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Spartans claim home tournament championship

November 29th, 2020 | Written by: Staff Writer

For the first time since at least 2011 the East Ascension Spartans claimed the championship of their own tournament. On Tuesday, November 24th, at East Ascension High School, the Spartans outscored runner-up St. Amant 144.5 to 120.5 behind outstanding performances by five seniors who won consecutive championships.

The Spartans had eight finalists and six champions. Senior David Bourgeois won at 106 lbs., and nobody can call "foul" just because no other wrestlers were entered in the weight class. Scoring systems are designed to account for weight classes of various sizes. Bourgeois was awarded only two team points. And he has nothing for which to apologize - he showed up.

The other Spartan finalists were freshmen twins Jesse (113 lbs.) and Lucas (120 lbs.) Maneckshaw.

Live Oak placed third and had champions in Andrew Lusby (132 lbs.) and Nawab Singh (220 lbs.). George Kim (126 lbs.) and Shad Sheffie (182 lbs.) won titles for fourth-place St. Michael. Dutchtown's Cole Mire (113 lbs.), St. Amant's Ty Didier (120 lbs.) and NOMMA's Bryan Leite (195 lbs.) won the remaining three championships.

Didier and Krass also won Spartan Invitational titles in 2019.

Team Scores

Place	School	Points
1	East Ascension	144.5
2	St. Amant	120.5
3	Live Oak	94.5
4	St. Michael	74.5
5	Dutchtown	47
6	De la Salle	44
7	NOMMA	26
8	Acadiana	18
9	Lafayette	16
T-10	Central	11
T-10	Plaquemine	11


1st place East Ascension Spartans	2nd place St. Amant Gators

Champions

106 lbs.	113 lbs.	120 lbs.	126 lbs.	132 lbs.	138 lbs.	145 lbs.

David Bourgeois East Ascension	Cole Mire Dutchtown	Ty Didier St. Amant	George Kim St. Michael	Andrew Lusby Live Oak	Austin Sharpley East Ascension	Jamarius Koshko East Ascension

152 lbs.	160 lbs.	170 lbs.	182 lbs.	195 lbs.	220 lbs.	285 lbs.

Anthony Krass East Ascension	Josiah Wakefield East Ascension	Brad Mahoney East Ascension	Shad Sheffie St. Michael	Bryan Leite NOMMA	Nawab Singh Live Oak	Eric Bautista St. Amant

Outstanding Wrestler

Outstanding Wrestler
Austin Sharpley
East Ascension - 138 lbs.

Top-seeded Luke Lafleur of Acadiana placed fourth at the 2020 state championships as a sophomore. All evidence points to him having a great 2020-21 season. It still does after his last match on Saturday. Unfortunately for the Ram junior, though, that became what some call a "learning experience."

In the first 3:45 of the match Lafleur dominated Sharpley, building a 13-1 lead with Sharpley's only point coming from a penalty.

After the last nearfall event ended, though, Sharpley began to get away from Lafleur's grasp and with 29 seconds remaining he was awarded his first and only offensive points with a reversal. The reversal put him in a position to put Lafleur in cradle and just pull the Ram wrestler onto his back with perfect "on your toes" technique. Sharpley recorded a fall with three second remaining in the second period.

Three-time East Ascension state champion and current King University wrestling freshman Trent Mahoney graced the crowd with his presence. He was kind enough to pose with the staff writer and, frankly, both look better in the masks. (Trent for covering the traditional "freshman beard" and the staff writer for, well, just other reasons.)

Shonda "The Doggie-Diva" Thompson ran an impeccable hospitality room.