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Louisiana teams to compete in South Walton "Border Wars"
Written by: Editor | Contributor: Chris Pickren
Date: October 5th, 2013


1st Annual South Walton "Border Wars" Wrestling Tournament - 2013

Tournament Information

November 15th-16th at South Walton High School, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida

When the Louisiana high school students of my generation drove to Destin it was usually in April.  Caravans of kids cruised down Highway 98 to the popular condominiums or the $25-a-day flea bag motels with proximity to the beaches.  But that was before Destin really started growing.  That was when USA Wrestling was the Amateur Athletic Union.  That was before cable TV!

That is not the case for the wrestling teams from Brusly, East Ascension and St. Paul's travelling to Destin in mid-November.  R&R is not the goal of this trip.

Twenty-one wrestling teams, with four state champions and four preseason #1-ranked wrestlers, will converge on the Florida Panhandle for the inaugural South Walton “Border Wars” Invitational Tournament.

The tournament will be held on Friday, November 15th and Saturday, November 16th at South Walton High School [GET MAP] in Destin.  Friday’s matches are scheduled to consist of four pools of five wrestlers each, with the top two pool placers qualifying for a bracketed championship bracket on Saturday.  The remaining wrestlers will participate in another round of pool matches.  Regardless of their placements in Friday’s pools, each wrestler should get at least six matches during the weekend.

The Louisiana teams making the trip east are Brusly, East Ascension and St. Paul’s.

Coach Jimmy Bible's Brusly Panthers will bring two Louisiana Division III state champions.  Wyatt Lejeune won the 120 lbs. championship in 2013.  Trevor Schermer won the 132 lbs. title last year, as well as state championships in 2012 and 2011.  Schermer is attempting to match his brother Austin’s record of four consecutive Division III championships.  The Panthers also have last season’s state runner-up and the 2012 state champion, Baret Sanchez.

Brusly's Wyatt Lejeune Brusly's Baret Sanchez Brusly's Trevor Schermer

Pat Mahoney's East Ascension Spartans are led by 2013 4th-place finishers Alex Betteridge at 106 lbs. and, on the other end of the spectrum, Conor Karwath at 285 lbs.  Sixth-place state placer, senior DeQuan Jackson, will also represent the Spartans.  Assistant coaches Michael Bernard, Graham Karwath will be joined this season by New York's own Jim Ballantyne and his plethora of experience.

St. Paul’s returns Tanner Leblanc, who placed third in 2013, as well as 4th-place finishers Chris Meraux and Collin Kersker, and 6th-place finisher Zachary Clay.  Coach Craig Ketelsen's Wolves placed fourth in Division I in 2013.

 
East Ascension's Alex Betteridge East Ascension's Conor Karwath

Twenty of the teams are from Florida: South Walton, Arnold, Gulf Breeze, Pace, Clay, Ft. Walton Beach, Rutherford, Bay, Choctawhatchee, Wewahitchka, Marianna, Lincoln, Florida High, Chiles, Columbia, the Villages, Niceville and Bozemann.

And the Florida teams are not without their state champions.  Lincoln’s Tristan Sommer won the Class 2A state championship at 152 lbs. in 2013, and Colton Jackson of The Villages surprised a lot of people by capturing the Class 1A title at 160 lbs.  Jackson is ranked 1st among 1A contenders at 170 lbs. Sommer is ranked #1 in Class 2A this season at 152 lbs.  Thirteen Florida competitors are ranked in the top four of Florida classifications 1A, 2A and 3A.

   
The Villages' Colton Jackson Lincoln's Tristan Sommer

South Walton participated in the Trygg Memorial tournament at Grace King in 2011 and 2012, placing 4th and 8th respectively.  As a sophomore, Cody Pickren placed 2nd at 126 lbs.  Cody is ranked 7th in Florida's 1A class at 145 lbs.  His younger brother William is ranked 6th at 106 lbs.  Another wrestler from Florida to take note of is Columbia's Kaleb Warner, ranked 5th in 2A at 132 lbs., who was a Disney All-American over the summer.

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Other wrestlers slated to compete in the event, with their preseason rankings, are listed below:

 [NOTE: Florida has a population approaching 20,000,000 (Louisiana has approximately 4,500,000).  As such, schools in Florida vary greatly in size, with the largest classification containing more “Ayes” than found in an Arthur Fonzerelli soliloquy.   Like Louisiana, the schools are divided into three divisions for the state wrestling championships:, 1A, 2A and 3A. The school size classifications in Florida are in the reverse order of those in Louisiana.  Class 3A consists of the larger schools (LA Division 1) while class 1A is comprised of school’s with the smallest enrolments (LA Division 3).  Louisiana rankings are based on weight classes only and do not reflect LHSAA state championship divisions.

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

106

William Pickren/South Walton

6th in 1A

106

Cody Taylor/Clay

7th in 1A

106

Bryan Metcalf/Florida

10th in 1A

106

Blake Hartzog/Niceville

12th in 2A

106 Cole Horton/Columbia 15th in 2A

106

Alex Betteridge/East Ascension

1st in LA

106

Stevie Van Zandt/St. Paul’s

9th in LA

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

113

Dale Browning/Clay

4th in 1A

113

Jacob Geiger/Lincoln

4th in 2A

113

Jack Frey/Niceville

15th in 2A

 

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

120

Zach McClinton/Clay

3rd in 1A

120

Richie McClanahan/Arnold

5th in 1A

120

Matt Burger/Niceville

12th in 2A

120

Alex Lovett/Ft. Walton Beach

13th in 2A

120

Hayden Calloway/Pace

14th in 2A

120

Casey Owens/Lincoln

15th in 2A

120

Chris Meraux/St. Paul’s

4th in LA

120

Matt Ashford/East Ascension

9th in LA

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

126

Brock Carlin/Arnold

5th in 1A

126

Dylan Martin/Clay

6th in 1A

126

Nicholas Stavinski/Gulf Breeze

10th in 2A

126

Tyler Bradley/Pace

13th in 2A

126

Jacob Bernard/East Ascension

4th in LA

126

Baret Sanchez/Brusly

5th in LA

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

132

James Maddox/Marianna

14th in 1A

132

Paul Patterson/Arnold

15th in 1A

132 Kaleb Warner/Columbia 5th in 2A

132

Zachary Clay/St. Paul’s

7th in LA

 

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

138

Austin Luke/Clay

3rd in 1A

138

Daniel Soto/Villages

10th in 1A

138

Chris Warf/Mariana

11th in 1A

138

Blake Doerr/Gulf Breeze

13th in 2A

138

Trevor Schermer/Brusly

3rd in LA

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

145

Adam Briendel/Clay

3rd in 1A

145

Cody Pickren/South Walton

7th in 1A

145

Chase Blake/Gulf Breeze

13th in 2A

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

152

Tristan Sommer/Lincoln

1st in 2A

 

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

160

Devin Combs/Marianna

5th in 1A

160

Caleb Loyd/Clay

15th in 1A

160

Joseph Cambrone/Pace

9th in 1A

160

Tanner Leblanc/St. Paul’s

2nd in LA

160

Kobe Mancuso/Brusly

5th in LA

160

Dequan Jackson/East Ascension

8th in LA

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

170

Colton Jackson/The Villages

1st in 1A

170

Tristan Sichmeller/Clay

12th in 1A

170

Brendon McClendon/Pace

12 in 2A

 

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

182

Marquette Roulhac/Marianna

13th in 1A

182

Will Diamond/Pace

5th in 2A

182

Chase Schoener/Niceville

16th in 2A

182

Austin Guedry/East Ascension

9th in LA

182

Dillon Prejean/Brusly

10th in LA

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

195

Tristan Carter/Clay

10th in 1A

195

Tres Dawson/Pace

14th in 2A

195

Jefferey Lawrence/Lincoln

15th in 2A

 

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

220

Austin Bess/Florida

10th in 1A

220

Jason Osagie/Lincoln

10th in 2A

220

Evan Ogden/Gulf Breeze

13th in 2A

220 Josh Walker/Columbia 14th in 2A

WEIGHT

NAME/SCHOOL

RANK in DIVISION

285

Connor Jackson/Florida

8th in 1A

285

Roland Semac/Clay

14th in 1A

285 Marcus Ziegler/Columbia 14th in 2A
285 Conor Karwath/East Ascension 1st in LA 
   

 Tournament Information

Friday Weigh-in at noon. * Wrestling starts at 2 p.m.
Saturday Weigh-in 8: a.m.* Wrestling starts at 10 a.m. (One pound weight allowance granted on Saturday)
IBT Round Robin Format
Seven matches guaranteed unless prevented by forfeits
Belts for championship teams and Outstanding Wrestlers (lightweights and heavyweights)
1st through 6th place individual awards

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