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WRESTLING-SPECIFIC MEDIA

Gilreath's fourth finals appearance nets his second title

LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament

Division III - 160 Pounds

August 20th, 2023| Written by: Staff Writer

Place	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Podium
Name	Michael Gilreath	Jerome Bridges	Luke Fontenot	Jason Brown	Aidan Mulholland	Mason Britai
School	Evangel	John Curtis	Basile	SHW	Hannan	St. Mary's
Seed	1	NS	2	1	4	8
Record	69-8	13-11	24-11	24-11	20-23	4-19
Class	11	11	12	12	10	6

In nine tournaments before the state championships Evangel junior Michael Gilreath, a 2021 Division II state champion and a runner-up in 2020 (as an eighth-grader) and 2022, only won the ARK-LA-TEX Southern. He placed second twice, third four times and fourth twice. He did have more pins (50) than anyone else in the state, Gilreath, though, had a loss to Basile senior Luke Fontenot, which explains why Fontenot was seeded one rung better than Gilreath. Jason Brown of Shaw started the season at 195 lbs. and did not compete at 160 until the state championships. He lost nine matches and had nowhere near the number of matches Gilreath had, but he was still seeded first. Gilreath avenged his earlier loss to Fontenot with a semifinals fall in 5:25.

It would not be the top-seeded Brown he met in the finals, though. Brown was upset in the semifinals by John Curtis' unseeded junior Jerome Bridges 9-3. Bridges record entering the tournament was 11-10. He only placed in one tournament, and that was the Bulldog Brawl Invitational in Vancleave, Mississippi. Yet he defeated Brown, a 2022 third-placer, handily enough.

Bridges was no match for Gilreath, though. This was his fourth LHSAA state championships, and he had been in the finals in each of them, winning one in 2021 and losing only by a point, 16-15, in 2020. Gilreath scored a takedown after 1:15 had elapsed, and 15 second later he had his second state championship.

Quarterfinals