WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

The kids went all over the country last weekend.  There were four tournaments in Louisiana, but that is not enough for some.  One team went to Texas, one went to Florida, one to Alabama, one to Oklahoma, and one ventured way up north to Ohio.  Ohio?  What even is that?

Ironman

Well, let us start with the Yankee tournament, which was the Ironman Tournament held at Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, OH (wherever that is).  This is one of the toughest national high school tournaments, which, as of Saturday night, has had only three wrestlers win it four times.  Think of it as a Louisiana Classic, but where the Louisiana is replaced with the United States.  One four-time champion was crowned on Saturday, and one of the other two was David Taylor, the current coach of Oklahoma State, two-time NCAA Division I national champion for Penn State, Olympic champion in 2020 and a three-time World Champion.  Contestants are chosen by invitation only.

Representing Louisiana in the 2025 event was Teurlings Catholic's three-time Division II state champion and three time Louisiana Classic winner Alex Rozas.  In three and 1/3rd years the Rebel wrestler has yet to be defeated by Louisiana competition.  Rozas was seeded fourth, and finished placing fifth, and we all know it is nicer to finish an event, particularly one like the Ironman, on a winning note.

There were 40 entrants in the 120 lbs. weight class.  After a first-round bye Rozas won his first match via a 16-0 TF.  He followed that with a 4-0 decision, and then lost to the fifth-seed 7-5.  In his first consolation match he defeated the 10th-seed 8-4, the ninth-seed 11-6 in a 16-9 Tie-breaker-1 match.  He fell 4-1 to the second seed in the consolation semifinals and then won against the sixth-seed, a two-time Indiana state champion, 4-2 in an Ultimate Tie-breaker match.  His overall match record was 5-2.

Beeson Tournament

The ladies from Benton High School won the Beeson Tournament, held on December 13th at Bossier High School in Bossier City, LA.  They outscored Haughton 40.5 to 27 to win the team title.  Caddo Magnate placed third, followed by Parkway and Ruston.

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The Byrd Yellow Jackets won the boys tournament, scoring 185.5 points, 24 points more than runner-up Benton.  El Dorado, AR placed third, followed by Haughton and the host Bossier Bearkats.

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Zachary Big Horse

The Zachary Big Horse was held on Saturday, December 13th, at Zachary High School in Zachary, LA. 

[LEFT] The Walker Lady Wildcats only entered four wrestlers into this event, yet won handily due to champions Willow Dixon, MacKenzie Thomas and Nayeli Erazo, and a third-place finish by Isabella Ramsey.

Albany's Samantha Camerata won her second Outstanding Wrestler award, to go with her one from the Spartan Classic.  Camarata started with two byes, but then teched Chloe Green of Broadmoor 17-2 before defeating South Beauregard's Sarah Cervenka 8-5.  Camerata has only two matches that did not end with falls or technical falls.  Cervenka was her opponent in each of them.

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The Holy Cross Tigers won the boys division, outscoring Brother Martin 184.5 to 153.5.

3rd Place: Fontainebleau	Fontainebleau Medalists	Braden Sellars	Billy Edmonston & Brandon Conrad

Walker's Christopher Godson, III suffered his first defeat of the season when he fell to Baton Rouge's Aiden Anderson 4-3 in the 285 lbs. finals.  In a dual meet on November 12th and in the Spartan Classic finals, Godso defeated Anderson 2-1 and 4-1 respectively.  This one looed like it would also be a close match.  After the second period Godso was ahead 1-0.  But then Anderson scored a plethora of points, (which in this weight class is four points) in the first minute of the period via an escape and the only takedown of the match, taking a 4-1 lead with a minute remaining.  Godso received a point for Anderson stalling, and then an escape point with six seconds remaining, but those points were not enough to tie or overtake Anderson.

Also of note is Fontainebleau's Braden Sellars defeating Scott Cascio of Brother Martin 17-12.  Cascio, albeit wrestling for St. Paul at the time, is a two-time Division I state champion.  This really is not a surprising circumstance.  In the 2024-25 season the two wrestlers split the two matches against one another.  Sellers defeated Cascio 18-9 MD in the St. Tammany Parish Championships, but at the state championships it was Cascio scoring and 17-1 TF in the quarterfinals.

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Billy Duplessis Invitational

[NOTE} More on this tournament will be published anon.]

With six wrestlers the Riverdale girls squad easily won the Duplessis Invitational on Saturday, December 13th, held at John Ehret.  The Lady Scottish Rebels scored 79 points, far outdistancing the host John Ehret girls, who scored 46 points.

Winning titles for Riverdale were Naslin Ayala (100 lbs.), Layla Higgins (107 lbs.) Alyssa Hyde (126 lbs.), Chloe Leblanc (132 lbs.) and Samantha Aroche (138 lbs.). 

1st at the Duplessis: Riverdale Girls

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Shaw placed eighth

Terrebonne won the Duplessis Invitational held at John Ehret on Saturday.  The Tigers amassed 180.5 points, outscoring Jesuit by 47.5 points and Brother Martin by 56.5 points.  The Tigers should in no way be tainted in that they had 13 wrestlers while the Crusaders only had nine.  The first-string Crusaders were wrestling in Zachary, but beating a Crusader team of only nine is in no way an easy task.  More notably, the Blue Jays entered an entire 14-man team which included two of their best in Michael Barnett and Isaac Orillion.  Terrebonne had three champions in Cooper McNamara, Jonah Pelligrin and Chance Knoblock, and three runners-up.  Seven other Tigers placed in the top-four.  Jesuit actually had four champions, but only one runner-up, with six other top-four placers.  Terrebonne, however scored seven more falls/TFs than the Blue Jays.  This is a prime example of how important it is to score bonus points.

8th at the Duplessis: Shaw

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Jacob McMillan Memorial

The Lafayette Lady Lions won yet another tournament to go with their wins at the Griffin Open and the Spartan Classic. 

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Champions: Teurlings Catholic

Champion: Carter Macha	3rd Place Noah Macha

Of note: Teurlings Catholic's Russell Maturin defeated Carencro's Cody Hippolyte 14-1 major decision for third place at the Cougar Clash.  I the McMillan finals, Hippolyte avenged that loss with a fall over Maturin in 5:35.  This must have been fun to watch.  After the first period Maturin was ahead 4-3.  Hippolyte scored seven points to Maturin's four in the second period, taking a 10-8 lead.  But the third period was all Hippolyte.  The sophomore Bear allowed one escape point in the final two minutes, but he scored a three-point takedown between two four-point nearfalls prior to scoring the fall.

Perry TOC

Two North Desoto Griffins placed in the top-six at the Perry Tournament of Champions, held on December 12th and 13th in Perry, Oklahoma.  Kade Tinsley placed sixth at 215 lbs. while teammate Jacob Kershaw won the event.  Kershaw bested 23 others in the 144 lbs. weight class, with two falls and two technical falls before a 7-1 finals performance.  Kershaw, a three-time state runner-up in Division II and a two-time Louisiana Classic runner-up is 19-0 after last weekend.  Kershaw's record  has nine technical falls, six pins, one major decision.  His other three wins were by  decisions of 7-4, 7-3 and 7-1, all against out-of-state competition.

St. Mark's Lone Star XMAS Tournament

Evangel's Joseph Gilreath, a two-time defending Division III state champion, won his third tournament at the St. Mark's Lone Star Christmas Invitational.  The Eagle senior won with a quarterfinal fall in 1:39, a 21-10 semifinals decision and a fall in 4:30 in the finals.  Gilreath is 15-0 with eight falls, two technical falls and three major decisions.

Ryan Blackwell Invitational, FL

The Rummel Raiders travelled to Gulf Breeze, Florida to participate in the Ryan Blackwell Invitational, held on December 13th at Gulf Breeze High School. Twenty-one teams participated in the event.  The Raider brought only 11 entrants yet placed third via three first-place finishers, one runner-up finish and a third-place finish. Landen Modica at 120 lbs., Gage Ahysen at 144 lbs. and Dominic Durham at 150 lbs. won championships.  Dominic Shopfer placed second at 144 lbs. and finishing third at 133 lbs. was Kaden Cadella.

 Queen of the South, AL

Two Brusly girls travelled to Alabama for the Queen of the South Tournament on December 13th, held at Enterprise High School in Enterprise, AL.  Iranie Harrison placed second at 185 lbs. and Kaitlyn Walker placed 10th at 165 lbs.

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