WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA
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WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA |
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| Lady Lions win again; History favors Cougars |
| December 15th, 2026| Written by: Staff writer |
The 49th Annual Ken Cole Invitational was held on January 9th and 10th (boys) and January 10th (girls) at Comeaux High School in Lafayette, Louisiana. Nineteen girls teams were entered on Saturday. On Friday and Saturday, 42 boys teams vied for the Ken Cole championship.
| Boy Summary | Outstanding Wrestlers | Finals Matches |
Girls
By now, Lafayette winning a girls tournament in no surprise. The Lady Lions of Lafayette added a 4th Annual Girls Ken Cole Invitational to the list of 2025-26 tournaments they have dominated: the Brusly 8ish, the Griffin Open, the Lady Spartan Invitational, the Pink Panther Invitational, the Jacob McMillan, the Ronnie Suarez Duals,, the Louisiana Public Schools Wrestling Championships and the Louisiana Dual Championship. Absolutely nothing suggests their not adding titles from the Louisiana Classic, the Lafayette Metro and the LHSAA Girls State Wrestling Championship in the next four-and-one-half weeks. Led by Ryleigh Blanchard (31-0) and Quetzicalli Guevera-Tapia (30-0), Lafayette's girls dominated the 19-team field, outscoring runner-up Zachary by 96.5 points. Haylee Johnson, Lily Valasquez, Blanchard, Tapia, Gabriella Parra and Dae'Jorie Williams won individual Championships.
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| 1st Place: Lafayette Lady Lions | Runner-up: Zachary Broncos | Individual Champions |
| Girls Brackets in PDF | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Girls Final Team Results
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Outstanding Wrestlers
In the lower weight classes, Lafayette's Ryleigh Blanchard was voted the Outstanding Wrestler in the lower weight classes. The Lady Lion junior recorded falls in 0:35, 1:55 and 1:35 to win her second Ken Cole championship.
In the higher weight classes South Beauregard's Sara Cervenka won the Outstanding Wrestler honor. Cervenka won her semifinals match in 1:14 and recorded a 17-2 technical fall in 3:07 to win her second Ken Cole title.
Juana Balthazar of Lafayette placed third at 107 lbs. and recorded three falls in 2:45 to win the Most Pins/Least Time award.
| OW Lower Weights | OW Upper Weights | Most Pins/ Least Time |
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| Ryleigh Blanchard Lafayette |
Sarah Cervenka South Beauregard |
Juana Balthazar Lafayette |
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St. Thomas More at
the Ken Cole and State
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Something is working at St. Thomas More High School.
Please refer to the table on the left. Over the last three years the Cougars have risen from 31st at the Ken Cole to winning the event last weekend. The same trend can be noticed in their placing at the State Championships. In 2023 the Cougars placed 15th. In 2024 they placed fourth. In 2025 Coach Kerry Boumans took the reins of a team built by Coach Martin Cannon. The Cougars brought home the runner-up plaque. In three of the last four seasons, 2022, 2023 and 2025, the winner of the Ken Cole won the Division II state championship. In 2024 Jesuit won the event, as well as the Division I championship, and the 2024 Division II state champions, North Desoto, did not participate in the Ken Cole. The 2025-26 season started well for the Cougars as they won the Warrior Open, placed second in a Texas tournament and defeated Brother Martin 40-36 and Jesuit 35-24 in November dual meets. In December the Cougars placed second at the Trey Culotta Invitational and, in January, placed fourth, behind three of the strongest Division I teams, in the Louisiana Dual Championships. |
Last weekend the Cougars removed any doubt that they are the ones to watch for come Bossier City in Division II. Other teams should be wary of them at this weekend's Louisiana Classic as well. You see, they did not just win the Ken Cole. They demolished the competition by scoring 247.5 points, 57.5 points more than the runner-up Rummel Raiders. Jesuit placed third, followed by North Desoto and Teurlings Catholic. Taking home first-place loot for the Cougars were Foster Peterson, Jonas Rebstock, Zach Cestia and Jules Deshotels.
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[UNEXPECTED SEGUE: The Cougars should be the favorite to win Division II if they can place higher than Teurlings Catholic at, to a degree, this weekend's Louisiana Classic, but more so in the Lafayette Metro tournament the following weekend. If for some reason they do not win it this year, consider this: the Cougars are losing only three seniors, Enzo Lopez, Zach Cestia and Andrew Richard, to graduation. It is almost a certainty that they will win a Division II title either this season, next season, or in both of those seasons. It is close to inevitable that St. Thomas More will take home a Brother Melchior trophy soon. It is, some might say, inevitable. That thought led to an hour of making an image to reinforce similarities between Paul Scofield, who played Sir Thomas More in the 1966 Oscar winning classic "A Man for All Season" and Thanos, the mad Titan of the Avenger movies. I thought of a few, but they were to too tangential even for me. So the only one I was left with was that they were both beheaded.] |
 "I am inevitable." |
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| 1st Place: St. Thomas More Cougars | Runner-up: Rummel Raiders |
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Boys Final Team Results
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Teurlings Catholic's Alex Rozas was voted the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler in the lower weight classes. Rozas sandwiched a fall in 2:25 between technical falls of 21-6, 16-1, 19-4 and 17-2. Only the 16-1 TF required wrestling in the second period. The other three TFs were decided in the first two minutes.
Rummel's Dominic Durham was named the Outstanding Wrestler in the heavier weights. Durham used falls in 0:35 and 0:26 and technical falls of 16-1 and 17-2 to advance to the 157 lbs. finals, which he won in 2:40.
| OW Lower Weights | OW Upper Weights |
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| Alex Rozas Teurlings Catholic |
Dominic Durham Rummel |
Rozas became the first wrestler to win four Ken Cole championships. Rozas also celebrated his 200th high school career win at this event. Rozas will be wrestling for Virginia Tech next year, which is very appropriate as Ken Cole wrestled for the Hokies in the 1960s.
Conner Allen of Milton, Florida, placed third at 157 lbs. and recorded six falls in an average of 2:19 per fall to win the Most Pins/Least Time award.
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| Girls | Boys |
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