2012-13 Results and Media Coverage
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| Catholic's Brandon Luckett drops Walker's Brady Davis on his way to a quick second-round pin Friday. - (Jerit Roser, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) | Brandon Luckett, Catholic-Baton Rouge |
Brandon Cowell, Dutchtown
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Eleven may be shaping up as Catholic-Baton Rouge's lucky number at this weekend's Baton Rouge City Championship.
The host Bears send a tournament-high 11 wrestlers to Saturday morning's semifinals with a 25-point lead on their nearest competition after Friday's opening rounds. And Coach Tommy Prochaska's team looks well on its way to an 11th consecutive city crown with 124.0 points thus far, followed by Live Oak at 99.0, Dutchtown at 95.0, Brusly at 79.0 and East Ascension at 66.0 to round out the top five.
"I thought we did OK," Prochaska said. "We had some ups and downs there, but overall, not a bad job. We've gotta do a better job of getting some bonus points (Saturday) to be able to try to build a lead."
Brandon Luckett was one of the 11 Bears to advance thanks to a 42-second pin of Walker's Brady Davis after enjoying a first-round bye. Catholic's senior 162-pounder said he and his teammates are focused on continuing their dominant streak. "It's huge for us to keep that tradition of winning going, especially in our region," Luckett said. "And now the meet is going to be wherever last year's winning team is every time. It's gonna be at their home gym, so it would be awesome for us to keep it here. And it's a statement we'd like to make before state."
Luckett has a streak of his own to protect, too. Victories Saturday against Dunham's Clayton Kavanaugh and the winner of Brusly's Blayze Olano and Dutchtown's Mason Schexnaydre would secure his third consecutive individual city title. "It's really important to me to win this tournament," Luckett said. "This one and state are the two most important to me, above all of the other tournaments, and my brother (John Paul) won it three times — his sophomore, junior and senior year — and I won it my sophomore and junior year."
Teammate Caleb Sutton (197-pound) and Live Oak's Cody Hill (128-pound) both also remain alive in their bids to defend their own city championships.
Ascension Parish provided the only teams that could stop Catholic on Friday as 108-pound top seed Alex Betteridge of East Ascension pinned Jonathon Bradley and a pair of Dutchtown wrestlers eliminated Sidney Rodriguez and Everett Knox in the 140- and 287-pound quarterfinals, respectively.
Sophomore Brandon Cowell took care of Rodriguez, then headed back to the corner and high-fived his father. "It feels great," Cowell said. "The guy was one of the strongest guys I've ever wrestled and definitely one of the more skilled guys I've ever wrestled. In the first round, he had me and all and was able to take me down a couple of times, but I was able to scramble out to a reversal and able to stay on top of him … Definitely one of the more technical and better guys I've wrestled all season. To beat a Catholic guy in their own gym at their own school is definitely one of the better feelings, especially at the city tournament, the last tournament there's gonna be until state."
Blake Pacheco outlasted Knox, 2-1, and teammates Brandon Thongsavanh quickly pinned Central's Thomas Garcia in a 222-pound matchup just a few minutes later to complete the Griffin's strong finish to the day.
"It went well," Coach Mike Pernat said. "We got nine guys to the semifinals, and that's a big deal with us. We keep it going … We'll need a little help from a couple other teams to knock some guys out, but I'm proud of the way the guys wrestled after the way we wrestled at the Louisiana Classic."
Hill led a Live Oak effort that matched that total and managed the day's second-most points behind Catholic's. Coach Chris Collier was pleased with the performance, but knows his team has its hands full Saturday if it hopes to catch the Bears. "They're the ones we always wanna beat," Collier said. "We put a lot of pride and emphasis on the city tournament. Everybody comes out, and everybody's gunning for each other, so if we could get a chance to knock off Tommy and Catholic, that'd be awesome, but they're the proven champions the last 10 years, and we've still got a long way to go to try and catch 'em."