WE ARE ADAPTIVE WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

CHAMPION (2) Landry Barker St. Paul

2nd 3rd 4th (1) Leif Clinton Heath, TX (6) Braedon Simoneaux Teurlings Catholic (3) Hunter Addison North Desoto

Last season Landry Barker lost one match to a Louisiana wrestler.  Raymond Favaza of Fontainebleau cost Barker a Louisiana Wrestling News paperweight.  Well, one other wrestler can be blamed for papers flying all around Barker's presence.  That would be Rockwall Heath' Texas' Leif Clinton.  Clinton, seeded sixth at the 2022 LACL, defeated the third-seeded Barker 12-7 in the quarterfinals.  Barker placed third, though, with impressive wins over Charlie Yocom of Haughton, Favaza, soon-to-be two-time Division III state champion Grayson Pennison of Hannan and Landon Carroll of Covington.

This season Barker was 26-0 with 24 falls upon entering the LACL.  He won his second South Walton Border Wars in Florida and won the Gulf Shores Scuffle in Alabama.  Clinton was 20-1 with only 15 falls and tournament wins in only Texas and Arkansas.  In 2022, while Barker was winning a Division I state title over the guy who crushed Clinton in 45 seconds in the 2022 LACL finals, Clinton was placing fifth, via a forfeit, in the Texas UIL 6A state championships.  Yet Clinton was the top seed with Barker meriting only the #2 spot.  This is not meant as an indictment of Clinton (funny, I was not even looking to use "indictment" on the day I wrote this.  OK, "indictment of Clinton" just resonates now, I admit, but not re Leif.)  Clinton beat some good opposition to get to the finals, including Catholic's Sam Boulet and East Ascension's Gabriel Bonin.  But the junior from Texas should not have been seeded over Barker. 

Barker had a tough 11-6 match against TC freshman Braedon Simoneaux in the semifinals.  Before that Covington's Landen Carroll scored seven points against Barker, although Barker's 18 points took care of that threat.  Clinton, though, was not as fortunate as Carroll and Simoneaux.  Barker shut him out via scoring the only takedown of the first period, and then adding an escape and a takedown in the second period prior to putting Clinton on his back and scoring a fall in 2:34.  Barker was now 31-0 with 27 falls and looking good for February in Bossier City.

Semifinals

(1) Leif Clinton (HTH) defeated (4) Gabriel Bonin (EA) 8-5

(2) Landry Barker (StP) defeated (6) Braedon Simoneaux (TC) 11-6

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Third-Sixth Place

(6) Braedon Simoneaux (TC) defeated (3) Hunter Addison (ND) 6-2 to place 3rd

(4) Gabriel Bonin (EA) defeated Sam Boulet (CAT) 4-1 to place 5th

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Finals

(2) Landry Barker (StP) pinned (1) Leif Clinton (HTH) in 2:34

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