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WE ARE ADAPTIVE

WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

Louisiana Classic - 120 pounds
A trio for Reaux

March 31st, 2023 | Written by: Staff writer

CHAMPION
(2) Landon Reaux
Southside

2nd	3rd	4th
(5) Tyson Roach Sam Houston	(4) Watts Goodson Catholic	(1) Jacob Kehrer Heath, TX

I remember playing a series of $5-$10 darts games against New Orleans darts legend Bill Hollingsworth at Vic's Kangaroo Cafe at the 1984 World's Fair. When it was over I had about $60 of Bill's money. He told me, "You know that is just a loan, right?'

I think of that when I recall matches between Southside's Landon Reaux and Sam Houston's Tyson Roach. One beats the other 13-1 MD and six days later the tables are turned 16-9. One wins 14-5 and then the other wins 12-11, and then 26-15. Winning two matches in-a-row was big, but not insurmountable. Winning three in-a-row, well, that had yet to happen in the nine matches between the two since the 2020-21 season. As the weight class was seeded, it was highly improbable.

Reaux had three losses prior to the LACL. Two were to Roach, and he now had a 3-2 lead that series in the 2022-23 season. The other was to Brother Martin's Jacob Elsensohn, 7-4, in the pool round of the Trey Culotta. Reaux avenged that loss with aplomb, followed by an exclamation point, with a 9-5 Trey Culotta finals win over Elsensohn. Roach had a loss to Elsensohn in a dual meet almost a month earlier. There was another major player in the weight class. That was Catholic's defending Division I state champion Watts Goodson, whose only loss was 1-0 against Elsensohn in a dual meet.

One must remember that the 120 lbs. weight class was just bats**t crazy with competition. 2022 Division I placers Jesse Maneckshaw of East Ascension, Landon Smith of Holy Cross and Kye Karcher of Walker were in the same LACL bracket. 2022 Division II state champion Brennan Romero of TC was there, as was Division II 4th-placer Kobe Nguyen of Shaw. Division III state champion Shane Barbarin of De la Salle and 3rd-placer William Simpson of St. Michael were entered. There were 25 others in the field as well. Earlier in the season Division I runners-up Bodi Harris of Jesuit and Cole Mire of Dutchtown were at 120 lbs., as was Catholic's 3rd-placer Grant Grizzaffi. Harris and Grizzaffi went down to 113 lbs. and Mire basically said, "forget this" and stopped struggling to make weight in favor of moving up to Ernie Perry III's weight class.

In keeping with the bats**t crazy motif, imagine being the kid with the LHSAA state championships seeding criteria to be seeded first (Reaux - 2021 D1 champion), second (Elsensohn - 2022 D1 3rd-place), third (Goodson - 2022 D1 champion) and fourth (Roach - 2022 D1 champion), but finding yourself seeded one spot lower because a Rockwall Heath, Texas kid, with a 19-1 record but with no matches against Louisiana competition, and who went 0-2 in the 2022 Texas UIL state championships, was seeded first. Senior Jacob Kehrer is tough, mind you, as he proved with wins over Barbarin and Karcher, and losing to Goodson only 8-6 in the match for third. But Kehrer did not have the pedigree to be seeded any better than fifth. Some other force was at work re the seeding, more devious than the gods of agriculture mentioned in another weight class. As things worked out, the seeding "plan" was not needed and did not work in the first place.

Landon Reaux got the best possible result from the seeding. He got to wrestle a third match against Elsensohn, which quite possibly could have decided the top seed at the state championship, and Reaux jumped on the opportunity. Officially, the match was called due to an injury default from Elsensohn when the Crusader sophomore's momentum was abruptly stopped via his head, but that was with less than 25 seconds remaining and Reaux owning a comfortable 9-2 lead. Elsensohn was forced to withdraw from he tournament which, as he incurred two forfeits, may hurt him re seeding for the state championships. In the finals few if any thought Reaux would meet Kehrer. Many hoped it would be Goodson, and it almost was. Yet Goodson was stopped via a last second takedown by the fifth-seeded Roach in a 9-8 match. And after a 5-5 tie at the end of the first period of Roach's semifinals match against Kehrer. But Roach outscored Kehrer 9-2 in the next two periods before ending the match with a fall at 5:25.

Preliminary Rounds