Fini

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium				No Photo Available
Name	Jacob Houser	Kent Burandt	Watts Goodson	Dylan Lauriano	Doc Miller	Hiram Blanchard
School	St. Paul's	Brother Martin	Catholic	Holy Cross	Sulphur	Dutchtown
Seed	2	4	3	1	NS	NS
Class	11	10	10	12	12	11
Final Record	15-2	17-4	17-4	25-3	9-5	17-14

Final records only include Louisiana losses but all wins

Weight Class Synopsis

Oddly, were it not for one match in mid-January the dynamics of this weight class may have been different.  It centers around a Division II wrestler who was seeded fourth and finished fifth in the Division II state championships.  One should know, though, the Division II wrestler won a Division II state championship in 2020.

On January 15th fifth-seeded Isaac Dees of North Desoto defeated fourth-seeded Kent Burandt of Brother Martin 12-8 in the Louisiana Classic quarterfinals.  That Burandt avenged that loss the following day by defeating Dees 15-13 to place fifth does not come into play.  The loss resulted in Burandt being seeded fourth in the Division I state championships.  Catholic's Watts Goodson defeated Dees in that same tournament and finished fourth, one place above Burandt.  That put Goodson in the #3 spot, behind second-seeded Jacob Houser, who previously defeated both Burandt and Goodson.  Dylan Lauriano of Holy Cross had defeated Houser and placed second to Shaw's Glenn Price at the LACL, which earned him the top spot in the weight class.  Had Burandt defeated Dees and then lost to Price in the semifinals, Burandt and Goodson would have settled the seeding issue between them in the consolation semifinals.  But that did not happen. 

The effect was that Lauriano had not faced Burandt before.  He had previously defeated Houser and Goodson, but the Brother Martin sophomore was "uncharted waters" to him.  And Burandt had won a state championships semifinals match before.  Lauriano had not been in one. 

Burandt won the semifinals match against Lauriano 4-2.  That had to be disappointing for the Holy Cross senior who looked to be the first of four potential state champions for Holy Cross from 120 lbs. to 138 lbs.  Things did not get any easier for the Tiger senior when he fell to Goodson 5-2 in the consolation finals.  He is allowed to say he did not have his best weekend on the worst possible weekend to say that.  It happens a lot.

Burandt, Goodson and Lauriano all had great seasons despite that none of them won a tournament.  Lauriano came closest as a LACL finalist, and he placed third in a Georgia event.  Burandt placed third at the Trey Culotta Invitational, fourth at the Black Horse in Tennessee and fifth at the LACL.  Goodson was a finalist at the Big Horse and placed fourth at the LACL. 

Two non-seeded wrestlers vied for fifth-place.  Doc Miller of Sulphur took-out the #7 seed, Lucas Maneckshaw of East Ascension, in Round-one, and made it to the quarterfinals before falling to Houser.  Sixth-seeded Ty Didier of St. Amant lost his second match in the fourth round of consolations, so Miller did not face another seeded wrestler until the consolation semifinals.  That was Lauriano, though, so Miller was convinced to try for fifth.  On the other side of the bracket Dutchtown's Hiram Blanchard lost to Lauriano in the semifinals but had to get past fifth-seed Treyven Gaspard of Comeaux to make the consolation semifinals.  There he fell to Goodson, and thus met Miller in the 5th-6th place match.  Miller won in 30 seconds but still merits a spot on the podium 16 other wrestlers with they could have.

The second-seeded Houser did not win one either.  He only competed in the LACL and placed third.  Well, that was until the state championships when he defeated Burandt 16-7 in the finals.  Next season Jacob may win familial bragging rights in the Houser household.  His older brother Cole won Division I state championships in 2016 and 2017 and placed third in 2018.  But he did not place as a freshman; he fell one round short.  Jacob placed sixth as a freshman and second as a sophomore.  Having won this season he will no doubt be highly regarded come the 2021-22 season. 

(OK - the math is begging to be done.  Give Cole a 7th-place in 2015.  That's 7+1+1+3=12, which averages to 3rd each season.  Jacob has 6+2+1 now, which also averages 3rd per season.  A 1 or 2 finish next season and he wins.  A third and he ties his older brother - the equivalent of "kissing one's sister," or the like.)

Early Championship Rounds

R2: (2) Jacob Houser (StP) defeated Xavier Parms (BR) 11-2 MD

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Quarterfinals

(1) Dylan Lauriano (HC) pinned Hiram Blanchard (DUT) in 3:48

(4) Kent Burandt (BM) pinned (5) Trevyn Gaspard (COM) in 2:53

(3) Watts Goodson (CAT) defeated (6) Ty Didier (StA) 16-5 MD

(2) Jacob Houser (StP) pinned Doc Miller (SUL) in 3:10

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Semifinals

(4) Kent Burandt (BM) defeated (1) Dylan Lauriano (HC) 4-2

(2) Jacob Houser (StP) defeated (3) Watts Goodson (CAT) 5-2

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Consolation Rounds

C2: Xavier Parms (BR) pinned Jaren Breaux (EHR) in 0:44

C2: Pierce LaGarde (LAF) defeated Sedaka Robin (SS) 7-2

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Championship Consolation Rounds

(3) Watts Goodson (CAT) defeated (1) Dylan Lauriano (HC) 5-2 to place 3rd

Doc Miller (SUL) pinned Hiram Blanchard (DUT) in 0:30 to place 5th

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Finals

(1) Jacob Houser of St. Paul defeated Brother Martin's Kent Burandt via a 16-7 major decision   After taking a one point lead, 5-4, after the first period, Houser blew the match open with a 7-1 second period and he matched two Burandt escapes with takedowns in the third period to muster the 16-7 major decision.

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