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Brother Martin waltzed through the Division I Duals Championships, Parkway broke a one-to-one tie in tournament championships to win the Division II Duals Championships and St. Louis upset two-time defending Division III state champion De la Salle to win the Division III Duals Championships.

The Division I championships were held on Friday and Saturday, January 19th and 20th, at the University of New Orleans Human Performance Center.  Live Oak hosted the Division II championships on Saturday, the 20th, and North Vermillion hosted the Division III event, also on Saturday.

Division I: Brother Martin Division II: Parkway Division III: St. Louis

Division Dual Championships Winners

Division I

The Crusaders blasted through every team they faced, compiling a 63-6 individual matches record, and receiving one forfeit.  They shut out Dutchtown 79-0 in their sole match on Friday (after a first round bye), and then on Saturday shutout Lafayette 81-0.   In the quarterfinals they trounced Airline 68-12, and then did the same to Catholic 64-9.  Most impressive, however, was that against Holy Cross, whom they only defeated 29-24 in a December match in which each team won seven bouts, they allowed the Tigers only two wins in a 55-7 thrashing.

106 lbs. Hoffman over J. Frost 10-2	113 lbs. Castex over Signorelli 9-5	120 lbs. Lundin over Leal 14-5

126 lbs. Croy over Spahn in 0:50	132 lbs. Horvath over LaCoste 10-4 *	132 lbs. Horvath over LaCoste 10-4 *	138 lbs. Duncan over Macaluso in 3:30

145 lbs. Evans over Doyle in 1:20	152 lbs. Alfonso over C. Frost 7-5	160 lbs. Roux over Gerrets in 1:29	170 lbs. Mumme over Masicot 7-2

182 lbs. Clapp over Heffner in 1:58	195 lbs. Frederick over Doody 10-6	220 lbs. West over Baiamonte 7-3	285 lbs. Brown over Maillet in 0:37

* While the first 132 lbs. photograph is nice, Master Horvath deserves a photo as he won the match.

Both teams were missing or had some new starters.  Luke Cotton did not compete for the Crusaders, nor did Lane Boudreaux or Garret Legendre.  The Tigers were without Spencer Rayes and Brady Butler, which forced some weight class manipulations to field their strongest possible team.

None of that mattered, though.  What mattered was that some Crusaders fared much better against the same Tiger competitors they struggled with in December, and some new Crusaders defeated Tigers who competed in that dual.

Connor Hoffman avenged a 3-0 loss to Jacob Frost with a convincing 10-2 major decision.  Ethan Castex, who lost a 7-2 match to Caruso Signorelli in the previous dual, defeated the Tiger state runner-up 9-5.  Alex Duncan, who previously defeated Mason Macaluso by only one point (8-7), scored a fall over Macaluso on Saturday.

Replacing Cotton was Riley Horvath, who pulled a "fourth set Jimmy Connors" rest in the second period but stormed back in the third for a 10-4 victory over Logan LaCoste. 

Another new face on the Crusaders' roster was sophomore Cameron Frederick, who defeated Ryan Doody 10-6 in a very heated and, well, bloody contest (not what one might think - Doody was plagued with a nosebleed.).  Doody is only a freshman, but he scored a fall in the December dual meet over Kyle West, and had a very respectable 13-9 record going into this event.  Frederick, however, is one of the Brother Martin "sleepers," the ones who are not usually in the starting line-ups but who practice and learn from the starters at every practice.

One of the Tiger manipulations involved putting eighth-grader Cole Baiamonte at 220 lbs.  Expect to see a lot of this young man in future events.  He posted a 2-2 record over the weekend, and only lost to sophomore Kyle West 7-3 in the finals.  His other loss was not surprising, as it was against Jesuit's defending state champion Perry Ganci.  Ganci needed 58 seconds to pin Baiamonte, but the young man lasted longer than Ganci's first four opponents at the Louisiana Classic, all four of whom were juniors.

As it is an easier list to write, the wrestlers who won against the crusaders were D.J. Evans and Matt Salinas of Airline, Jacob Fereday and Canon Hunt of Catholic, and Caden Mumme and Michael Lundin of Holy Cross. 

Third place was won by Jesuit 47-24 over Catholic.  Nathan Koenig showed he was well on his way to championship form with a 4-0 record.  Ganci, however, lost his first match to a Louisiana opponent when Zachary's Wes Brady defeated him 10-7.  A week earlier, in the Louisiana Classic finals, Ganci pinned Brady in 1:16.  As always in this sport - nothing is guaranteed.

The Bears' Jacob Fereday remained undefeated, and scored another win over Jesuit's Paul Treuting, who moved up from 160 lbs. in the consolation finals match.  Treuting still looks to be the top seed at 160 lbs. in Bossier City.  Catholic advanced to the semifinals in what may have been a nail-biting 33-32 match  (the editor does not know at which weight class the meet started).  It should be noted that the Wolves were without their current 138 lbs. and 145 lbs. starters, state champions Cole Houser and Jared Thieler.  However, one can only wrestle those who show up, so Catholic deserved the win.

St. Paul's placed fifth via a 41-32 win over St. Amant.  The Wolves defeated Airline 48-25 to reach the match for fifth place.  St. Amant got past East Ascension 38-35 in their third match of the season.  East Ascension had defeated the Gators 45-31 in the Deep South Bayou Duals and 39-36 in the Jambalaya Cup.  In the two three-point matches, an extra forfeit gave the winner the match.  That was not the case at the Bayou Duals, though.  St. Amant received one more forfeit, but it did not make a significant difference in the 45-31 outcome.  The Spartans defeated Airline 49-27 to place seventh.

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Division II

The Parkway Panthers won the Lafayette High School Jacob McMillan Memorial by 57 points over rival Teurlings Catholic, who placed third (behind Division I Comeaux).  Two weeks later in the Lone Survivor tournament at Parkway, the Rebels turned-the-tables on the Panthers, winning by 50 points over the host school.  (Home field advantage seems to mean little to these two teams.) 

At Live Oak, Parkway regained their lead, defeating Teurlings 42-26 in the finals.  The Panthers advanced to the finals with a 49-21 win over host Live Oak.  The Rebels handled Rayne easily in a 60-18 match.  In the match for third place, Rayne defeated Live Oak 55-24.

Teurlings started off with an 11-0 lead after the first two matches, but the Panthers took a 15-11 lead after the next three matches.  It was a lead they would not relinquish.  Parkway won six of the finals nine matches for the championship. 

There were only two close matches.  Matthew Carrier (TC) defeated Joshua Keeler (PKY) 6-3.  Carrier had won two previous close matches against Keeler, so Keeler cannot be ruled out of having a good chance to win a Division II state championship.  In the other close match, Darryl Nicholas, Jr. (PKY) defeated Jacob Pepiton (TC) 5-3.  Those two had not yet met this season, although Pepiton was awarded a forfeit by Nicholas to win fifth-place at the Lone Survivor.

The Rayne Wolves placed third out of 14 Division II teams in the Division II Duals Championships	Cody Hesser with three young ladies who participated in the Division II Duals Championships: Kharma Culpepper of Live Oak, Olivia Lombreras of East Jefferson and Katerina Manuel of Sam Houston

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Division III

The St. Louis Catholic Saints upset two-time defending Division III state champion De la Salle 37-27 to win the Division III Duals Championships.  The Cavaliers gave up two forfeits, but they went to Alex Yokubaitis and Robert Christman, who would have been heavy favorites against anyone they faced.  A double forfeit was had at 113 lbs.

Two high points stood-out for the Saints.

Cameron Witherwax, at 106 lbs., was pinned at Louisiana Classic in 2:53 by Zachary Lauland.  Witherwax avenged that loss with emphasis, pinning Lauland in 45 seconds.  Witherwax also defeated Lauland at the Brusly Invitational, so he should receive a higher seed at the state championships if he does not lose to Lauland at the Ken Cole.

The other high point is the St. Louis debut of William Jicks at 195 lbs.  Jicks, a junior, had been sidelined by a football injury until this event, but is on the path to be a very high seed at the state championships.  In his three matches, he pinned Jacob McMillan Memorial champion Haven Dominguez of Church Point in 4:36.  After that he pinned Brusly's Brandon Young, a two-time Division III state runner-up, in 5:54.  In the finals match, he decisively defeated De la Salle's Alex Ormond via a 13-1 major decision.  Jicks will need more matches to be seeded at the state championships, so expect to see him at this weekend's Ken Cole Invitational.  In the previous two seasons, Jicks wrestled for Barbe, with his brother Bobby, compiling a 10-10 record as a freshman and a 5-5 record as a sophomore.

Division III Duals champions St. Louis Catholic	Third-place winners Basile

Basile defeated Brusly 42-27 to place third.

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