Status: Fini

[EDITOR'S NOTE: When this article was initially published around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday a note was attached stating the seeds were being adjusted.  Due to a software crash, only the section of the article that did not include that note was recovered.  In his elation at even finding the article, the author forgot to add that note again.  That omission has caused some consternation for which the author apologizes.]

Parkway's Cody Thompson and Rayne's Brennan McKnight were the top seeds at 145 lbs. and 220 lbs. respectively, but not via eliminating any substantial competition.  Thomas is 21-0, but most of his matches have occurred against a north Louisiana schedule which many deem weaker than in other parts of the state.  Parkway was present at the Holy Cross Division II Duals last weekend, but 145 lbs. was by no means the strongest weight class contested.  McKnight is 17-1 and won the Brusly Invitational last weekend.  But, like Thomas, the caliber of his competition is questionable.  It is not necessarily bad - but it is only known to those who have faced it and they cannot even be expected to know how it compares to the rest of the state

Keep in mind though that the seeding committee is privy to more information and very well may have made the right decisions.  Saturday night may vindicate those choices. 

(FLASHBACK TO 1980: At 138 lbs. East Jefferson's Brett Davidson gets the best of matches against Donny Volpi of Bonnabel, but loses to Ehret's Mark Tranchina.  Some Division II idiot never wrestles Davidson, could not beat Volpi, yet defeats Tranchina twice by major decisions.  Tranchina cannot beat Volpi either.  Some kid nobody knows named Mike Bertsch comes down from Airline, beats Volpi in the semifinals and pins top-seeded Davidson in OT in the state finals.  The D2 guy goes on to earn an online B.A. in seeding committee annoyance.)

To nobody's surprise the Brother Martin Crusaders have the most top seeds for this weekend's Louisiana Classic, at five. At three the Crusaders have the most second seeds. Jesuit has the most thirds seeds at four, but Brother Martin has two And the rest of the Crusaders have seeds of four, six, seven and eight. Hence, even missing a sure second seed due to the flu and a sure top-four seed who is a little "banged up" from wrestling in Texas last week, the Crusaders are still the only team to have all 14 of their wrestlers seeded in the top eight.

Host Catholic High of Baton Rouge has eleven wrestlers seeded in the top eight. Holy Cross, the favorite to win Division II team honors at next month's state championship has eight.  Jesuit has seven.  Rummel and St. Paul have six.  Comeaux and Live Oak enter the tournament with five seeds.

Seeding is incredibly important re team points. If a wrestler is not #1 then the wrestler does not want to be #4, #5 or #8, as they will have to meet the #1 seed in the semifinals. The most crucial aspect of the seeding process, therefore, is determining the #3 and #4 seeds. Necessarily, the same logic applies re determining the #1 and #2 seeds, as a #2 seed has, by definition, a harder path to the finals.

The Louisiana Classic seeding committee usually does an outstanding job. Their performance last year illustrates that:

Seeding committees are like officials, they never get credit when they seed tournaments correctly. They are subjugated to grief by those who feel some seeding 1) was unfair; 2) was unwarranted; or, due solely to the insolence of wrestlers who finish higher than they were seeded, 3) did not accurately predict huge upsets.

Potential unfairness of seeding is why seeding committees consist of several coaches from several teams. The seeding determined for this year's tournament indicate pretty well how teams have fared all season. Brother Martin has dominated. Catholic has been the Crusaders' toughest opponent. Holy Cross may have one more top-eight seed than Jesuit, but Jesuit has two #1 seeds, a #2 and three #3 seeds, while Holy Cross has no one seeded higher than fourth. The seeding overall does not seem advantageous to any teams that are not deserving.

As the actual results will not be known until Saturday evening, accuracy cannot yet be determined. That only leaves "unwarranted" seeds to be covered. Those with personal agendas may consider unwarranted seeding to be unfair, but for the most part it just indicates that the seeding committee members were human.

The seeds for the Louisiana Classic are presented in the table below. Weight classes with questionable seeding is indicated with an asterisk (*) behind the weight class. Potential "seed busters" are indicated by wrestlers whose names are in bold italics. Look for them to place higher than their seeding. Explanations of questionable seeding are presented after the table.

(Records listed below do not include forfeits.)

120: #1 Klein and #2 Dale are fine, as Klein defeated Dale at the Deep South Bayou Duals 4-3 and the two of them have beaten everyone else at 120 lbs. #3 Matthew Mire of Catholic and #4 Alex Nicosia of Holy Cross have only one of them in common. Mire lost to Klein by a pin and by a 9-0 major decision. Nicosia lost to Klein 6-5. Nicosia should be the #3 seed. He may not be complaining, though, as his one point loss to Klein was better than his match against Dale, in which Dale pinned him.

126: The only complaint with this weight class was that it just did not need anyone else of merit in it. But one cannot fault #4 Jackson Hall for having another good season, and he did place second last year. He also placed second at the Scott Rohrer Hoover Invitational earlier this month, so he feasibly could have been seeded higher. But, as odd as it is that the only wrestler to defeat (twice) #1 Cody Hill of Live Oak, Brennan Taylor of Catholic, would have been seeded #4 without Mr. Hall, one of them will be relegated to the consolation round after the quarterfinals if the seeding holds true.

138: 138 lbs. features three wrestlers who only have defeats, if any, from out-of-state wrestlers. #1 Dominic Casadaban is 17-0, winning against all of his competitors. But only four of those wins were against Louisiana wrestlers. Three were against seeded competitors: a pin over #7 Michael Bernard of East Ascension, an 8-1 win over #8 Seth Bosarge of Live Oak and a recent 6-4 victory over Catholic's Matthew Mire. But Casadaban did not wrestle for a full month from December 8th through January 9th. #2 David Englehardt, the returning Division I 138 lb. state champion from St. Paul's, is 25-0 against Louisiana competition. But he has absolutely no experience at 138 lbs. this season. Catholic's #3 James Claitor is 30-0 against Louisiana wrestlers, with a pin and a 9-2 decision over #8 Bosarge, two pins and a decision over #7 Bernard, a pin over #6 Mason Williams and a technical fall over #9 Joe Kerry of Rummel. Claitor has proven himself over Louisiana wrestlers at 138 lbs. this season and should be seeded #1. Englehardt should be #2 by virtue of his intrastate record and Casadaban should be #3.

145: If Rummel's Tyler Frame were not injured he would be seeded #1 due to his win over Brother Martin's Tyler Robertson. Wait, no he would not, as Redemptorist's Grant Godso defeated him 4-3 at the Sam Sara. Godso does have an overtime loss to #7 Bernard from the semifinals of the Dutchtown Griffin Open, but has not lost since then. #1 seed Cody Thomas from Parkway is 21-0, but, like his teammate Simmaly, he has not faced the most well-known competition, not even at the Holy Cross Division II Duals, as none of his competitors there are seeded. Godso has won five out of the six tournaments he has entered this season. He is a returning Division III state champion whereas Thomas placed fifth in Division II last year. Godso should be the #1 seed. Both wrestlers, however, will find it a tough road to the finals though, with Godso needing to get by Jesuit's #3 Efosa Eboigbe and Thomas past Brother Martin's Patrick Hoppe.

170: It is highly probable that were St. Louis Catholic of Lake Charles entered, Conway Lebleu would be seeded third or fourth. After all, as "pretty records" go, his is a beaut, with Louisiana losses only to #1 Robin Albrecht of Brother Martin and the #2 at 182 lbs., Gage Grush of Jesuit. But that does not include last weekend when he lost a rematch to #7 Blake Faust of Shaw. Faust's two losses at 170#s to Louisiana wrestlers were the one to Lebleu and one to Brother Martin's "second-stringer" Aaron Gambino, who Faust defeated earlier in the season. (Gambino is no slouch at 10-5, and Brother Martin is already represented by the #1 seeded Albrecht.) Faust could easily have been seeded third or fourth. But at #7 he should get a "shot" at Rummel's #2 Michael Darwin to make the semifinals.

220:  Rayne's #1 Brennan McKnight is 17-1, but against wrestlers seeded in this tournament, he has only defeated #5 Ora Broussard from Sulphur. Yeatman has only lost to the 195 lb. #1 Manny Armour of Jesuit when competing against Louisiana competition and should be the top-seed.

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