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A few individual setbacks did nothing to prevent the Division favorites for the 2013 LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament from maintaining their statuses.  Each favorite prevailed in three different events, in three different formats and in two states.  Division II favorite Holy Cross and Division III favorite Brusly won in their home gymnasiums.  Division I favorite Brother Martin travelled to Arlington, Texas, for their win.

Brother Martin wins Lone Star Duals in Arlington, Texas

Brother Martin brought a 17-1 dual meet record into Arlington, Texas, for the Hilton Arlington 2013 Lone Star Duals at South Grand Prairie High School.  Their one blemish was a semifinals loss to eventual champion MacArthur High School of Oklahoma, which snapped a 13-0 2012-13 dual meet record.  In a way, the Crusaders atoned for that loss not only by winning seven duals in Arlington to win the event, but by beating Colorado's Windsor High School, snapping a 60-match dual meet streak.  [Article on Windsor's winning streak]

Brother Martin advanced to the championship bracket rather easily, compiling a 5-0 record in Friday's "pool play" with scores of 57-12, 59-9, 67-7 and 50-15, while also receiving a bye.  In Saturday's championship bracket they were seeded second and received a first round bye.  In the quarterfinals they won 60-12 and in the semifinals 52-13.

Windsor, however, was determined until the end to keep their dual meet streak alive.

Kyle Delaune started the Crusaders off fine with a 17-2 technical fall at 182 lbs.  But in the next six matches (195 lbs. to 126 lbs.) Brother Martin's only points came from a 6-3 decision by Ross Brister (285 lbs.) and included a loss by their talented freshman Taylor Gambill (113 lbs.) and a one point loss by defending Division I state champion Paul Klein (120 lbs.).  A pin by junior Austin Meyn got the Crusaders "back on track," and wins by Mason Williams, Dominic Casadaban and Patrick Hoppe followed, giving the Crusaders a 26-19 lead.  Windsor answered with a one point decision over Devin LeBlanc at 152 lbs. and a pin over Jordan Giroir at 160 lbs., putting the Crusaders down 28-26 with one match left.

Daniel Albrecht had only wrestled in four of the six matches that put Brother Martin in the tournament finals, and had lost one of them.  But last week he had his first overtime victory over Rummel's Michael Darwin, and that experience paid off - just not immediately.  It took three overtime periods before Albrecht was finally able to secure an 8-7 win, and another tournament championship for the Crusaders.

Rummel also competed in the Lone Star Duals and made it to the championship bracket after finishing second in their "pool" on Friday.  Had the Raiders made it to the semifinals they would have faced Brother Martin for the second time this season (the Crusaders defeated the Raiders 58-9 on January 5th).  However, the Raiders were defeated in a close 40-32 match in the first round.  They finished placing a very respectable 10th place out of the 25 participating teams.

Lone Star Duals Website

Holy Cross Division II Duals

Holy Cross hosted Live Oak of Baton Rouge, Parkway of Bossier City, St. Louis Catholic of Lake Charles and Archbishop Shaw for a five-team Division II dual meet round-robin tournament on Saturday.  As a team the Tigers were never challenged, compiling a 4-0 record.  Second-place St. Louis (2-2) fell to the Tigers 58-14.  Live Oak (also 2-2 but with a loss to St. Louis) lost 49-22.  Third-place Shaw (1-3) fared no better than they did last Wednesday night (a 57-16 loss), falling 63-13 while Parkway (1-3) was defeated 62-12.

Holy Cross Division II Duals Article (to be published soon)

Brusly Invitational

Brusly won their home tournament for the second year in a row, outdistancing runner-up Rayne by 62.5 points on Saturday.  The Panthers had champions in junior Trevor Schermer at 132 lbs. and sophomore Dillon Prejean at 172 lbs.  Baret Sanchez (113 lbs.), Wyatt LeJeune (120 lbs.), Koby Mancuso (152 lbs.) and Blayze Olano (160 lbs.) were runners-up while Don Stufflebeam (140 lbs.) placed third.

The tournament was heavily loaded with teams from Division III but had a few Division I and Division II schools as well.  As teams Division I's Sulphur placed the highest of the non-Division III schools, at 10th, but St. Michael (Division II) and Denham Springs (Division I) had individual champions.  Ocean Springs High School, the only wrestling program in the state of Mississippi, also competed and finished in fifth place.

Sophomore Christopher Marson of Denham Springs has only junior Shelby Elsworth as a teammate.  As such, the two wrestlers have not competed since the Baton Rouge High School Bulldog Open on December 15th, owing to a preponderance of dual meet events since then.  The layoff did not affect Marson at all as he entered the tournament with a 16-0 record and left with a 19-0 record after his 1:29 pin of North Vermillion's Gavin Becker in the 106 lb. finals.  Elsworth chose a harder route at 132 lbs., losing his first match but then winning four in a row to make it to the consolation finals.  However, due to the limit of five matches per day, Elsworth was not allowed to wrestle the match and third was ceded to Gavin Cortez of Basile.

St. Michael's senior Michael Berg improved his season record to 11-5 with three falls in the process of winning the 182 lb. weight class.

At 113 lbs. two returning Division III state champions met in the finals, with Basile sophomore Raymond Bushnell just getting past Brusly's Baret Sanchez 7-5.  Another Panther wrestler, Wyatt LeJeune, fell to Tristan Ruppert, an Ocean Springs, MS, opponent, at 120 lbs.  126 lbs. was dominated by North Vermillion's Austin Scalisi, who won the championship with a 17-2 technical fall over Ocean Springs' Owen Monaghan, who upset top-seeded Reid DiMaggio of Holy Rosary in the quarterfinals.

Schermer, a returning Division III state champion, pinned his way to the 132 lb. championship and won with a 2:34 fall over Cameron Corley of Lakeside.  That started a string of victories by returning Division III state champions.  Joshua Wicke of Grand Lake followed with a 10-5 victory over Evangel's Ben Kirkikis.  Redemptorist's Grant Godso defeated North Vermillion's Colin Laird 6-5 in the 145 lb. finals, and De la Salle's Alex Martin pinned Brusly's Koby Mancuso in 3:24.

No Division III state champions were available at 160 lbs., but the top-seeded Basile junior Mason Deshotel won with a fall over Brusly's Olano in 3:14.  A state champion was the #1 seed at 170 lbs. in Basile's Trenton Pelloquin, but he yielded to Brusly's Prejean 10-8.  Berg's pin at 182 lbs. came in 3:28 over third-seeded Stetson Keen of North Desoto.

Rayne's state champions reigned at 195 lbs. and 220 lbs.  Billy Marcantel pinned Grand Lake's Jameson Picou in 1:21, running his record to 17-0, and he was followed by teammate Brennan McKnight who pinned Ora Wayne Broussard of Sulphur in 3:52.  The last match of the evening at 285 lbs. was won by another undefeated wrestler in the tournament, John Curtis' Spencer Lemoine, who defeated former Redemptorist wrestler Hunter Arnett, who now wrestles for Centreville Academy in Mississippi, 8-3.

Trevor Schermer (132 lbs.) was honored as the Outstanding Wrestler in the lower weight classes while Billy Marcantel (195 lbs.) of Rayne won the award in the higher weight classes.

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