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WE ARE ADAPTIVE

WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

46th Ken Cole Invitational - 182 pounds
The 2022 LHSAA state championships were not a fluke

April 14th, 2023 | Written by: Staff writer

Champion:
(5) Graham Montet
St. Louis

2nd	(3) Anthony Denova	Brusly
3rd	(1) Caden Robison	North Desoto
4th	(4) Kyle Stephens	Teurlings Catholic
5th	(2) Cameron Holmes	East Ascension
6th	Luke Campbell	Benton

Someone may have forgotten that St. Louis junior Graham was a defending Division III state champion. Montet was 12-2 upon entering the 2023 Ken Cole, and neither of the wrestlers who defeated him, Jason Krail of De la Salle and Christian Bergeron of Basile (in a 6-5 match), were competing in the event. He fared OK in his 12 wins, meriting third-place at the Jacob McMillan and he was a runner-up at the Jimmy Vidrine. He was not owed the #1 seed. That legitimately went to North Desoto's Caden Robison, who also only had two losses to Louisiana wrestlers but 29 wins in all. Yet Montet was seeded fifth behind Robison, East Ascension's #2 Cameron Holmes (four losses), Brusly's #3 Anthony Denova (four losses) and TC's #4 Kyle Stephens (three losses). Robison, Denova and Stephens had also participated in the LACL and Holmes won the Public-School Wrestling Championships and the Griffin Open and placed second in two other events.

No matter. From his #5 spot Montet pinned Stephens in 2:28 and then defeated Robison 5-3 to make the finals. There he met Denova, who, after three falls, defeated Holmes 10-4 in the semifinals. Denova led throughout the match and was ahead 9-3 with only 37 seconds remaining. That is when Montet escaped, took Denova down and tacked on two nearfall points to win the match 10-9.

Stephens defeated Holmes in the CSFs but fell to the #1 seed Robison 6-5 in the match for third-place. Holmes had to settle for placing fifth with a fall in 1:43 over Benton's unseeded Luke Campbell.

Semifinals