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A rare event almost occurred over the
weekend. The
Brother Martin Crusaders almost went an entire weekend
without a tournament title to their credit.
That bubble burst at the Jefferson Parish
Invitational as the Crusader squad, with heretofore unknown
names, proved exactly how valuable consolation rounds can
be. They won the
team title with 159 points, outscoring second place
Hahnville by 41 points and third place John Ehret by 41.5.
The Crusaders only had one champion in
Gavin Wright at 138 pounds.
But they placed third in six weight classes and
fourth in two.
Wrestlebacks count!
This tournament, held on only two mats,
could have accommodated another few teams and still have
sailed through very efficiently
Hahnville’s Nick Lirette was voted the
tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler for his 16-9 decision over
defending Division III state champion Logan Griffin from
Thomas Jefferson.
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106 Pounds |
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Two freshmen
battled for the 106 pound title. Holy
Cross' Jeffery Argrave proved victorious
with a pin of East Jefferson's Nicholas
Shields in 2:37.
(The LA Wrestling News apologizes
for not having match photos to publish.
Photos were taken of the match, but due to a
rather long delay between that match and the
113 pounds championship match, the
photographer mistakenly believed the photos
were not of the finals match and deleted the
photographs. The photographer has been
sternly rebuked for this error.) |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Bailey Stretzinger of John Curtis pinned
Tristan Pittenger of Grace King in 4:16
to place third.
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113 Pounds |
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Sophomore Nick
Lirette of Hahnville and junior Logan
Griffin of Thomas Jefferson provided one of
the best matches of the finals.
Lirette brought an undefeated 9-0 record to
the tournament, including one win over
Griffin and another over Live Oak's
defending Division II state champion Jacob
Chenevert. Griffin, a junior with a
record of 8-4, is a defending Division III
state champion. Both had tough
semifinals matches. Lirette needed
5:14 to defeat Brother Martin's Kyle Dunn
via a fall, and Griffin faced his 2013 state
finals opponent Prentice Spurlock of John
Ehret. (Spurlock attended John Curtis
last season.) Spurlock defeated
Griffin in an earlier dual meet but, as
happened last season, the two rarely put up
back-to-back wins against each other, and
this time Griffin won with a fall at 4:42.
Both wrestlers started out very strong as
well as vulnerable, and at the end of the
first period they were knotted in a 7-7 tie.
But Lirette pulled away in the final four
minutes. Both rolled and threw the
other, but it was Lirette ending up on top
and scoring most of the time. As the
second period ended Lirette had a 12-8 lead,
but as points were being earned at an
impressive rate, that could not be
considered a safe lead with two minutes
left. But all Griffin could manage in
the third period was one point while Lirette
had a switch and a takedown for four points.
With his 16-9 victory Lirette was voted the
tournament's Outstanding Wrestler. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Prentice Spurlock of John Ehret defeated
Kyle Dunn of Brother Martin 8-6 in a
"Sudden Victory" round to place third.
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120 Pounds |
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At 120 pounds John
Ehret sophomore Joseph Davis-Luca entered
with an 8-6 record, but the six losses were
to formidable opponents with names such as
Stampley, Grosch and Soileau, while he had a
win over Mandeville's Nicholas des Bordes.
Gavin, a Fisher sophomore, had not wrestled
prior to this tournament and won his
first match via a fall in 1:21 over Grace
King's Kenneth Villanueva. But
Davis-Luca's experience proved to be too
much, and the Ehret wrestler turned an
ankle-pick into a standing nearside cradle,
earning a fall in 17 seconds. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Matt Williams of Brother Martin defeated
Zachary Lewis of Hahnville 14-5 to place
third.
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126 Pounds |
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The 126 pounds
finals was also a stellar match.
Fisher's Troy Bourgeois, a 6th place
finisher as an 8th-grader in the 2013
Division III state championships, may have
been 0-2, but his losses were to Julian
Sentilles of Brother Martin and Ben
D'Antonio of Jesuit. Holy Cross' Cole
Clement, also a freshman, had the sole goal,
according to the 14-year-old's mother, of
winning one varsity match for the Tigers
this season. Upon entering the
tournament he had already recorded four of
them.
Bourgeois started the scoring with a
takedown and a cross-body ride, and used a
forced-nelson to score back points and build
a 6-2 lead. In the second period
Bourgeois scored an escape and a takedown,
but Clement scored an escape and two
takedowns to narrow the gap to 9-7. In
the third period Bourgeois reversed Clement
for an 11-7 lead, but Clement then escaped
and took Bourgeois down to trail only by one
point (11-10) with 22 seconds remaining in
the match. More experienced wrestlers
might have let Bourgeois escape to attempt a
match tying takedown, but not Clement.
The Tiger used his legs and forced a
half-nelson to turn Bourgeois for three
nearfall points and a 13-10 victory. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Brother Martin's Tyler Wehrlin pinned De
la Salle's Glen Gebo in 2:13 to place
third.
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132 Pounds |
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Holy Rosary senior
Reid DiMaggio went through wrestlers hailing
from Brother Martin and Holy Cross to reach
the finals. His opponent was De la
Salle freshman Raekwon Thomas, who defeated
opponents from Grace King and Hahnville to
set up his match against DiMaggio. The
senior gave up four points in the first
round, but that was offset nicely by the
eight points he scored. In the second
period DiMaggio scored five more points
before pinning the Cavalier in 3:16. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
John Paul Kidder of Brother Martin
pinned David Clement of Holy Cross in
1:34 to place third.
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138 Pounds |
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The Brother Martin
contingent earned their only championship in
30 seconds in the 138 pounds finals match.
Gavin Wright met L.W. Higgins' only
wrestler, John Bumgarden, in the finals.
Bumgarden had a 13-6 win in the semifinals,
but he never really had a chance to score
against Wright, unless both wrestlers
vertically on their heads for a brief period
constitutes a chance. Wright had
scored a takedown prior to that display and
used a half-nelson to a double-grapevine to
end the match with a fall at 0:30. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Antonio Diaz of Grace King pinned Nick
Korutz of Belle Chasse in 4:48 to place
third.
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145 Pounds |
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Shaw's Brice Ballas
had few problems against Dominic Bioc of De
la Salle, aside from the Cavalier wrestler
not wanting to be pinned. Ballas had
an 8-0 lead after a first period nearside
cradle sequence, and raised that to 12-0 in
the third. Bioc finally succumbed to a
fall with only seven seconds remaining in
the match. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Kevin Casey of Brother Martin pinned
Chris Jones of Hahnville in 2:02 to
place third.
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152 Pounds |
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John Ehret's Jack
Fontenot entered with 11 pins in 2013 and an
overall record of 16-1, with tournament
championships at Pearl River and Dutchtown.
Hahnville's Hunter Dempster had a 5-4
record, and the difference in experience was
very evident. Fontenot took Dempster
to his back with a throw in the first and
tacked on an additional two back points in a
7-0 first period. In the second period
Fontenot sat back against Dempster and
turned in, catching his opponent on his back
and pinning him with a reverse-nelson in
2:46. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Cole Alfonso of Brother Martin pinned
Brad Albarado of Shaw in 2:18 to place
third.
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160 Pounds |
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De la Salle senior
Alex Martin had one blemish on his 2013-14
season after 15 matches, a loss at 170
pounds to Shaw's Kody Woodson when Martin
had stitches in his eye and had to wear one
of those masks that only belong in NHL
games, if even there. Since that
November 23rd, Martin won 12 straight
matches and a Trygg Memorial championship
that included a finals victory over St.
Paul's Tanner Leblanc. Also at the
Trygg, Martin, a two-time defending Division
III state champion, defeated Destrehan's
Chase Menendez, his finals opponent, via a
fall in 1:55.
Menendez, a sophomore, entered with a 7-2
record, but that did include the
aforementioned loss against Martin.
Martin was his usual self - quick and
matter-of-fact. He scored a takedown
with an outside single-leg and then used a
half-nelson to turn Menendez, scoring a fall
in 0:46. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Max Chambers of Shaw pinned Taylor
Soileau of Brother Martin in 2:43 to
place third.
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170 Pounds |
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Shaw's Woodson was
next to earn a title. Woodson, a 2013
Division II third place finisher and 2012
Division II runner-up, has three losses on
the season: two to Brother Martin's Travis
Quarterman and one to Holy Cross' Brice
Duhe, who has been unstoppable so far this
season. Woodson also has 14 victories
to his credit. Chalmette sophomore
Michael Fos had only one match prior to the
Jefferson Invitational, which was a loss to
a very good Jason Moran of Pearl River.
So it was not surprising that Woodson
prevailed rather easily. Scoring with
a single-leg takedown and four back points
off of a nearside cradle, Woodson finally
switched to a head-and-arm lock and scored a
fall in 1:10. Fos, however, notched
his first victory in the semifinals with a
fall in 1:52 over Tyler Harmon of the host
John Ehret Patriots. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Zachary Corzo of Hahnville pinned Tyler
Harmon of John Ehret in 2:21 to place
third.
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182 Pounds |
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The host team won
its third championship at 182 pounds when
Blaze D'Aquin pinned Grace King's Aaron
Maddox in 3:55. D'Aquin already had a
technical fall and a pin in the tournament,
and he ankle-picked Maddox to a nearside
cradle for a 5-0 first period lead. In
the second period D'Aquin escaped and took
down Maddox, stretched his opponent with his
legs and forced a half-nelson to turn Maddox
to his back. D'Aquin earned the fall
with five seconds remaining in the second
period (3:55). |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Somon Anderson of Brother Martin pinned
Jakobe Durant of Destrehan in 2:33 to
place third.
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195 Pounds |
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Hahnville's
Kendrick Jones is quietly having a great
season at 195 pounds. Upon entering
the Jefferson Invitational he had a 6-1
record with his only loss being to Hoover,
Alabama's formidable Alec Shunnarah at the
Catholic Duals. His finals opponent
had no experience at all in the 2013-14
season. But Jordan Tafaro is from
Brother Martin, so every practice is akin to
putting a tournament's worth of experience
under one's belt (or singlet...whatever).
The two were tied 2-2 at the end of the
first period and Jones led by a slim one
point margin after the second, 5-4.
But Jones escaped right into a double-leg
lift that put Tafaro on his back, giving the
Tiger wrestler an additional three points,
Tafaro only managed two points in the round
before Jones scored a fall in 5:10. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Matt Adams of Fisher pinned Patrick Ubas
of Chalmette in 0:32 to place third.
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220 Pounds |
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Destrehan scored a
championship in the form of junior David
Thompson, who before the tournament only had
one loss in his first five matches.
Shaw's Adam Albarado, had a record of 5-7
but one win was over Fontainebleau's Garrett
Kuglemann. The Wildcat was too strong
though, taking Albarado down and turning him
with a bar-arm nelson to record a fall in
1:50. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Trenton Anderson of De la Salle pinned
Chad Clement of John Ehret in 2:20 to
place third.
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285 Pounds |
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De la Salle
sophomore Jalen Haydel, with a 7- 5 record
entering the tournament, had previously
wrestled Belle Chasse's Robert Kennedy, a
match that ended in a 3:45 pin for Kennedy.
Kennedy, a third place finisher in Division
II in 2013, had yet to taste defeat this
season, albeit he only had two other matches
aside from the one against Haydel. He
was not going to lose on this day, though.
Kennedy forced Haydel over with a strong
single-leg shot and took advantage quickly
of Haydel's outstretched arm to insert a
half-nelson. The fall occurred, after
a good fight by the De la Salle sophomore,
in 1:39. It was Kennedy's second
tournament championship of the season as he
also won the Trygg Memorial. |
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CONSOLATION FINALS RESULTS
Glennwood Hunter of Grace King won via a
forfeit over Blade Rager of Hahnville to
place third.
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