A 4-2 loss on Saturday in Texas tmay be the best thing to happen to happen to Sam Houston's Tyson Roach all season.  "It is better to lose in January than in February" is a common wrestling adage.  What better to keep Roach from becoming complacent prior to the LACL next weekend and state four weeks later?

Now defending 2021 LACL and DI state champion and OW Landon Reaux dropped to 106.  Roach bested Reaux in 5:45 on December 1st in a fairly close match.  Roach moved up to 113 lbs. for that match.  Reaux, it seems, is aiming to avenge that loss in his first match of the season.  Reaux comes back big after losses.

Harris' only loss came to Rummel's Triche on November 6th.  He has two wins over Romero (TC) and one over Duvernay.

Clementi has had two close matches (3-0 and 4-2) over Sonnier.  The only other Louisiana wrestler to last six minutes with Clementi was Grizzaffi.  That, though, was an 11-0 MD match. 

Grizzaffi has two losses to Clementi, one to Bourgeois and one, 4-2, against Kimball.  Kimball and Walker have too many losses, though, to merit a higher seeding than Grizzaffi, who took second at the Scott Rohrer Hoover Invitational on Saturday.

Reaux has lost to Sonnier at 113 lbs. and only Roach at 106 lbs.  Bourgeois defeated Enk, who defeated Kimball (which places the Blue Jay higher than Grizzaffi) who defeated Karcher.

Perry left no doubt who was the wrestler to beat at 120 lbs. with a 9-2 win over the then undefeated Elsensohn in the Trey Culotta finals.

Elsensohn is 2-0 vs. Mire, but Mire got closer (7-0 vs. 8-4) on Saturday.  Mire has a 6-0 win over Faherty, the St. Paul wrestler's only loss.  Boyer gave Elsensohn a one-point scare at the Black Horse.  Perez won the Battle of New Orleans on Saturday.

Do not let Wiley Boudreaux's two losses confuseyou.  He has defeated, and soundly, the best LA competition at 126 lbs. save one.  Caleb Lavine was 25-0 when Boudreaux defeated him 9-4 on December 11th.  At the Lone Survivor Boudreaux defeated him 24-10 MD.  Zach Flurry of Vestavia Hills had not lost since February of 2020 until he was demolished, then pinned, by Boudreaux in the Trey Culotta finals.

Lavine has wins over Brother Martin's Chabert and Duncan, and Duncan has one over Goodson.  Boudreaux also has a win over Chabert.  At 126 lbs. Maneckshaw only has a 4-0 loss to Duncan, but he has a 5-0 win over Chabert.

Then there is Glenn Price, a defending LACL champion who was undefeated last season, in which he also won his third D2 state championship.  This is likely his Price's litmus test this season.  Wherever he is seeded, expect him to be acidic to basically everyone. 

Mason Elsensohn has owned this weight class from "Day One." 

Boudreaux's losses have come from Elsensohn (4), Wiley Boudreaux (2) and Glenn Price.  The latter two are expected to compete at 126 lbs. at the LACL.  Burgess' losses came from Elsensohn, Goodson and E. Boudreaux.  Gros has only lost to Elsensohn of those remaining at 132 lbs.  He did lose a 13-12 match against St. Amant senior Logan Anderson, but Anderson's losses negate a high, if any, seeding at the LACL.

The senior Veron gets the nod over the freshman Gros by virtue of a 20-7 MD over St. Michael's Dorian Wilkinson.  Wilkerson beat Tassin, who beat Cuba twice.

Jacob Houser is considered by many to be the best wrestler on the defending Division I state champion St. Paul team.  He is 20-0 and now has a Battle of New Orleans title to keep his Border Wars one company, but the caliber of Louisiana opponents is "iffy."  That, however, can be easily explained by the fact that nobody wants to be in his weight class.

Viers is a contender, as is Cusimano, who's only loss was to Burgess (now at 132 lbs.). 

If they stay at 152 lbs., Nastasi and DiGeralamo should be the top two seeds.  They have split matches, but Nastasi won in a tournament.  Everyone moves up if Nastasi is not at the event (he has not competed since December 4th.

Trouth has not wrestled anyone of the caliber of the first two (meaning each other or Ingram), and neither have Ritter or Parker.

Bonin has lost to some tough guys - Rocco Horvath, Kade Moran, Zack Watkins, Luke Robinson - but all at 170 lbs.   At 152 he went 5-0 at the St. Amant Duals with a 0:53 fall over Brother Martin's Ryan Corca.  Gautier rode a win over Corca into the Trey Culotta finals, and his wins over Michael Gilreath (EVA) and Spencer Hughes (DLS) will prove beneficial in Division III seeding.

Ramos has two wins over Favaza.  Favaza has a win over Barker and two wins (5:00 and 5-3) over Travasos.  Barker was untested in 11 matches against Louisiana competition until Favaza last Saturday, but Border Wars titles do not come easily. 

Travasos has three losses, but he fared better against Favaza, losing in 5:00 and 5-3, than did Barker (2:47).

Pennison, despite a runner-up finish at the Trey Culotta, does not have wins over anyone currently considered a top contender at the LACL.  Neither does Hanson.  Next weekend is the time to prove that to be misguided conjecture.

Carroll gave Horvath his second closest match from a Louisiana wrestler at 170 lbs.  Carroll's sole other loss was in his first match of the season vs. Holmes of EA at 182 lbs. 

Carroll and Ramos (EA) are the only wrestlers to beat Moran, and both losses to Carroll were SV matches, so there is a small margin between the two.   Moran gets the nod over Watkins re matches vs. EA's Bonin.  Moran defeated Bonin in 4:49, 13-9 and 17-1 TF.  Watkins’ two wins were 12-2 and 9-5.  Watkins defeated Robertson via a fall on January 5th.

Otzenberger's one loss to a Louisiana wrestler has been to Brother Martin's Horvath, and he lasted 3:17, as opposed to Robertson whom Horvath felled in 0:42.  Addison has shared time with Horvath as well, but only 26 seconds of it.  Gagnon only has losses to Favaza, Robertson and Bonin (EA), but he has not competed since December 18th. 

The caliber of Monaco's opposition was suspect until the Beast on the Bayou at which he defeated Holmes (EA) 9-2 and, at 195 lbs., Levert (TC) and Catholic's Nicholas Miglacio.

McConnell lost to Holmes.  Bourgeois lost to McConnell.  Domangue lost to McConnell twice, and did not fare as well as Bourgeois (McConnell won 7-2 and 5-2 over Domangue and 5-3 over Bourgeois). Kelley lost to Holmes and Bourgeois (and Harms at 195) and Krail lost to Kelley - twice.  Johnson's 18-0 record looked good going into the Brusly Invitational, but Krail made short work of that in 3:39.

Hyatt took the weekend off, hopefully.  He is 12-0 this year going into the LACL.  Last season he was 4-0 entering the event, which he won handily, as he did the 2021 D1 state championship.  He owned 195 lbs. last year and shows no signs of wanting to sell it this year.

Ohler came back from an injury on November 20th and won three matches Saturday, including a 4-3 match over Harms.  He was injured, though, against Zachary's Cameron Walker, the extent of which is unknown.

Landry and Schexnaydre split matches, with the EA wrestler winning their last one  via a fall in 5:57 (Landry won the first match 5-3).  Landry's only other losses were to Nick Migliacio of Catholic, which he avenged the following week, and to Baiamonte at 220 lbs.  Calderano split with Migliacio, but he avenged a 5-3 loss with a 14-4 MD.  Whitehead, with a 15-0 TF over Lanclos of TC, may prove tougher than I have him listed.

Baiamonte’s 3-2 UTB win over Brother Martin's Julian Tapia was unexpected.  Otherwise, the Tiger has been dominant, and Tapia has had a quietly good season, being undefeated against Louisiana opponents.

Lyons only has seven wins over Louisiana wrestlers, none of whom are on this list, but one does not take home a Border Wars title easily.  One does not take away LACL easily either, and Lyons, Baiamonte and the others should keep that in mind when facing Daugherty, who won the LACL last season, and has already defeated Lanclos.

Laidlaw has not faced the toughest competition is the state but his only loss was in a 5-3 SV match against Lanclos.  Quinn Collins should not be overlooked. 

Whittington is nothing less than a beast (in a good way, though, re wrestling).  He had some close matches, 3-2 over Rist of Hannan and 5-3 over Donelon of De la Salle, but with the exception of a 9-2 Battle of New Orleans final over Donovan Kimball of Destrehan, eight of his nine other wins have been first-period falls.

Freeman, though, is a defending Division I state champion and LACL champion who was undefeated last season.  That earns him a shot against Whittington in the finals, not the semifinals.  If Spencer Lanosga competes against Holy Cross on Wednesday, look for him at the #3 spot.  Whittington has earned the right to only have to defeat one of Freeman-Lanosga if he is to win the LACL.

Guillory, Matthews and the others have fine records but they have not faced the elite of the weight class, yet.