WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

Catholic's dominance at the Louisiana Classic (LACL) surprised a lot of people.  But without the influence of Division II and III wrestlers, as well as the Rockwell Heath, Texas team, can they win a Division I state championship against solely LHSAA Division I competition?

Yes.  They can.

But so can Brother Martin, and so can Jesuit.  This tournament should be decided in the finals matches.

The Bears have 12 wrestlers seeded to place in the top-six of their respective weight classes, and thus earn placement points.  Should those wrestlers do as expected, the Bears will earn 115 placement points, above and beyond advancement points and extra points for Major Decisions (MDs), Technical Falls (TGs) and falls.

Using the same rules, Jesuit's 10 wrestlers will earn 102 placement points.  Brother Martin's 10 seeds are predicted to score 100 points.

Those are my rules, FYI, which I base simply on how wrestlers have been seeded.  I hold myself harmless re the interpretation of other rules, specifically LHSAA seeding rules, which led to those seeds and thus my calculations and conclusions.  Those other rules seemed to have been used very subjectively at times.  Yet neither my thinking that, nor the pages I wrote last night about it, will change anything.  Just putting my arguments into a written form, whether I publish them or not, is oddly cathartic for me.  As correct as I am, it means nothing now.  Someone from each team will come out of nowhere and exceed expectations,  Well, not so much out of nowhere for the Bears, as they only have two wrestlers not predicted to place.  The Crusaders and Blue Jays each have four such wrestlers.  If one feels like it, think of that as twice the potential than the Bears have.  But a few wrestlers will have what are basically called "bad tournaments."  If those are minimalized by one team more than another, the 115 vs. 102 vs. 100 points will be relegated to "Imaginationland." where it really belongs.

One wrestler merits naming, if only because he will not be competing.  Medical concerns prevented Brother Martin's Jacob Elsensohn from participating in the 2023 state championships.

Due to his injury in the LACL semifinals he was forced to forfeit two matches.  Precedents exist that he would probably have been a second seed had he not been injured.  When he was on the Crusader state championships roster Elsensohn was the fifth seed.  As a fifth-seed, precedents exist suggesting he would have placed third.  That would have given the Crusaders 109 placement points.  Yet there should be no doubting his physical well-being properly takes precedence over the goal of a Brother Martin repeat team championship.  Anyone who has seen the young man wrestle can safely bet he was the hardest one to convince he should not compete, even knowing it was not "his call" to make.  He has another year left.  One calls this scenario "time well spent."

This event will come down to falls and Major Decisions.  Neither the Bears, the Crusaders nor the Blue Jays can afford casual Technical Falls, as are far too often scored these days.  They all need the extra half-point a fall earns over a Technical Fall.  They all must face the risk of trying to get an eight-point win rather than one by merely seven.

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