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WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

Senior Gautreaux wins DeQuincy's first state championship...in anything...en route to the Division III Outstanding Wrestler Award

LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament

Division III - 138 Pounds

August 20th, 2023| Written by: Staff Writer

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium
Name	Camden Gautreaux	Carson Dalton	Kadin Manuel	Malachi Benetrix	Seth Lowe	Tucker LeBlanc
School	DeQuincy	Shaw	Church Point	De la Salle	Hannan	Basile
Seed	1	NS	5	3	4	NS
Record	22-8	21-19	23-12	27-14	18-11	9-17
Class	12	11	12	10	11	11

This weight class got a little scary at first as Camden Gautreaux's first three losses were to Wiley, then Ethan and the Wiley Boudreaux. If one has to lose matches, though, it is hard to pick better kids than the Division I and Division II state champions. Master Gautreaux did not lose to a Division III opponent, though, and he won the Jimmy Vidrine Division III tournament. He placed third at the Ronnie Suarez and the Jacob McMillan, and fourth at the Public Schools Championships.

His finals opponent was Shaw's Carson Dalton. Dalton was not seeded, but that is par for the course for the Eagle junior, who was not seeded when he placed sixth in Division II in 2023. He defeated second-seeded Destin Pitre of Thomas Jefferson in Round-One, recorded a fall in the quarterfinals and avenged two losses to De la Salle's third-seeded Malachi Benetrix with a 4-2 semifinals win.

Gautreaux was too much for the Shaw junior in the finals, though. By the time Dalton scored his only point via an escape with 0:15 remaining in the match, Gautreaux had already scored six points. To make matters worse, after Dalton's escape Gautreaux scored another takedown for an 8-1 championship. Gautreaux pinned his first three opponents in 5:31. He was selected as the Division III Outstanding Wrestler, but perhaps even more rewarding was that he won the first state championship, not just in wrestling, but in anything, for the Dequincy Tigers.

Gautreaux had been on the podium twice before. He placed fifth as an unseeded freshman in 2020, and he placed fifth as a fourth-seeded junior in 2022. In 2021 he only competed in four matches, which were at the state tournament. He won his first match in 1:15, but then lost to eventual champion Kaul Kayser of Brusly in the quarterfinals. He needed only 0:36 to win his second match but fell in the third round of the consolations to 4th-place winner Ja'cory Tyler of Brusly. Just for the record, the guy Kayser defeated 5-2 in the finals that year was a basile Bearcat named Luc Johnson.

Dalton was not seeded as a sophomore and placed sixth. Ditto as a junior, except that he placed second. Go ahead - do not seed him as a senior and see if he cares.

Quarterfinals