Fini

Nobody should expect anything to be certain after a Louisiana Classic (LACL).  Some teams will protect seeding achievements that can be gained at the event, while others will use the Ken Cole Memorial to improve their state tournament seeding.  Some throw earned seeding aside in an effort to win a local event like the Greater Baton Rouge Championships or the Lafayette Metro.  Some teams squeeze members into small events at lower weights to qualify them to wrestle at a lower weight at the state tournament.  Winning a LACL team championship is great, but it does not go hand-in-hand with a state championship. Ask the 2016-17 Brother Martin Crusaders, who won their third-consecutive LACL in 2017 yet finished third in Division I behind Holy Cross and Jesuit.

This year's event would be no different.  Actually, it probably could not if it tried.  A lot of new faces, if teams had them available, replaced season-long starters due to COVID complications.

COVID did not prevent the wrestlers from putting on a great show.  There were four repeat champions, two Division II champions, one Division III champion and an exceptional example of how team tournaments are won in the consolation rounds.   

Brother Martin had no individual champions but won the event by 19.5 points over St. Paul, the preseason pick to win Division I.  Earning the runner-up trophy was more competitive than expected.  St. Paul won it with 199 points, two points more than Holy Cross' 197, and they were followed by East Ascension with 195.  The Spartans were the highest placing public school since Airline finished fourth in 2017.  But Airline finished 120 points behind the winners.  The 2020-21 Spartans trailed by only 23.5 points.  The Division II contenders were next with Teurlings Catholic nipping North Desoto 185.5 to 180.5 to place 5th.  Hannan, who placed 20th with 53.5 points, led the Division III schools followed by Brusly with 48.5 in 22nd-place.  The Crusaders scored 218.5 points.   to 199 for the Wolves.  A little surprisingly, Holy Cross was third with 197 points

Brother Martin Team champion for the seventh consecutive year	Seniors Ethan Castex and Eli Hope accept the championship team trophy for the Crusaders	Senior Sean Cripple accepts the runner-up team trophy for the Wolves.	Individual 2021 Louisiana Classic Champions

The Crusaders won the event because nine of their wrestlers placed in the top six, with six placing fourth or better.  Eight St. Paul wrestlers placed in the top six and five of those were in the top four.  They also only entered 13 wrestlers.  Holy Cross only entered 13 wrestlers also, but only six placed in the top six and four in the top four.

Come the state championships the Crusaders should have the services of undefeated Dylan Moser at 106 lbs.  Moser will likely be the Crusaders' sole first-seed.  They should also have Ty Duncan at 138 lbs., or maybe at 132 lbs., and Chase Scott will have the other spot.  They will have second seeds at 113, 126, 145 and 160.  So they will definitely be stronger at the Raising Cane's River Center. 

St. Paul will also, as they should have the services of Josh Sabadie at 195 lbs., who could be a third seed behind Corey Hyatt and Nawab Singh. 

Holy Cross may have been the biggest winner at this event, though.  The Tigers placed four in the top-four spots, all of whom were in the finals, and all of whom should be guaranteed #1 seeds in four weight classes in a row: Dylan Lauriano (2nd @ 120 lbs.), Charles Sauerwin, III (1st @ 126 lbs.), Evan Frost (1st @ 132 lbs.) and Jacob Frost (1st @ 138 lbs.).  It is possible they will also have a #2 seed at 220 lbs. in Cole Baiamonte.  At 113 lbs., Brandon Gainey should be a third or fourth seed.  If those seeds hold and they can get some help in the wrestle-backs by those not expected to make the finals, the Tigers are a contender once again for the Division I team trophy.

Individual Winners 

106 Pounds	113 Pounds	120 Pounds	126 Pounds	132 Pounds	138 Pounds	145 Pounds
Landon Reaux Southside	Ernie Perry, III Airline	Glenn Price Shaw (he smiles!)	Charles Sauerwin, III Holy Cross	Evan Frost Holy Cross	Jacob Frost Holy Cross	Peter Kelly Catholic
152 Pounds	160 Pounds	170 Pounds	182 Pounds	195 Pounds	220 Pounds	285 Pounds
Andrew Trahan Brusly	Peyton Ward St, Paul	Brad Mahoney East Ascension	Jude Monaco Shaw	Corey Hyatt Sulphur	Dennis Daugherty Jesuit	Ashton Freeman Zachary

The Frost twins each earned their third LACL titles, and have another year to go.  Perry and Kelly won their second titles.  Kelly is a senior, but Perry has shots at two more championships and the Frost twins a shot at four-peats..

Dale Ketelsen Sportsmanship Award

The team from Sulphur High School won the Dale Ketelsen Sportsmanship Award, as well as the LWN editor's Facebook "Likes" award.

Representing the Golden Tornado are, standing (left-to right) Doc Miller, Caleb Harris, Braden Laidlaw, Coach Jean-Paul Duhon, Daniel Burton, Corey Hyatt, Landon Royer (competes for Erath), Kyle Thibodeaux, Trent Trouth, Jordan Farias; kneeling: Hugo Perez.

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Outstanding Wrestler

This marked Frost's 3rd consecutive Louisiana Classic championship and his second consecutive Outstanding Wrestler award.  The Holy Cross junior faced Rummel senior Jacob Ramirez, the defending Division II 138 lbs. state champion and the LWN's pick as the best 138 lbs. wrestler of the 2019-20 season, in the finals.  This season Ramirez wrestled at 152 lbs. for most of November and December.  He did jump up to 160 lbs. for a chance to compete against defending Division I state champion Peyton Ward of St. Paul.  Ramirez looks for challenges.  Ward won 11-8, and neither the loss for Ramirez nor the fact that he went up a weight class takes anything away from either wrestler.  In January Ramirez competed at 145 lbs. - until the Louisiana Classic.  Ramirez was able and chose to compete at 138 lbs., because that is where Holy Cross' Jacob Frost was, and Ramirez  does not avoid anyone he can reach, weight-wise.  Frost, however, is not like any others Louisiana has seen before (except, perhaps, a weight class before when his brother Ethan is there) - which explains why he was a Division I runner-up as an eighth-grader and will look for his third consecutive Division I state championship in February.  It is doubtful, however, than anyone foresaw what the match would be like.  The first takedown, by Frost, was scored after 1:13 had elapsed.  In the next 47 seconds Frost added a three-point and a two-point nearfall.  Choosing to start on bottom for the beginning of the second period, Frost escaped and then it was another 1:15 before he scored another takedown.  Then he tacked-on another three-point nearfall for a 13-0 lead after four minutes.  Ramirez had not escaped from Frost in the first two rounds and a throw was probably his last chance, so he opted to start the third round standing.  Frost needed only 13 seconds to score a takedown and a very impressive technical fall. Take nothing away from Ramirez, though, who might opt to complete the season at 145.  If Spencer Lee were competing at 145 lbs. at the Louisiana Classic, that is likely the weight where Ramirez would have been.

Putting an end to speculation that must exist somewhere, Teurlings Catholic coach Brad Macha asked that this photograph be taken to prove that between the looks severe disapproval and near apoplexy, he does, when properly motivated, smile.

The LHSAA, however, weighed those and other options and announced on January 27th, in a Zoom meeting with significant representatives of the press and me, that the remainder of the regular season would be canceled, but that the state championships would still be held.

Nobody wants to know (that's not true, we all do, deep-down) who contracted the virus from the tournament and what went awry to allow that to happen.  There is one unmitigated fact, though, which this staff writer and photo editor can say without hesitation.  If COVID protocols were in effect they were certainly not enforced.

The LACL was rife with "mouth breathers" who were supposed to be wearing masks - over their mouths, not just around their necks.  After the event I was tempted not to go to any other events until the state tournament, and that decision was made easy by those who later said that if someone was "scared" of COVID they should simply stay home and wear a mask in a closet.  Just as a fan of wrestling I should stay home because someone wants to exercise their right not to wear a mask indoors, despite a gubernatorial mandate that they do and undeniable evidence that masks work, and denial does not.  I fully understand that the kids are very much less likely to contract the virus or succumb to symptoms if they do.  But the kids do not stop respiring, and respiring heavily, when they walk off of a mat and through a four-deep line of "mouth breathers."  I just think $2,000 spent on security guards as "mask police" with eviction power would have made the event safer.  Trying to place blame on anyone, however, is a waste of time at this point.

The LHSAA made the right call.  This time they got their priorities right (which the average reader will know is hard for me to write).  Do we really want to expose our kids to more risk than is necessary from someone who may be infected but does not know it and does not wear a mask?  COVID does not just go away when a tournament is over.  It spreads to others who have nothing to do with wrestling.  From what I saw all season, we were lucky it took only this long for something to happen.  Thankfully I could find no current high school athletes who died from COVID this year.  Do we want to be the first?  I did find some coaches, though.

When new transportation safety measures were enacted after September 11th, 2001, some people griped initially, but all most people needed to understand why they had to spend over an hour to go through the new airport rules was a photograph of smoke coming out of the Twin Towers.  As of February 11th, 2021 there have been 475,000 deaths linked to 27.4 million COVID cases in the United State alone.  The 475,000 people in elementary school, wedding and holiday dinner photographs are not readily available to the public.  Odd but these days too true, one or one hundred thousand photographs of people who have died from COVID are not as visually stimulating as a 9/11 photograph which shows no faces at all. 

Robin Fambrough of the Advocate said it best in her article about the Zoom meeting of July 27th.  "Cases are people."

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Final Team Scores

All Brackets in PDF

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