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The 2016 Jazz Town Duals folkstyle team tournament will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 4th and 5th, at Xavier University's Convocation center, located at the corner of 7910 Stroelitz Street, on the downtown-side between the intersections of North Carrollton Avenue at I-10 and North Carrollton Avenue at Washington Avenue.  The event is hosted by the New Orleans Wrestling Club.

If you are a high school wrestling fan and have yet to attend the Jazz Town Duals, you are missing something special.  For one thing, it is a folkstyle tournament, i.e., "regular" (to the editor's generation) or collegiate style wrestling, which is a rarity in events after the regular high school season has ended.  Additionally, aside from our homegrown Louisiana kids, some very talented out-of-state competition is showcased.  Two years ago the Archer Bulldogs, of Archer High School in Georgia, came in as the #6 team in the nation.  And they only won by five points over an Iowa club team that won the event last year.

Five-time consecutive Division I Louisiana state champion Brother Martin, represented as the Crusader Wrestling Club, has placed no higher than fourth in this event (in 2014) since winning the inaugural event in 2013.  That event had 20 participants who were primarily from Louisiana, Texas and the Florida Gulf Coast (although the third and fourth place finishers were from Oklahoma and Tennessee respectively).  After 2013 some very stellar squads from across the nation have participated.

Wrestling begins Saturday morning with pool matches, in which each team competes against the others in their pool in dual meets.  Based on their performances in the pool rounds, the teams will be placed in a bracketed tournament on Sunday.  Click the logo below to go directly to the Jazz Town Duals Website and see which teams will vie against each other in the pool rounds on Saturday.

Louisiana clubs scheduled to compete include two Crusader Wrestling Club teams (Brother Martin), the host New Orleans Wrestling Club (Jesuit), the Gator Wrestling Club (with branches in Metairie, the Northshore and the River Parishes, thus representing several schools), the Bayou Elite Wrestling Club (mostly Holy Cross), the Live Oak Wrestling Club, the Westbank Wrestling Club, the Belle Chasse Wrestling Club, The River Parish Wrestling Club, the Baton Rouge Allstar Wrestling Club and the Rayne Wrestling Club.

Louisiana should be represented by at least eight Division I state champions and four Division II state champions.  However, the Baton Rouge Allstars and Rayne Wrestling Club may bring a few state champions as well.

Normally the Crusader W.C. would be the favorites to place highest among Louisiana-based teams.  Yet, come the high school 2016-7 season, Brother Martin has to fill 11 roster spots, so this event may be used as a preliminary competition for young Crusaders trying to fill those roster spots.

Bayou Elite was going to be tough already with Cole Clement, Jake Rando, Joey Foret and Michael Benton in the mix.  The addition of Division II state champion Blake Mateu of Rummel and Division I state champion Christian Walden of Airline, and they become a very formidable team, indeed.

The Gator WC will present problems to opponents with a combination of Rummel and St. Paul's wrestler at least.  Josh Ramirez, however, Rummel's 2015 Division I and 2016 Division II state champion, will be competing in Ohio, though, during the weekend, and will miss this event.

One should never count out the host New Orleans WC, comprising mostly Jesuit wrestlers.  Like the Crusaders, this team is probably going to try several line-ups to whittle down the list contenders for the regular season.  Or not - the Blue Jays have a knack for not showing a heckuva lot before the end of January and the state championships.  (According to the Websites the editor perused, "heckuva lot" is the proper way of spelling that non-word.  "Heckuvalot" is not listed as an option.)

Luke Cotton Crusader WC	Blake Mateau Bayou Elite WC	Cole Houser Gator WC	Steven Shields Crusader WC

Eli Larriviere NOWC	Ean Hill Live Oak WC	Ethan Alphonso Live Oak WC	Cole Clement Bayou Elite WC

Jake Rando Bayou Elite WC	Joey Foret Bayou Elite WC	Christian Walden Bayou Elite WC	Corey Dublin NOWC

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This season the competition will not include such powerhouses as Archer, GA, Team Valley, IA, Penn, IN, Easton, PA, Brownsburg, IN and Mater Dei, IN, but have no fear that some very talented teams are coming.

Camden County Georgia, the Georgia 5A state champions, may bring three state champions and a runner-up among their two participating squads:

Rayden Wilder State Champion	Denton Spencer Runner-up	Antonio Stewart State Champion	Bummi Smith State Champion

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Allen, Texas, the Texas 6A state champions, should bring some recognizable names from the 2014 Trey Culotta Invitational, including Logan Brown, Juwan Robinson and Braedin Redlin:

					No PHOTO AVAILABLE
Noah Yeamans State Champion	Logan Brown 3rd Place (2nd in 2015)	Juwan Robinson Runner-up	Braedin Redlin 2015 & 2016 State Champion	Evan Hackert State Champion	Mark Inglehart State Champion	Nico Manzenelli Runner-up

The Florida Panhandle team formally known as Back-in-Black, but now called Gulf Coast PINitentiary, will have some formidable additions this year.  From the South Walton Border Wars and the Deep South Bayou Duals, Louisiana wrestlers should already be familiar with Arnold's Richie McClanahan, Ethan Pickren and William Pickren, but three state champions from other schools are on that roster as well:

Ethan Pickren Runner-up Arnold High School	William Pickren Runner-up (2015), 4th-place (2016) Arnold High School	Richie McClanahan 3rd-place Arnold High School	Bryce Rogers State Champion (x2) Lake Highland Prep.	Erich Byelick State Champion Lake Highland Prep.	Chase Curtis State Champion Columbia H. S.

The remaining out-of-state clubs hail from Luella, Cambridge and Woodward in Georgia, Springstead, Fort Walton and Eagle Empire of Florida, Leonidas (two squads), 3F Wrestling and Paradigm of Texas, Floyd Central of Indiana and Major Decision of Missouri. 

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