2011-12 Season Newspaper Articles
Local teams build up momentum on 1st day
BY PIERCE HUFF
Special to The Advocate
February 12, 2012
KENNER —Live Oak sophomore Cody Hill said he didn’t have high expectations entering the Louisiana High School Athletic Association/State Farm State Wrestling Tournament in Division II. All Hill wanted to do was place in the top six, and it didn’t happen as he finished the tournament with a 2-2 record.
But this year, after a season and offseason of hard work training and building strength, Hill has come back recharged and re-motivated.
The top seed at 120 pounds, Hill continued his season of redemption by advancing to the semifinals and powering Live Oak into contention for the Division II state title at the Pontchartrain Center.
It was a strong day for Baton Rouge area teams, Catholic, Live Oak and Brusly, which were in the top three in team scoring in Division I, Division II and Division III, respectively. The three teams failed to win a state championship last year, but they each won titles in their different respective weight classes in 2010.
Catholic was in third place with 154 points behind Brother Martin (163.5) and Jesuit (158.5) in Division I. Live Oak was in third place with 134 points behind Teurlings Catholic (140) and Holy Cross (142.5) in Division II. St. Michael the Archangel was fourth in Division II with 121 points. Brusly leads Division III with 118.5 points followed by John Curtis (112) and Thomas Jefferson (109).
The first session starts at 9.a.m. today and the finals are set for 6 p.m.
The first day of the tournament had an attendance of 6,227, which was an increase of 882 over the attendance on the first day of the tournament in Shreveport last year.
Hill (58-2), who had a first-round bye, opened the tournament by pinning Teurlings Catholic’s Mark Mouton in 53 seconds in the second round. Hill finished the day when he pinned Benton’s Tre’ Pugh, the eighth-seed, in 34 seconds on a cradle move.
“I expected to pin (Pugh) as soon as possible,” Hill said.
Some of the other top performers for Live Oak were second seeded Dean Roberts (113) and Tyler Hill (145), who advanced to the semifinals.
Live Oak was the only Baton Rouge area team in first place going into the quarterfinals when it led with 82 points followed by Holy Cross (71.5) and Teurlings Catholic (70) in Division II. Baton Rouge Catholic was in third place in Division I. Brusly was in seventh place in Division III.
Catholic put itself in contention to win its third state title in five years.
“I think it’s going to be a four-team race with us, Brother Martin, Jesuit and Rummel,” Catholic coach Tommy Prochaska said.
“It’s going to come down to who does best in the consolation bracket.”
Prochaska also said that everything went as planned for his team.
“We didn’t have any upset victories, but we did have one seeded wrestler who was upset,” he said.
Some of the top performers for the Bears who advanced to the semifinals were top seeds Zack Louis (132), Michael Bourgoyne (138), Brandon Luckett (152) and Kyle Hidalgo (285) and second-seeded Ryan Toups (145).
Brusly was led by top-seeded Trevor Schermer, who had a first-round bye, and won his only match of the day with a technical fall, 21-4 victory against Doyline’s Cole Pannell, the No. 8 seed. But Schermer (40-6), who won the state title at 112 pounds last year, wasn’t satisfied with his performance.
“I have to pick it up (in the later rounds),” he said. “I wrestled sloppy, because I didn’t pin him.”
Other strong performers for Brusly were top seeds Baret Sanchez (113), Austin Schermer (132) and Jacob Haydel (285), who advanced to the semifinals.
“We’re just trying to bring (the state championship) back to Brusly,” Schermer said. “Our motto this season has been to ‘bring it back’.”
After a year of being shut out from winning a state championship, that also could be the motto for the rest of the Baton Rouge area teams in the state wrestling tournament.