Owls scored 187.5 points to the Tigers' 143.5. The 44-point difference might have been drastically reduced as, if the Tigers has three more wrestlers, they would only have to average 15 points to surpass Chalmette. Well, this was a small event, so 15 points is not as easy as it may seem. Mohammed Gaber of Chalmette and Jacob Britt of Destrehan each scored only 22 points by winning the largest weight classes, 120 lbs. and 132 lbs., which each had five contestants. The Tigers are proving better and better each year since the team was rebooted in 2020. Division II 170 lbers. might keep a wary eye on Loukas Naquin. If he combines the intensity on his face with his actions on the mat, he could prove very dangerous. Nor should one disregard Britt, who has not been mentioned much as a part of the 120 lbs. many consider should be Dante's 10th Circle. |
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North Desoto held nothing back at the North Louisiana Regionals. Of the 13 wrestlers they entered, 12 made the finals. Eight Griffins won their last match, giving them a 245.5 to 182.5 win over runner-up Parkway. Evangel placed third with only eight wrestlers, scoring 94 points. Benton scored 88 points to place fourth, followed by Airline, whose six entrants (not including Ernie Perry, III, who can do anything he darn well pleases at this juncture of his career) scored 72 points. |
St. Tammany Parish Championships St. Paul won five individual championships and had five runners-up to win the St. Tammany Parish Championships for the umpteenth time (yes, "umpteenth" is a legitimate word). The Wolves scored 246.5 points, outdistancing runner-up Fontainebleau's 180 points by...did everyone get 66.5? Hannan was third with 132.5, followed by Lakeshore's 118 points and Mandeville's 103 points. |
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Jefferson Parish Public-School Championships Riverdale High School hosted and won the first Jefferson Parish Public Schools championships. The Scottish Rebels won six individual championships and had two runner-up in scoring 164 points. Runner-up Grace King won two individual titles and had three runners-up, scoring 113.5 points. The upstart Swamp Owls of Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy entered the only 14-wrestler team, consisting of a junior, three sophomores, five freshmen, three eighth-graders and a seventh-grader. Mike Savage's and Dan Erwin's team placed third with one champion and six runners-up. Thomas Jefferson was just as surprising. Coach Dean Tessitore's Panthers won four championships and a runner-up spot with their five entrants. East Jefferson's six entrants were awarded with one champion and two runners-up. |
On Friday 32 young ladies competed in 10 weight classes in the first GBR JV-Select Championships. Only three weight classes had more than three entrants, but the 32 girls represent the foundation for a future LHSAA-sanctioned girls wrestling season. The Baton Rouge area girls are but one area of the state with JV-Select competitors, but they were the only one who had an area championship this weekend. That may be important come next weekend at Baton Rouge High School where the first JV-Select State Championships will be held. |
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I have never been able to
comprehend why a GNO City Tournament has not become something akin to one like
they do every year in Baton Rouge.
It was, once, an event in which wrestlers took pride.
But that was from 1966 to 1994.
This should be a tournament to decide the best
wrestlers in the Greater New Orleans area.
In 2013 Coach Eric Desormeaux resuscitated the
Greater New Orleans Championships at Holy Cross.
It was a prestigious event and included 19
schools from Orleans Parish and the other parishes in the New Orleans
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), as determined by the U.S. Census of 2010.
Teams came from Jefferson, St. Charles, St.
Tammany, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard parishes.
In 2014, however, Brother Martin chose to sit
out of the event, and the field was 17 teams.
The Crusaders had nine wrestlers seeded in the
#1, #2 or #3 spots at the state championships, and they knew it.
They did not want to possibly jeopardize seeding like that and perhaps
have someone moved to a #4 seed. That would mean, if all worked right re
seeding, that wrestler would meet a #1 seed from another school in the
semifinals.
In 2015 the Crusaders sent a second-string
squad.
So did St. Paul.
Of potential Division I contenders, only Holy
Cross and Jesuit showed up.
Only nine teams entered the event.
The Crusaders failing to show up the previously year basically killed the idea.
In 2018 a Catholic League or 9-5A Catholic
League championship arose.
Brother Martin, Holy Cross, Jesuit, Rummel and
Shaw were there.
De la Salle was not, but John Curtis was.
The event was held again in 2019, 2020 and
2022.
First-strings were sent, but it was a bit
anticlimactic after the Louisiana Classic two weeks earlier.
In 2022, only one upset was recorded in the
finals.
In 2023 a season-ending
tournament (the Crusaders still have a dual meet schedule with Teurlings
Catholic on February 1st) was held at Brother Martin.
It was, of all things, a duals tournament.
Brother Martin, Holy Cross, Jesuit, Rummel and
St. Augustine sophomore Tylan Watts participated.
To their credit Brother Martin and Jesuit held nobody back, and the Crusaders defeated the
Blue
Jays by 10 points, 33-23, to take first-place.
That was a much nicer margin than their 36-33
win last Wednesday night.
That dual came down to the last match.
This one was over when Samuel Riles defeated
Jesuit's Patrick Matthews 10-5 at 170 lbs. with two matches remaining.
There were a few lineup changes.
Jesuit's Chase Haydel went up to 138 lbs., but
he did not fare better at the higher weight class, losing to Brother Martin's Ty
Duncan and Holy Cross' Sebastian Vidacovich.
Michael Barnett fared better for the Blue Jays
than he did on Wednesday, avoiding a fall and only losing 7-2 to Brother
Martin's Anthony Oubre.
Gabriel Brewer returned to the Crusader lineup
for the first time since he was injured on the first day of the Trey Culotta
Invitational on December 21st.
He did so with a plum...wait...aplomb,
defeating the Blue Jay's Dom Logiudice 5-3 SV.
Crusader senior Evan Huling avenged a
Wednesday loss to Griffin Ellis in 2:32 with a 5-2 win.
Crusader freshman Quinn McDermott beat another
Blue Jay 120 lber., Conrad Robison, 5-4.
It is as yet unknown if junior Jacob Elsensohn
will return for the state championships.
More may be known after Wednesday's dual meet
against Teurlings Catholic.
Rummel did not enter 106 lbs. or
220 lbs. wrestlers.
As a smaller program, that can be overlooked.
Holy Cross entered all but a 285 lber. and
they wrestled when they could.
But Jesuit entered a full squad against
Brother Martin yet forfeited matches against Holy Cross and Rummel.
Against Holy Cross it appears they wrestled
until the match was "a lock" and then forfeited matches.
Kudos go to the
Crusaders for wrestling their strength in every dual.
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Whether they planned it or not, every other
area championship in Louisiana follow's the Metropolitan Statistical
Areas as outlined by the 2010 (map to the left), and most likely, the 2020 U.S. Census.
The North Louisiana Regionals include the schools in Caddo, Bossier and
Desoto Parishes, and sometimes some other programs from north Louisiana
parishes like Ouachita and Webster. The Jesse James
SW Shootout consists of schools from Calcasieu and Cameron parishes.
The Lafayette Metro has teams from Lafayette, Acadia, Evangeline and Vermillion
parishes. The GBR MSA runs from Livingston to Pointe Coupe
parishes, and includes Ascension, East Baton Rouge and West Baton Rouge
parishes. Only the New Orleans MSA is split. There is the District 9-5A, which Brother Martin generally wins, the St. Tammany Parish championships, which St. Paul always wins, a District 7A and 8A tournament, which matches teams from St. Bernard to Terrebonne Parishes, along with John Ehret in Jefferson Parish and Hahnville and Destrehan in St. Charles parish. This year marked the first Jefferson Parish Public Schools Championships, matching primarily Metairie and Kenner Schools, along with Thomas Jefferson. A true Greater New Orleans Championships, with Terrebonne included, could have 30 teams and be held over two days. It could be the fourth largest tournament in the season, behind the state championships, the Louisiana Classic and the Ken Cole. If the teams averaged half a squad, that is still 210 kids. Only 42 win state championships. That might make the event worth winning. |
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