Malveaux grabs third state title

Feb 17, 2013

Sometimes when everyone expects something to happen, it makes achieving that goal a little bit tougher.

That's kind of the situation that Comeaux High's Tyrek Malveaux found himself in heading into this year's Division I State Wrestling Tournament at the Ponchartrain Center in Kenner.

With two state titles under his belt, Malveaux was in position to become just the third Comeaux High wrestler in school history to win three state titles.

It wasn't exactly a walk in the park, but Malveaux delivered a 6-2 win over Devin LeBlanc of Brother Martin to end his high school career as a three-time state champion .

"I felt a little pressure, but I tried not to let it bother me," Malveaux said. "It felt good to not let everybody down who was rooting for me to do it."

While Malveaux was certainly the most celebrated local athlete at this year's state tournament, the group that stole the headlines locally was the North Vermilion Patriots at the Division III State Tournament.

With Brusly running away with the state title as expected, the race was for second place and the Patriots edged out John Curtis 177 to 174.5 for the state runner-up spot.

"It was a grind," NVHS first-year head coach Sam Taulli said. "Really, it came down to the consolation guys coming through for us. We had an eighth grader in Brennen Landry place fifth and a ninth grader Gavin Becker take third. All those guys fighting tooth and nail to the next round was huge. To me, that's just as important as the two first-place winners."

Of course, in no way was Taulli diminishing the importance of his two state champions in Austin Scalisi at 126 and Bruce Vincent at 160.

"We had a goal at the beginning of season to finish top two in the state," Scalisi said. "Everybody on the team fought hard. We gave it everything we had for every pin and for every point. That's what made the difference."

Scalisi won with drama in his 7-6 win over Bossier's Xavier Chism. Up 7-3 late, Scalisi watched as Chism followed an escape with a takedown to put the Patriots' senior in jeopardy.

"I just held on," Scalisi said.

"Being a senior, I knew I only had one shot left."

For Vincent, it was equally as gratifying, beating G'Corey Fullilove of John Curtis 4-2 in the finals.

"He was a big football player from John Curtis and a great athlete," Vincent said. "I knew he thought that he was going to beat me.

"I knew he was going to try to wrestle me on his feet. I got a takedown in the second round. After that, I knew I had a good chance."

Taulli admitted that beating the likes of Curtis and Evangel to finish second was extra special.

"Definitely," he said. "To have two small public schools at the top and having John Curtis and Evangel charging point for point from behind made it feel extra special."

While second place felt great to the Patriots, the feeling wasn't as special for the two-time Division II champion Teurlings Catholic Rebels, who settled for a runner-up finish to Holy Cross on Saturday.

"They just got hot in the semifinals," TC coach Kent Masson said. "They won 9 of 11 semifinal matches. They probably won a few that they shouldn't have and we lost a few that we should have won. That was the difference."

Despite the overall disappointment, two Rebels took home individual state champions. Showing where the program is and its bright future, one was a senior in Nick Schneider and the other is still a freshman in Brock Bonin.

For Schneider it was his second state title. "I think it's the team behind me and the coaches and the fans that support us that gives me a lot of confidence," said Schneider, who beat Porter Dazet of Holy Cross 3-2.

"I was really looking forward to State this year, because I felt like the competition was going to be better. I wrestled him earlier and pinned him in the second round. He wrestled me better tonight."

For Bonin, it was following in his family's footsteps with older brother, Trey, winning two state titles. Young Brock now already has one with a dominating 11-2 win over Live Oak's Colt Olinde in the finals.

"I usually kind of start off slow and feel my opponent out and then go from there," Bonin said. "That's kind of what I did in the finals. He was pretty quick, but I was able to work a lot of cradles on him."

While no once since Comeaux's David Bonin has been as impressive as Malveaux's finish to his wrestling career, it'll be hard to find an area wrestler who finished as strongly within a single season than Northside's Daniel Kincade.

After getting off to a slow start this season, Kincade won Louisiana Classics as a huge longshot and then followed that up with a win at Ken Cole and now he's a Division II state champion at 220.

"I really wanted to finish up strong," Kincade said. "I didn't want to go out looking like a punk.

"I got off to a slow start this year. I was in football shape at the time and transitioning over to wrestling was very hard for me. I lost a couple of matches that woke me up."

And once that happened, there was no stopping Kincade.

"It feels good to let everybody know what I was capable of," he said. "I had to step up and do a lot of extra work."

Northside teammate Orlando Calhoun had his own obstacles to overcomes to win his second state title. Struggling to breath Saturday due to an infection, he had to utilize a breathing machine and then had to convince some to avoid a hospital visit and stay around the Ponchartain Center to defend his title.

"I didn't want a wrestler who I felt I was better than to win a state championship because of a forfeit in the finals," said Calhoun, who quickly showed that his hunch was correct by pinning Logan Thompson of Belle Chasse in 3:16. "I just had to defend my title."

Calhoun said the real gratifying match for him Saturday was beating Daniel Relayson of Holy Cross in the semifinals. The two had battled into triple overtime in a regular season match at Teurlings and Relayson was the fourth seed at State, squaring them up in the semifinals instead of the finals.