Fini

The Trey Culotta was smaller than in previous years but the finals were no less intense.  Christian Brothers of Memphis, Tennessee, who defeated the Crusaders at the Blackhorse on December 5th, did so again by outscoring the Crusaders by 41 points, 287-246.  No other teams cracked the 200-point barrier.  East Ascension was third with 187 points, followed by Jesuit with 159.5 and Live Oak with 130.

Christian Brothers had seven individual champions: Wills Bronson, Dayne Dalrymple, Aidan Bowers, Theo Sewell, Gervacio Gonzales, Connor Billingsley and Gabriel Croom.  One other Frozen Wave wrestler placed second.  Brother Martin had four champions in Dylan Moser, Mason Elsensohn, Ethan Castex and Quinn Williams.  The remaining titles went to Joseph Rosevally of Jesuit, Rayden Ingram of Live Oak and Brad Mahoney of East Ascension. Croom won the Trey Culotta Outstanding Heavyweight award, but no Outstanding Wrestler was awarded.  The editor would vote for Live Oak's Rayden Ingram, who used a simple takedown and a simple guillotine to pin his opponent in 1:17.  This would not stand out so much if his opponent were not Jesuit's Luke Battaglia, who placed third in Division I last year. And yes, standing on the far right of the Christian Brothers team photo is Louisiana's own Jim Ballantyne, Jr., son of the famous Jim Ballantyne of New York.  Ballantyne moved to Tennessee and started coaching at Christian Brothers in May of 2020.

Special kudos go to the eight-place team of Chalmette High School.  Coach Chris McNamara brought only one wrestler, junior Anthony Perez, who went 2-2 in the Friday pool rounds but who placed third at 113 lbs. on Saturday.  Perez lost to eventual champion Mason Elsensohn of Brother Martin in the semifinals but rebounded to score and 8-0 major decision over Jesuit's Garrett Derbes to earn the third-place spot.

Final Team Scores

All Brackets in PDF

Back to Top