WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

[Warning: the archaic webpage editor I used froze up on me for a while, and then reverted to something I did an hour ago.  So I am publishing this as is, just to be able to move on to something else.]

Duals Championship

My apologies for not attending Saturday afternoon's dual championships.  Less light than I expected in the Pontchartrain Center arena area, and then blaring (like glaring, but worse) light in the foyers area made driving home, even though it was still late outside, very difficult.  Had I gone to the finals, I would not have left until well after the sun went down.  Just driving down Williams Boulevard to Jefferson Highway would have been extremely reckless of me.

Maculopathy aside, photographing dual meet tournaments is extremely hard.  At any given time four or more mats were being used, and that leads to trying to take photographs of four matches at once.  That leads to a nightmare re sorting the photos into specific matches.  Could I even use a smartphone rather than a tablet or laptop to guide me to the matches I would like to photograph, it would not be any easier.  Until two wrestlers check-in at the scoring table, I do not know when or if an important match will  be available to photograph.  TrackWrestling cannot predict which wrestlers will meet in a dual meet match.

Ladies Duals Championship

Girls Link to FloW Page

As they have done all season, the Lady Lions of Lafayette dominated their competition to add the 2026 Louisiana Duals Championship to their trophies cabinet (or a closet until a bigger trophy cabinet can be found).  Lafayette won their first match 48-23 over Baton Rouge.  They followed that with a 54-18 thumping of Zachary.  In the finals, they beat the Skippers of Mandeville 59-12.  I will list the names of girls who won matches against the Lions rather than naming the Lions who won.  This is a much shorter list: Olivia Maxie and Jonnika Pitts of Baton Rouge, Jaiden Dyre and Sophie Page of Zachary, and Gabriella Maldonado of Mandeville.

1st: Lafayette Lady Lions

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Boys Dual Championships

Boys Link to FloW Page

Boys Championship Bracket

Boys Championship: Catholic 44-Holy Cross 21

(stolen from TrackWrestling)

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UNEXPECTED SEGUE (Wrestling-related): This tournament was a success, in that it attracted 23 teams and gave the opportunity for over 400 wrestlers to get some quality time on the mat.  The pool rounds on Friday and championship brackets on Saturday means that nobody goes 0-2 and is then relegated to watching teammates wrestle, as can happen non-dual meet tournaments.  A kid can go 0-5 and still come out a better wrestler than he/she was upon entering the fray.

Promoters of the event call it a Dual Meet State Championship, albeit they cannot use "State Championship" officially as the LHSAA will not allow that.  Feasibly, though I am only guessing, the LHSAA might allow it to be called a "State Championship" as long as the LHSAA does not have to pay for it.  And again, I do not know if that is even possible.

Pretend it was, though, allowed to be called a "State Championship."  One would expect every team to put their best wrestlers into the mix, and that did not happen at this event.  Catholic and Holy Cross, and I do not know enough but I believe St. Paul, were the only Catholic powerhouses that used their best wrestlers.  Jesuit had most of their best ready to wrestle, but two, at least, did not compete at all.  Two other Jesuit first-stringers did compete but they each needed matches due to earlier injuries of football.  Bother Martin also had a wrestler who was injured at the Warrior Open in November and desperately needed matches.  But their first-stringers were competing in Texas. 

Then, again, Catholic and Lafayette are the best dual meet teams this year, as well as the best in non-dual meet tournaments.  If someone disagrees with that, they are welcome to join in next year's festivities.  "You can only wrestle those who show up."  Lafayette and Catholic, I am sure, will welcome the challenge.

Greg Lavergne Duals

Southside High School of Lafayette won the Greg Lavergne Duals held on January 2nd-3rd at Carencro High School in Lafayette, LA.  The host Carencro Bears place second. 

Link to Flow Page

Championship Bracket

(stolen from TrackWrestling)

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Brusly Invitational

The Brusly invitational was held on January 3rd at Brusly High School in Brusly, Louisiana. 

Girls Link to FloW Page

Boys Link to FloW Page

Host Brusly High School won the 2026 Brusly Invitational (Boys) by 23.5 points over Belle Chasse.  The NOMMA Bulldogs were a mere 2.5 points behind Belle Chasse. 

At first glance, one might be confused as to how NOMMA did not win the team title.  They won four individual titles, and had a runner-up, a third-place finisher and a fourth-place finisher.  But that is all they brought: seven wrestlers.  Brusly and Belle Chasse each entered 12 wrestlers, though.  Brusly had four champions also, along with two runners-up and four third-place winners.

Final Team Scores

Boys Finals Results

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Lone Survivor

The Parkway Lone Survivor tournament was held on January 2nd and 3rd at Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Girls Link to FloW Page

The Lady Pirates of Haughton dominated the Lone Survivor, beating their nearest competitor, Arkansas High School, by 16.5 points, and their nearest Louisiana rival, Parkway, by 28.5 points.

Final Team Scores

*    Miss Karnowski defeated Miss Bresley in 1:30, and both young ladies had 2-1 records.  This means criteria with which I do not understand was used to determine the champion of this weight class.

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Boys Link to FloW Page

C. E. Byrd is once again the dominating northwest Louisiana Division I wrestling.  Well, maybe not dominating, as Benton was not far behind the Yellow Jackets in the Riot on the Red, the Beeson Tournament and the Lone Survivor.  The last time Byrd had a team this strong was when they had Jacob Yawn and Dmitri Teddie in 2020.  Parkway is not far behind.  In this event the Panthers had four champions, Byrd had three and Benton only one.  It is likely that Byrd, aside from having three runners-up to Benton's two and Parkway's one, recorded a lot more falls, but those statistics are not available.

Final Team Scores

Boys Finals Results

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Jimmy Vidrine D3 Invitational

LWN Volume IX, No. 11, February 19th, 2021 "Five-time state champion Jimmy Vidrine passes away at 73"

Link to FloW Page

Basile won the 4th Annual Jimmy Vidrine Division III Invitational, held on January 3rd, 2026 at Basile High School.  The Bearcats scored 195.5 points, and the Eagles were only 10 points behind them with 185.5.  St. Edmund won a close race for third-place by scoring 118 points vs. 115 points for De la Salle and 114 for John Curtis. Noah LeBlue, Logan Bergeron and Romyn Cortez won individual championships for Basile.  Rosepine had three champions as well in Hunner Glaze, Zach Preece and Caleb Preece.  Evangel had two champions in Jeremiah Yearby and Joseph Gilreath.

Basile had three wrestlers finish in second place to Rosepine's two.  Basile had one wrestler place third, while Rosepine had two place third and three place fourth.  That actually puts the Eagles ahead, so how did Basile manage to won the event by 10 points?  It is simple: Basile had 37 falls to Rosepine's 23.  Depth and bonus points in the consolation rounds wins tournament. 

Who was Jimmy Vidrine?    James Lee "Jimmy" Vidrine, the only wrestler to win five consecutive individual Louisiana state wrestling titles, passed away on February 3rd at his home in Scott, Louisiana.  Mr. Vidrine attended Basile High School and won individual state championship titles in 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964.  In his wrestling career at Basile, which started in eighth-grade, he was never defeated. In Ready....Wrestle, Coach Bill Bofinger wrote the following about Vidrine in 1964:  "Jimmy Vidrine of Basile, winner of the 155-pound title, was selected as the outstanding wrestler of the meet and was presented with the William B. Schriever Trophy.  Vidrine, coached by Ernie Duplechain, capped a fine high school wrestling career as the only five-time state champion in Louisiana wrestling history.  Vidrine did not lose a match in five years. His titles range from the 103-pounds in 1960 through 155-pounds in 1964.  It was also said that he wrestled "barefoot," but I don't know that for sure.

Final Team Scores

Boys Finals Results

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