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Holy Cross 48-St. Paul's 15

In a contest between two teams expected to vie for runner-up status in the 2019 Division I State Wrestling Championships, Holy Cross basically said what the barber says:  "Next!"  The Tigers won 10 of the 14 matches, soundly defeating St. Paul's 48-15.  The Frost brothers, twins Evan and Jacob and older brother Cameron, scored falls for the Tigers, as did Brady Butler, Ryan Doody and Anthony Sciambre.  At 126 lbs., defending state champion Michael Lundin scored a second victory over last season's 4th-place finisher Brandon Stein, 7-1.  Connor Oviedo, Nicholas Raspino, Peyton Ward and Ben Davidson won matches for the Wolves.  Raspino defeated two-time Division I runner-up Caruso Signorelli 5-3, and Ward needed a Sudden Victory round to defeat Holy Cross' Logan LaCoste. 

Brother Martin 67-East Ascension 6

The Crusaders rolled over the Spartans in a 67-6 romp.  The lone Spartan winner was not one of the Mahoney brothers, nor Devon Clark, as Clark did not participate in the event.  It was sophomore Anthony Krass, who pinned Connor Couret in 3:40.  As for the Mahoney brothers, sophomore Brad suffered his second defeat of the season via a 19-4 technical fall to Alex Duncan.  Defending state champion Trent Mahoney faced another defending state champion in Crusader senior Patrick Evans, a match won by Evans 6-5.  Evans has already competed at 145 lbs., so his moving to 152 lbs. for this match may have been just to test himself against the East Ascension junior.  Barring a meltdown worse than Chernobyl in 1986, the Crusaders should easily win their second consecutive Division I state championship.  As such, Crusader Coach Robert Dauterive can afford to enter a line-up attempting to maximize the number of Crusaders able to win individual championships.  The editor does not know any details of the Evans-Mahoney match, however, but as it was a one-point contest it may make Dauterive think twice about Evans remaining at 152 lbs. 

Brother Martin 52-St. Amant 10

Corey Brownell and Hunter Hawkins won the only matches for the St. Amant Gators against the Crusaders.  Brownell pinned Sean Michael Cursain in 3:24 and Hunter Hawkins kept his record unblemished with a 10-1 major decision over Colby Franovich.  Seth Signorelli fared very well against the Crusaders' Logan Bertot in an 8-6 loss, and Jaden Snyder fell two points short of Brother Martin's Eli Hope, 9-7.  Two other matches were close, but the Crusader prevailed in them all.  Riley Horvath defeated Alex Simoneaux 4-1.  Seth Alfonso also won by three points, 9-6, over Conrad Mitchell.  Quinn Williams, Logan Bertot and Alex Duncan remained undefeated for the Crusaders who have wrestled at least 10 matches.

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Catholic Duals

The Holy Cross Tigers emphatically stated that they are the team to beat for the 2019 Division I runner-up spot, or perhaps are even as a threat to the defense of the championship title currently held by Brother Martin.  The Tigers ripped through the competition at the Catholic High Duals, shutting out Lakeshore 84-0 and Dutchtown 82-0.  They gave up a few points to St. Amant in a 52-9 match, and a few more to the team from Hoover High School in Alabama, winning 60-15.  In the finals they beat the Jesuit Blue Jays 50-21.

St. Amant placed third via a 63-18 win over Catholic, but it should be mentioned that, after losing to Jesuit 39-34 in the last of the five Pool B matches, the Bears did not put forth their best team in the match for third place.  They put their starters in against Jesuit but were hurt by giving up three forfeits to Jesuit's one.  Catholic was missing wrestlers in the 195 lbs., 220 lbs. and 285 lbs. weight classes.  Normally, those weight classes would be filled, but five of the wrestlers who might have filled them are on the Bears' football team, which is playing for the Division I championship against John Curtis on December 8th.  A few other wrestlers could have competed, but it is likely Catholic coach Tommy Prochaska held them out of the Jesuit match as they did not need to face Blue Jay veterans Darren Ferrier, Jack Grady and Perry Ganci.

As for the Tigers being a threat to the Crusaders, much more will be known Wednesday night after the two teams meet in a dual meet at Holy Cross.

Stanley Rauch Duals

Teurlings Catholic defeated Shaw to win the Stanley Rauch duals on Saturday at Shaw High School.  The Rebels defeated the Eagles 52-30 in the final match of the day.  Earlier the Eagles defeated another group of Eagles from Live Oak 40-33.  In that match Shaw benefitted from forfeits 2-1, as well as not having to face Camdyn Ingram, who is still nursing an injury.  Live Oak is determined to be a contender for the Division II state team championship, as is Teurlings Catholic.  Against the Rebels, Live Oak gave up a forfeit and even if Ingram the elder were there and pinned his opponent, the Rebels would have prevailed by one point.  There were several close matches, though, including a 7-5 Rebel win by Jacob Pepiton over Jordan Griffin, and a 10-7 win by Charles Travasos over Live Oak's Anthony Dodson.  The outcome of rematches of those bouts may be different later in the season.  Live Oak is still in contention for the Division II championship, but Teurlings currently has an edge over the Eagles.  The Shaw Eagles have placed themselves in contention also.  In their loss to the Rebels, the Eagles forfeited three weight classes.  Granted, those spots need to be filled by some quality wrestlers for the Shaw Eagles to become a serious threat. 

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Jennings/McCrory/Petitjean Duals

Basile made a statement by winning the Jennings/McCrory/Petitjean Duals held at Rayne High School.  The Bearcats defeated the defending Division III team champions from St. Louis Catholic 48-30.  In the finals they defeated host Rayne 45-36.  In that match Basile won eight matches while the Wolves won only four.  Rayne also received two forfeits from the Bearcats, further strengthening the idea that Basile is the team to beat in Division III.

Champions: Basile Bearcats	Gavin Christ and Hunter Langley	2nd Place: Rayne Wolves	Miles Doucet, Emile Richard and William Billings

Ronnie Suarez SPOT District

Comeaux, with five champions and four runners-up, won the Ronnie Suarez SPOT District tournament held at Sulphur High School with 215 points.  The Spartan winners were Hunter Broussard, Dyllon Bernard, Brennan Sturm and Alex Chiasson.  Placing second were Seth Minard, Reed Bergeron, Dylan Ames and Gabriel Berard.  The host Golden Tornedo was right behind the Spartans with 206 points, the majority of which came from champions Blaine Wright, Hunter Gustin and Jack Dufresne, and runners-up Kyle Thibodeaux, Mikey Marshall and Caleb Harris.  Seven Sulphur wrestlers, however, advanced to the consolation finals, with five taking third-place.  Lafayette's Jackson Carter won at 285 lbs., helping the Lions place third, and Acadiana had three champions in a fourth-place finish.  Barbe's Luc Laurentz and Joshua Vito won the remaining two titles.

Acadiana champions: Luke Lafleur, Reid Folley and Braedon Csaszar

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Riot on the Red

Parkway made their own case to repeat as the Division II team champions (Parkway and Teurlings Catholic tied for the title in 2018) with a 95-point win over C.E. Byrd in the 2018 Riot on the Red, held at Parkway.  The Panthers scored 283 points to the Yellowjackets' 188.  A second Parkway team placed third with 135 points, followed by Airline with 108 points. Left: Airline 152 lbs. champion Tucker Almond with brother Tyler.  Right: Airline top-three placers Tucker Almond (1st), Memphis Brace (2nd), Peyton Bass (2nd) and Caden Cockrell (3rd)

Parkway (the first team) champions were Joshua Keeler, Darryl Nicholas, Trey Fontenot, Jacob Chittom, Kaleb Garcia, Carson Sanders and Connor Cloinger.  Jordan Clark, Hayden Wood, Taylor Kerley, Peyton Miller and Dezrel Eloph placed second for the Panthers.  Byrd champions were Matthew Born, Jacob Yawn and Bailee Creasee.  J.W. Fuller and Logan Lewis placed second for the Yellowjackets.  The other four championships went to Taurio Grigsby and D.J. Harvey of Lakeside, Terrence Murray of the Parkway second team and Tucker Almond of Airline.  Deserving recognition for placing third was Byrd junior Demetri Teddie, whose losses came from senior and 2017 Division II state champion Trey Fontenot Parkway,  and to 2018 Division I runner-up Peyton Bass of Airline, also a senior.

Almond may have competed in the final tournament of his very good wrestling career.  Two days before the event Almond accidentally stabbed himself through his left hand, cutting a tendon.  His winning the tournament after incurring such an injury is no less that remarkable.  However, Almond's success under such circumstances should not be emulated - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Trygg Memorial

Brother Martin won the 27th George Trygg Memorial tournament held at Grace King High School. The Crusaders' 243 points dwarfed runner-up St. Paul's 118.5 points.  Covington placed third with 114.5 points. Chase Scott, Quinn Williams, Riley Horvath, Seth Alfonso, Cameron Frederick and Kyle West won titles for the Crusaders.  St. Paul's only had one champion, Sean Cripple.  The remaining championships went to Sergio Maldonado of Bonnabel, Sasha Robinson of Benjamin Franklin, Rummel's Chris Montalbano, Covington's Avery Verret, Joha Anderson of John Curtis and Christian Moore and Jaden Ben of Chalmette.  It should be noted that neither Brother Martin nor St. Paul's entered their first-string teams. More on this event will be available later on www.lawrestlingnews.com.

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