Fini

The JANUS Report       In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.

The Parkway Panthers gave more credence to two wrestling maxims: 1) that dual meet results do not accurately predict how teams will fare in bracketed tournaments, 2) those available match bonus points are really, really important, and (3) that more often than not how teams do in the consolation matches usually determines who wins a tournament..

THE BASH, held Friday and Saturday at Mosely High School in Mosely, Florida (just outside of Panama City) consists of a dual meet tournament on Friday followed by a bracketed tournament on Saturday.  Twelve teams from Florida, Alabama and Louisiana participated.

Parkway's Saturday Bracketed Tournament Champions

Joshua Keeler	Andrew Tamburo	Jacob Chittom	Kaleb Garcia	Dezrel Eloph

Photos compliments of Jamie Kaye Miller

On Friday Parkway blanked their first two opponents 84-0 apiece which placed them in the four-team championship bracket.  They defeated Springstead High School, a perennial contender in Florida's state championships, 55-22, which put them in the finals against Thompson High School of Alabama, who defeated Rutherford 78-6 and Gulf Breeze 79-0 in the pool rounds and Gulf Shores 68-9 in the championship semifinals.  Thompson went on to defeat Parkway 49-27 for the duals championship.  According to Parkway coach Emmett Beggs, who informed the editor about the Saturday format, his team "laid an egg" Friday in the duals tournament.

Panther eggs are rarities, but evidently Coach Beggs knows how to spot them.  In Saturday's bracketed tournament Parkway scored 314 points to Thompson's 296.5 to take home the championship trophy.

As for duals vs. bracketed tournaments, a better kid can pin a "not so better" kid and the most he can get is six points in a dual meet.  In a bracketed tournament, the "non0better" kid may lose his first two matches and score no points while the better kid can win the whole thing and score around 30 points.

As for bonus points, Parkway had 31 matches won by major decisions or higher; Thompson only had 22.  Of just those, Parkway had 29 falls and Thompson had 19.  At two bonus points per fall, that is a 20 advantage to Parkway.

Placement points are just as important.  Thompson had seven champions to Parkway's five.  Each had one runner-up and two fifth-place finishers.  Thompson had two fourth-place to Parkway's one.  The Panthers, however, had five wrestler place third (the highest one can place in a consolation bracket) while Thompson only had one.

Parkway's Results

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Prep Slam XII

On Friday and Saturday Holy Innocents High School of Atlanta, Georgia hosted the 12th Prep Slam.  Five Louisiana teams participated: Brother Martin, St. Paul, Jesuit, Rummel and Evangel.

Friday evening the Brother Martin contingent went to sleep leading the tournament and having eight wrestlers waiting for Saturday morning's quarterfinals matches. 

After the quarterfinals the Crusaders only had four entries remaining in the winners' bracket.  After the semifinals they had only one, Kyle West, who was the runner-up at 220 lbs.

*     DNP = Did not place    **   DNF = Did not finish due to injury

In the 160 lbs. quarterfinals, top-seeded Mason Massicot injured his leg, but he went on to complete that match, losing via a fall in 3:14.  As a precautionary measure Massicot was pulled from the tournament.

On Friday the Crusaders lost their other top seed, Riley Horvath at 152 lbs., in the round-of-16.  Horvath came back very strong, though, to finish in 4th place.

When all was said and done the Crusaders placed third behind strong teams from Baylor, Tennessee and Jesuit of Tampa, Florida.  And Castes, Duncan and Massicot have yet to lose to any Louisiana competitors.

Evangel	Jesuit	Rummel	St. Paul

Team photos compliments of Coach John Tademy of Evangel

St. Paul finished seventh and had one winner in second-seeded Peyton Ward at 152 lbs.  Ben Davidson, Blain Cascio and Cole Ulfers placed fifth while Joshua Sabadie placed sixth.  Carter Duet, seeded fifth, was leading his round-of-16 match 5-4 with 31 seconds left when he was unintentionally rammed head-to-head off of the mat by his opponent.  A trainer did not allow Duet to continue as a safety precaution, but he was fully capable of getting up and walking on his own.

For Rummel, Jacob Ramirez placed sixth at 138 lbs.  Charlie Cyrus of Jesuit also place sixth at 160 lbs.

Evangel brought seven wrestlers to the event and Datremecious White, seeded second at 285 lbs., needed just 5:18 of mat time to pin his four opponents and win a championship for the Eagles.

Louisiana Prep Slam XII Champions

Peyton Ward of St. Paul at 152 lbs.	Trey White of Evangel at 285 lbs.

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Lone Survivor

A team from Harrah, Oklahoma had four champions and East Ascension had three champions, but that was not enough to keep the Parkway Panthers and their two champions from winning the Lone Survivor on December 27th and 28th at Parkway High School in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Parkway won with 319 points which was 35.5 more than runner-up Harrah.  Perennial Division II powerhouse Teurlings Catholic placed third with 271 points, 25.5 more than East Ascension's 245.5.

Lone Survivor Champions	Lone Survivor Outstanding Wrestlers: Joshua Keeler (PKY), Trent Mahoney (EA), Hunter Maudlin (HA)	Airline's champion: Ernie Perry, III

Ernie Perry, III of Airline, Matthew Carrier of Teurlings Catholic and Trent Mahoney of East Ascension kept their 2019-2020 records unmarred.  Parkway's Joshua Keeler, Byrd's Demetri Teddie and David Bernard of Teurlings Catholic kept their records against Louisiana opponents unblemished.

Abby Nette wins U.S. Senior Nationals to qualify for 2020 US Olympic Team Trials

[Left] Abby Nette earning her Senior National Championship.  [Right] Nette with Senior Nationals champion Dominique Parrish.

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Acadiana Inferno

Acadiana won the inaugural Acadiana Inferno tournament, held on December 28th, 2019.  The host Rams scored 119 points, easily outdistancing Carencro by 44 points.

Champions and Runners-up

Team Scores

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Beast of the East

North Desoto's Joshua Sarpy and Richard Mack, III put their undefeated records on the line at the Beast of the East, held at the University of Delaware Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Delaware on December 21st and 22nd.  Also competing for the Griffins was Dylan Olivier.

[Photos left to right] Joshua Sarpy, Richard Mack x 3, Dylan Olivier, Team: Dylan Olivier, Richard Mack, Coach Dustin Burton and Joshua Sarpy.

Photos compliments of Coach Dustin Burton

Sarpy, seeded 11th and competing at 120 lbs., won his first match in 0:56 but lost his next one 8-2.  He then won two consolation round matches via an 11-3 major decision and a fall in 1:25 before losing his fifth match in 2:16 to 15th-seeded Brandon Chletsos of Notre Dame in Pennsylvania.  Chletsos went on to place fourth.  Sarpy finished the event 3-2

Mack, seeded 11th at 152 lbs., lost his first match 8-5 but in the consolation round won a 12-1 major decision, accepted a forfeit, and won a 3-1 match prior to being pinned in 2:16.  He finished 2-2 with a forfeit.

Olivier did not win a match at 195 lbs., losing via falls of 0:27 and 1:54, but just competing in such an event is a valuable experience.

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Kansas City Stampede

Usually attended by Jesuit, this year it was the Holy Cross Tigers who brought 11 wrestlers to Missouri for the Kansas City Stampede.  In the field of 49 the Tigers placed 24th.  Caruso Signorelli, Evan Frost and Jacob Romig placed third for the Tigers while Charles Sauerwin, Dylan Lauriano, Hayden Brodnax and Jacob Frost placed fourth.  Sophomore Cole Baiamonte, at 285 lbs., placed 14th.

Evangel Dual Meets

On their way to Delaware for the Beast of the East, Evangel stopped in the Birmingham, Alabama area for two dual meets.  On Thursday, January 2nd, the Eagles defeated John Carroll Catholic 66-18, Fultondale High School and Chelsea High School 59-18. 

Evangel in Alabama

Catholic Duals

Catholic of Baton Rouge won the Catholic Duals held on December 7th at Catholic.  The Bears defeated a team from Hoover, Alabama 43-25.  East Ascension placed third with a 41-38 win over Jesuit.

Stanley Rauch Duals

Held at Shaw High School on December 7th, Teurlings Catholic won the Stanley Rauch Duals with a 44-29 finals win over Shaw.  Fontainebleau placed third, defeating Jesuit 46-27.

Jennings/McCrory/Petitjean Duals

Rayne won the Jennings/McCrory/Petitjean Duals with a 51-25 win over St. Louis.  South Beauregard placed third after receiving a forfeit from Basile. The event, held on December 7th at Rayne, drew 12 teams from Divisions I, II and III.

St. Amant Scuffle

St. Amant defeated Catholic 54-16 to with the St. Amant Scuffle, held at St. Amant High School on December 28th.  Jesuit defeated Live Oak 52-30 to place third.

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