2012-13 Results and Media Coverage
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Baton Rouge — Call it "Deep South" hospitality or just top-notch competition.
Rummel, the New Orleans area's fourth-ranked team, fell to Clay (Fla.), 54-15, late Friday at the Baton Rouge River Center in a match for Pool G supremacy and the final spot in the Deep South Bayou Duals wrestling tournament's eight-team championship bracket. The Blue Devils joined Phoenix (N.Y.), Jefferson City (Mo.), MacArthur (Okla.) and Platte County (Mo.) as out-of-state party-crashers to Saturday's continued race for the title.
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| Jesuit's Zachary Creel, left, battles Collierville (Tenn.) wrestler Tres Ring, right, in a 285-pound class matchup Friday at the Deep South Bayou Duals at the Baton Rouge River Center. - (Jerit Roser, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) |
MacArthur (Okla.) wrestler Briar Adams,
top, attempts to pin David Kreiser of Arlington (Tenn.) in the
pair's 106-pound class matchup Friday at the Deep South Bayou Duals
at the Baton Rouge River Center. -
(Jerit Roser, NOLA.com |
The Times-Picayune)
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Jesuit barely escaped Roswell (Ga.), 34-30, in another late match to join Brother Martin and Catholic-Baton Rouge as Louisiana's remaining hopefuls. "For us to get this type of competition, we have to travel out of state," Brother Martin Coach Robert Dauterive said. "So the fact that (host) Brusly's bringing these great teams in is awesome for us. The MacArthur, Okla., team is excellent, and the Phoenix team from New York is very good, and there's a lot of other very tough teams."
Clay, Jefferson City, MacArthur, Phoenix and Platte County entered the competition as arguably the most highly touted out-of-state visitors and immediately fulfilled expectations.
MacArthur followed a first-match bye with four straight shutouts as the Highlanders swept through Pool E, which included two of Louisiana's defending champions in Division II Teurlings and Division III Brusly.
Jefferson City started off nearly as hot and finished 5-0 in Pool D by a combined 332-48 margin. "I feel like the team's wrestling really well," said 285-pound class senior John Carter, who pinned all three of his opponents Friday. "We have a lot of guys that are staying in good body position and are working hard. I feel that we're getting good warmups in, and that's helping us come in and be warmer than the other team."
Platte County, like Clay, may have drawn more attention for its finish. The Pirates claimed three pins in the 195-, 220- and 285-pound classes to upend St. Paul's, which, like Rummel, had been previously undefeated on the day.
Phoenix senior Nick "Tiggy Monster" Tighe recorded three pins in the 138-pound class and won his fourth match by forfeit and said he liked what he saw from his Firebirds as well.
All the road success left a slew of Louisianans disappointed. Rummel's Matt Calcote admitted a desire earlier in the afternoon to represent the home state well. "Whenever you're wrestling someone from out of state, you wanna beat 'em even worse and show 'em that Louisiana wrestling's where it's at," he said.
Brother Martin, Catholic and Jesuit will attempt to protect the home turf Saturday.
The 36 teams to fall short of the championship bracket, arguably led by Rummel and 2011 Deep South Bayou champion Thompson (Ala.) will also continue competition Saturday for other distinctions.
Brusly's wrestlers talked among themselves for a few minutes after losing their final match to Arlington (Tenn.). "We just talked about how tomorrow we have to wrestle hard and as a team and do what we've gotta do and win," Kobe Mancuso said. "I think it's gonna help us down the road because if you wrestle better competition, you're gonna get better, so I think we're gonna be good in the long run."
Phoenix Coach Gene Mills, a legendary Olympic and Hall of Fame wrestler, still had plenty praise for the host state's programs regardless of the out-of-state success. "(Louisiana programs) have come so far in the last 10 years — it's kinda crazy," Mills said. "They've got great programs. Brother Martin could possibly be one of the top 10 schools in the country right now. We're certainly not that. Hopefully we can go with 'em and make a good run at it."
Dauterive would love to live up to that compliment, particularly after falling just short in last year's semifinals to eventual champion Thompson. "For (Mills) to say that's really nice of him," Dauterive said. "We know we're not in the top 10 in the country. Once upon a time we finished 25th in the country back in '01. I don't think we're at that caliber yet, but we're working hard toward that. Hopefully one day we'll be there, but I appreciate him saying that. "Our goal is to win this tournament. We've got some very tough teams to wrestle against tomorrow, but we fell just short last year by a last-second pin, so that's our goal is to win this tournament, and we'll see what we can do tomorrow."
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Jerit Roser can be reached at jroser@nola.com or 504.826.3405. Follow him at twitter.com/JeritRoser.