WE ARE ADAAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

Fini

Jesuit won two of four Division I finals matches, including the last one via a fall, to defeat Catholic by four points, 263.5 to 259.5, to win their 20th Division I state championship, and 24th overall state championship title.  The Blue Jays brought home the state championship plaque after a 24-year drought, having not done so since 2009.  Brother Martin still leads the Division I list with 21 Division I titles.  Holy Cross and Catholic are tied with three Division I titles apiece.  The Bears, though, came very close to taking a lead over the Tigers.

Catholic had six finalists, the most of any Division I team.  All of them were seeded second, and all faced the top seeds in their weight classes.  Four had previously been defeated by their finals opponents.  Another's only two losses came from wrestlers his opponent had defeated six times.  Another, a freshman, faced a senior who had never been beaten by a Louisiana wrestler.  Six number two seeds in the finals, and leading Jesuit by two points going into the last round, and the Bears still were not the favorites.

Division I Champs Jesuit Blue Jays	Division I Runners-up Catholic Bears

Division I Brackets in PDF

At 113 lbs. top-seed Bodi Harris of Jesuit had defeated second-seed Grant Grizzaffi twice by five points.  In the finals, Harris won by four points, 6-2, putting the Blue Jays two points ahead of the Bears.  At 126 lbs. Catholic freshman Kristian Scott faced Airline senior Ernie Perry, III, who was attempting to win his fourth Division I state championship.  He did so via a 13-1 major decision, becoming the first public school wrestler to do so, following brother Martin's Paul Klein (2015) and Stephen Shields (2017).  At 1:32 lbs. junior Christian Worley faced defending Division I state champion Richie Clementi of Brother Martin.  Clementi pinned Worley in in 3:43.  This time the match only lasted 1:11.  Another Crusader, senior Kent Burandt, was making his fourth-consecutive finals appearance.  His previous three were unsuccessful.  This time, though, he faced an opponent he had defeated 9-0 and 15-0.  Catholic senior Elijah Gilmore would not deny Burandt his last chance to win a title and the Brother Martin senior won via a 15-0 technical fall 13 seconds into the third period.

Those four losses did nothing to bolster Catholic's lead after Harris' win at 113 lbs.  Their best shot might have been at 120 lbs.  Second-seeded Watts Goodson faced top-seeded Landon Reaux of Southside.  Both were well motivated.  Goodson was a defending state champion from 2022.  Reaux was expected to defend his 2021 state championship in 2022, but instead he failed to make weight on that Friday in 2021.  That opened the door for Sam Houston's Tyson Roach to win in 2022.  Goodson lost to Roach via a last second takedown in the Louisiana Classic quarterfinals, 9-8.  Goodson's only other loss was a 1-0 affair versus Brother Martin's Jacob Elsensohn.  Reaux also lost to Elsensohn, in the Trey Culotta pool rounds.  The two met again in the finals and Reaux prevailed with a stellar third period.  In the Louisiana Classic semifinals, Reaux dominated Elsensohn throughout the match until the Crusader junior was injured in the third period.  Reaux and Roach met seven times during the season.  Thanks to a 3-0 run, Reaux won the series 4-3, but Roach had the last word in a 12-2 shellacking of Reaux in the Ken Cole finals.  As things went, neither Elsensohn nor Roach would be problems for Goodson or Reaux.  Sam Houston moved to Division II this season and it was deemed safest for Elsensohn not to compete again after his Louisiana Classic injury.  That was probably OK by Goodson and Reaux.  In their eight pre-finals matches, only one entered the second period.  That was energy well saved.  Starting the third period Goodson led 8-5.  Reaux took advantage of a locking hands call and an extra bottom starting position to win that round 6-2, giving him an 11-10 win.

Jesuit coach Jon Orillion

Catholic's last finalist was also a defending state champion.  Thomas Domangue won the 2022 182 lbs. title over top-seeded Winn McConnell of Jesuit.  McConnell had defeated Domangue twice in the 2021-22 Season, 7-2 and 5-2.  In the state finals, however, Domangue dominated with a 7-3 win.  In these finals he faced another Jesuit wrestler, Jackson Calderaro, who had pinned Domangue in their three meeting over the season.  The Bear, though, knew what a state finals match was like, and it showed, as he just shut Calderaro down for a 10-5 win.  Catholic retook their two-point lead, but that margin was not expected to hold.  In the last match of the evening in Division I, defending state champion Spencer Lanosga was 6-0, and two of those wins were via falls over his opponent, Brother Martin sophomore Ethan Simmons.  For the Bears to win Simmons would have to upset Lanosga.  That did not happen as the Blue Jay pinned the sophomore in a mere 41 seconds, sealing the victory for Jesuit by four points. A Division I team championship was last settled by less than four points in 1988 when Bonnabel, Holy Cross and Jesuit tied for the championship with 140.5 points each.  A four-point difference is the smallest since that year.  It happened once before, in 2008.  In that year, Catholic defeated Jesuit 214-210.

No team won more than two individual state championships, which has not happened since 2020.  Four teams did win twice.  That Jesuit and Brother Martin did is not surprising.  But one might think Holy Cross, Catholic or St. Paul would be there as well.  But those three only managed one championship apiece.  Fontainebleau and Southside were the other two schools.  The Bulldogs' place was their second highest since their inception in 1996.  (They placed 7th in 2003).  Southside, which only started competing in 2020, placed 7th, 10 spots higher than their previous best of 17th in 2022.  Airline, East Ascension and Sulphur had the other winners.

Outstanding Wrestler

With his 13-1 major decision over Catholic's Kristian Scott, Airline's Ernie Perry, III became the first public school wrestler, and only the third wrestler ever, to win four division I state wrestling championships.  He also became the first to achieve that feat without ever losing to a Louisiana wrestler.  He dominated his competition, pinning his first three opponents in 1:12, 0:36, 1:18 and 4:00.  Three weeks earlier Perry became only the third wrestler to win four Louisiana Classic titles. 

Perry posted his "I choose 126 lbs." sign at the Warrior Open, just as he did last season at 120 lbs.  That explains rather easily why the 2022-23 120 lbs. weight class is being considered for Dante's 10th Circle of Hell. Looking back at Perry's career, it seems odd that he only defeated seven state champions along the way.  Not unexpectedly, in 2023 and 2022 a lot of the best wrestlers found ways into other weight classes.  Sam Houston's Pollex Coleman was not as fortunate in each of those years.  He took care of three-time Division II state champion Ethan Boudreaux of Teurlings Catholic in 2020 and 2021.  Boudreaux was undefeated this season.  In 2020 he defeated Jacob Houser of St. Paul, who went on to win back-to-back Division I state championships in 2021 and 2022, a year in which he was undefeated.  In 2020 and 2021 he defeated Brother Martin's Mason Elsensohn.  Elsensohn went undefeated in his senior season of 2021-22, and could have won a title in 2021, save that he had Perry in the finals, and kept the Viking scoreless for almost five minutes before giving up a reversal in a 2-1 match.

The point is that very early in his varsity career people learned to have as little as possible to do with Mr. Perry "between the whistles."  Off the mat, Mr. Perry could not be a better representative of Louisiana wrestling.  Being a great wrestler means more than just winning matches.  Mr. Perry learned that early.  He was the Outstanding Wrestler in the state - not just in Division I

Ernie Perry, III Division I Outstanding Wrestler

Perry also became only the third wrestler to win four-consecutive Louisiana Classic titles, joining Korey Miller of St. Paul and Airline alumnus Matt Rabinowitz In this tournament Perry scored falls in 1:12, 0:36, 1:18, 4:00 and won his fourth state finals match via a 13-1 major decision. 2020 31-0 2021 10-0 2022 27-0 2023 31-0

(1) Jesuit champs Bodi Harris and Spencer Lanosga (in hopefully their first configuration); (2) Jesuit coach Jon Orillion and third-place winner Chase Haydel.  Haydel was seeded sixth, but after a tough first-round match with Acadiana's Cayden Richard and fell to runner-up Christian Worley after defeating #3 Nick Sauerwin of Holy Cross.  Then he beat #5 Collin Cusimano of St. Paul before accepting a forfeit from Sauerwin to place third, which was one spot lower than the editor would have bet.  Despite the last match forfeit, the veteran senior's third-place finish must have inspired other Blue Jays; (3) Southside's Landon Reaux ended up being Jesuit's "New Best Friend" after his thrilling 11-10 win over defending state champion Watts Goodson of Catholic.  The Blue Jays were ahead by two points, but the remaining Catholic wrestlers were not expected to win their matches, and Jesuit still had two finalists who were favored to win their matches.  One did not, but one did, and that was all the Blue Jays needed; (4-6) Jesuit kids.

An array of team placers: 1) East Ascension; 2) Southside; 3) St. Amant; 4) Walker; 5) Walker gave a team photo as well (OK - that looks to have been stolen from Facebook)

Fontainebleau montage: 1) Samuel Favaza before the 106 lbs. finals; 2) Favaza after the finals; 3) Favaza as he will be seen in 2023-24 season; 5) Coach Tim Favaza, official Raymond Favaza (do not buy cheap rip-offs), some other Favaza, Aiden Lindsey and Coach Logan Armantrout

East Ascension get their props for placing 6th and higher than any other public school.  1) Lucas Maneckshaw placed 4th; 2) Aiden Krass just says "Forget aboudit!;" 3) Aiden Krass forgot about it 4) C.E. Byrd Coach Mark Yawn and 2021 East Ascension graduate Anthony Krass

Final Team Scores