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WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA |
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The Rebels finish as they started, with a state title for Hayes |
LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament |
Division II - 285 Pounds |
August 20th, 2023| Written by: Staff Writer |
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If one has to have a bad tournament, the Louisiana Classic works OK. That is where Teurlings Catholic senior Kole Hayes recorded his only two losses. TrackWrestling has two more from the Ken Cole, but those were forfeits - Hayes missed weight or had to default before the event began. Hayes won the Jacob McMillan 6-0 over Kaplan's Ethan Vigneaux. That is a lot of points and even a more impressive margin over the Pirate senior. Then he won the Brusly Invitational, had less than a stellar LACL and the Ken Cole debacle, but those incidents did not prevent him from being seeded first at 285 lbs. During the season he outlasted Shaw's Raymond Howard, Brother Martin's Ethan Simmons, Hannon's Joel Marchand and Southside's Ian Theriot twice.
Hayes' top half of the bracket went according to form as far as Hayes having to beat the 8th seed and the fourth seed to make the finals. The other half of the bracket had a problem, though. Second-seeded Darian Gabriel of Carencro was disqualified during his match with seventh seed David Melendez of Grace King. Unfortunately, whatever Gabriel did to Melendez made it unable for Melendez to remain in the tournament. So third seeded Dom Smith of North Desoto rode a forfeit into the finals against Hayes. Hayes did not care. He was a pinning machine. After a first-round bye he scored falls in 1:39, 0:43, 0:14 and 1:21 in the finals. Teurlings Classic just completed opening the finals with a win (Alex Rozas at 106 lbs.) and closing them with another.
Oddly, Gabriel, who lost to Chaze Brown in the consolation semifinals, was in the match for fifth place against Melendez, who had to forfeit is consolation semifinals match to Mateo Peterson of North Vermillion. Meaning no disrespect to Mr. Gabriel, does anyone else feel it was wrong for Gabriel to accept a forfeit from Melendez to place 5th? I feel it just might be something a rules committee might like to look into.
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(3) Dom Smith (ND) pinned Mason Dupree (BRU) in 1:42 |
(1) Kole Hayes (TC) pinned (4) Chaze Brown (PKY) in 0:14 |
(3) Dom Smith accepted a forfeit from (7) David Melendez (GK) |
Championship Consolation Rounds
(4) Chaze Brown (PKY) pinned Mateo Peterson (NV) in 3:51 to place 3rd |
(2) Darian Gabriel (CAR) accepted a forfeit from (7) David Melendez (GK) to place 5th |
(1) Kole Hayes of Teurlings Catholic pinned (3) Dom Smith of North Desoto in 1:21 | ||||||||
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