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FELINES RULE!

Lafayette, Holy Cross, St. Thomas More and Basile claim state team championships

The Lafayette Lady Lions, the Holy Cross Tigers, the St. Thomas More Cougars and the Basile Bearcats pulled off an all-feline rout at the LHSAA State Wrestling Championships, held at the Brookshire Grocery Arena in Bossier City, Louisiana on February 6th and 7th.

OK - that is not really true.  Lions, tigers and cougars are of the family Felidae, the same as domesticated cats, but bearcats are not.  They are of the family Viverridae, subfamily Paradoxurinae, genus Arctictis, and thrive in south and southeast Asia.  The scientific name Arctictis means "bear-weasel."  They are commonly known as binturong, and are closer to mongooses than cats.  That is not a bad thing.  Just ask a cobra.  When pitted against each other, mongooses almost always win fights again cobras. Truth be told, the "Bearcats" name came from a Houston semipro baseball team of the 1930s.

FINAL TEAM SCORES

The Lady Lions of Lafayette won every Louisiana tournament they entered aside from the Louisiana Classic, at which theyfell to Del City High School in Oklahoma.  Del City placed ninth in the 6A Oklahoma state championships.  The Lafayette ladies won the Griffin Open, the Lady Spartan Classic, the Pink Panther Invitational, the Jacob McMillan, the Ronnie Suarez District Tournament, the Louisiana Public School Championships, the Louisiana Duals Championships and the Ken Cole.  At the state championships, senior Quetzicalli Guevera-Tapia and junior Ryleigh Blanchard won state titles wile six others secured spots on the podium.

The Holy Cross Tigers won the Walker Invitational and the Zachary Big Horse, but lost some tournament titles to Teurlings Catholic, St. Thomas More and Catholic in some of the bigger events.  But behind state titles by Anthony Oubre, Matthew Krail, Robert Morse and Ryleigh Reeves, they won their fourth Division I title before the finals matches started.  Seven other Tigers made it on the podium.

St. Thomas More had four state champions and put six other Cougars on the podium to fight off strong challenges by North Desoto and Teurlings Catholic for the Division II team championship.   Taking home brackets were juniors Foster Peterson and Jonas Rebstock, and seniors Enzo Lopez and Sawyer Pugh.

In Division III Basile notched their sixth team championship in the last eight years.  Winning individual titles for the Bearcats were seniors Kye Smith and Romyn Cortez, junior Logan Bergeron and sophomore Noah Leblue.  Nine other Bearcats were in the top-six of their weight classes.

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OUTSTANDING WRESTLERS

GIRLS

Girls - Lilly Johnson of Dutchtown @ 114 lbs.   Dutchtown freshman Lilly Johnson scored 33.5 points, a half-point shy of a perfect state tournament run, in her five matches.   She pinned her first two opponents, whom she had not wrestled previously, in 1:26 and  0:49.  In the quarterfinals she had a rematch with Juliet Zalas-Vasquez, whom Johnson had previously defeated in 33 seconds at the Louisiana Classic.  This time Miss Zalas-Vasquez fared better as she lasted for over three minutes with Johnson.  Also at the Louisiana Classic, Johnson defeated Mandeville's Giada Ruffino in 2:21.  Miss Ruffino did much better in the state semifinals, lasting the full six minutes in a 19-3 Johnson technical fall.  In the finals she met Baton Rouge's Carmen Muller.  Johnson defeated Mueller four times previously via a major decision, a fall in 2:55, a technical fall and another fall in 2:58.  True to form, Johnson pinned Mueller for the third time in the second period at 3:02.  Johnson capped a 41-0 season with her first LHSAA state championship.

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DIVISION I

Division I - Michael Barnett of Jesuit @ 120 lbs.   This was Michael Barnett's fourth finals appearance for Jesuit and it was against an opponent who had defeated him twice already this season, defending Division I state champion Zane Blanchard of Southside.  Before getting one more attempt at Blanchard, though, Barnett had to get through four other wrestlers looking for a finals appearance.  In the first three of those matches he recorded falls of 1:42, 1:27 and 1:21.  Holy Cross freshman Mason Parria gave Barnett a tough semifinals match, cutting a 4-0 third-period lead to a 4-3 lead before Barnett sealed the win via a reversal with just over a minute left.  Barnett allowed an escape near the end of the 6-4 win.  In the finals Blanchard scored the first takedown and entered the third period with a 5-3 lead.  In that period Barnett shut-out Blanchard, but it was not easy.  Barnett whittled Blanchard's lead to 5-4 with an escape, but after a lot of scrambling he did not score the winning takedown until only 12 second remained.  Barnett had plenty of time, though, as he had the "one before two" option when riding out those last 12 seconds.

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DIVISION II

Division II - Enzo Lopez of St. Thomas More at 157 lbs.   St. Thomas More senior Enzo Lopez had a very good season, aside from the bigger tournaments.  He lost a finals match to a Texas wrestler in the Knights Invitational and another to a Texas kid in the semifinals of the Rumble at the Rock, in which he placed third.  Yet another Texas wrestler beat him at the Louisiana Classic.  In that tournament he also fell to Holy Cross' Robert Morse, who had previously defeated him in a dual meet.  None of those losses mattered as far as the LHSAA Division II state championships were concerned.  What did matter was the Dominic Durham of Rummel, a 2024 state champion and a third-place finisher in 2025.  Durham had pinned Lopez in 2:40 in the finals of the Ken Cole.  Lopez was expected to make it to the state finals, as was Durham, who won the Louisiana Classic and only had losses to two out-of-state opponents and to Morse.  Durham was expected to win a second match versus the Cougar senior.  But Lopez was having none of that.  Lopez took Durham down and scored four near-fall points to take a 7-0 lead into the first three minutes.  Durham chose to start the second period standing, and Lopez did it again, scoring another takedown and four more nearfall points, to take a 14-0 lead into the final period.  Lopez chose to start in the down position and scored an escape after 17 seconds had elapsed, ending the match with a 15-0 TF in 4:17.

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DIVISION III

Division III - Jaxon Bent of Houma Christian at 150 lbs.   Jaxon Bent only had three matches, but he outscored his opponents 48-1 in them.  After a first-round bye Jaxon won his quarterfinals match 18-1 in 1:24 and his semifinals match 16-0 in 4:45.  In the finals, after a scoreless first period, Bent shut out Vinton's Brennan Trahan 8-0 in the second period and 6-0 in the third, resulting in a 14-0 MD.

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1951  - 75 Years Ago

In 1951 only 48 stars adorned the American flag.  In the "police action" that was the Korean War, President Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur.  The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting presidential contenders to two elected terms.  An American in Paris won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1951.  Bobby Thompson of the New York Giants hit the "shot heard 'round the world," a three-run walk-off homerun in a special three-game playoff with the Brooklyn Dodgers to determine the National League Pennant winner.  (The Giants lost 4 games to two to the New York Yankees.)  Gasoline cost $0.27 a gallon.  In sports literature, Jane lost seven balls while playing golf with Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, a must-read for absolutely nobody.

In the 1951 Louisiana Interscholastic Wrestling Championships, held at the New Orleans Athletic Club, a team that was not Holy Cross won the state championship.  Jesuit won their first of twenty-six championships that year.  Holy Cross did not enter the tournament as their coach, Brother Melchior Polowy, was ill.  But that just "shows to go ya'" that one can only wrestle those who show up.  The Blue Jays dominated the competition by scoring 50 points.  Runner-up St. Aloysius (soon to be Brother Martin) was second with 24 points. 

Times-Picayune articles of February 23rd, 1951

1976 - 50 Years Ago

In 1976 the now 50-state United States celebrated its bicentennial.  Apple Computer was founded and Nadia Comaneci scored "perfects tens" at the Montreal Olympics.  Rocky was awarded the best picture Oscar of 1976 and households tuned into All in the Family more than any other television program.  Roots was published.  Pet rocks.  I am just going to leave "pet rocks" alone.

In its second year of running the tournament, the LHSAA held preliminary rounds for Division I at Jesuit High School and for Division II teams at St. Martin's Episcopal High School.  The Finals were held at Jesuit.  Non-Greater New Orleans area schools were called "invaders." 

In Division I Sam Harnsogkram's Jesuit Blue Jays won their fourth state championship in five years.  A sophomore from East Jefferson, Jim Ravannack, placed fourth in Division I.  Two-time defending state champion Arthur Dupre, Jr. was upset by De la Salle's John Caballero, who was voted the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler.  Robert Schutte, Greg Roberts and David Gaffney each won their first of two state championships for Jesuit. 

In Division II South Cameron won its first of three consecutive state championships under Coach Clarence Vidrine.  The Tarpon's James Boudreaux won the first of three state titles for South Cameron.  Stuart Ostrolenk became the first state champion for St. Martin's.

2001 - 25 Years Ago

In 2001 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone premiered in theaters.  The first of the Harry Potter series of movies, was the highest grossing movie of the year, making $317 million.  The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was a close second, grossing $313 million.  Gladiator won the Oscar as the best film of 2001.  FBI agent Robert Hansen was arrested for espionage after selling information to the Russians for 16 years.  ENRON began to fail.  The McDonald's Monopoly game was exposed to be rigged in favor of the person who was in charge of the winning game pieces, and his close friends.  A trial was set for September 10th.  September 11th saw the destruction of the twin World Trade Center towers in Manhattan.  According to one source on Buzzfeed, the first newspaper headline that did not involve something to do with "9/11" was about the death of former Beatle George Harrison.  On www.famousbirthdays.com 48 celebrities were listed as being born in 2001.  Three of them were sports personalities, three were actors and seven were singers.  The remaining 35 were split among social media stars.  YouTube, Instagram, Twitch and Roblox stars account for 15 of them.  Twenty of them are known as TikTok Stars.

Division I

Brother Martin won its third of five state championships under Robert Dauterive.  The Crusaders scored 34.5 more points than runner-up Jesuit and 186.5 points more than 3rd-place Catholic.

Former Brother Martin, Holy Cross and Shaw coach Richie Dixon won his third state title for Brother Martin, as well as the Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award.  Current Jesuit coach Jonathan Orillion placed second for the Blue Jays.  Former Patrick Taylor coach Chuck Stall was a runner-up for the Crusaders.  Former Comeaux coach Adam Porche placed fourth for Lafayette.

Division II

Craig Ketelsen led St. Paul to a Division II championship, 61.5 points ahead of Parkway.  Current Southside coach Mike Stelly won his second state championship as well as the Outstanding Wrestler award. 

Parkway's Odysseus McGehee was a state runner-up but has to be mentioned as his is one of the kewlest names I have ever seen.

Division III

Guy Mistretta led Redemptorist to the first of three consecutive Division III titles.  Northlake Christian eighth-grader Caleb Levee made his first of five finals appearances, winning his last two in Division I. 

2016 - 10 Years Ago

Division I

Robert Dauterive won his eighth of what would be 10 state championships with the Brother Martin Crusaders.  Brother Martin's Steven Shields won his third of what would be four state titles.  Jesuit's Eli Larriviere did the best "WTF??!!" ever in the finals against highly-favored Javarious Jones of Airline.  Shaw coach Michael Lundin placed sixth, but would later place third, first and third again.  Official Stephen Rumney placed fourth after a runner-up finish in 2015.  St. Amant coach Clint Brownell placed second.

Division II

Teurlings Catholic, under the tutelage of Kent Masson and Brad Macha, won their fifth of what would be 12 state championships since 2011.  Holy Cross assistant coach Josh Ramirez won the second of three state titles for Rummel, prior to winning another state championship in Iowa in his senior year.  Brock Bonin won his fourth state championship, matching the accomplishment of his coach Brad Macha. 

Division III

Rod Cusachs led De la Salle to the first of two D3 titles.  The Cavaliers had not won a championship since they won three consecutively in 1969, 1970 and 1971.  Basile's Gavin Christ won his first of four championships for the Bearcats. 

Perfection

Wrestler	9th	10th	11th	12th
Carter Macha Teurlings Catholic Division II				?
Caleb Kirk Catholic Division I			?
Cooper Berzas St. Edmund Division III			?
Lilly Johnson Dutchtown Girls		?
Sy Stoute North Desoto Division II		?

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Questions?

Just ask Bastet!