Brother Martin leads Louisiana Classic after relatively surprise-free first day

Jerit Roser, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, January 18, 2013 11:15 p.m.

Jesuit's Dominic Carmello attempts to keep control of Rummel's Tyler Fontana during their first-round 222-pound matchup Friday at the Louisiana Classic. - (Jerit Roser, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Sam Taulli looked around Friday night and called the organized chaos around him "The Thunderdome." "A thousand men enter. One man leaves," the North Vermilion Coach joked.

Coaches, wrestlers, families and fans darted around the 2013 Louisiana Classic's six mats at Ketcham Fitness Center trying to follow the fast-paced action.

Jesuit's Dominic Carmello said the two-day event could arguably carry more significance than the fast-approaching state meet. "It's like the overall state — whoever is THE best out of all the divisions," the sophomore said. "State means a lot, but this is probably a little bit more, I think, in my mind."

The first evening of the two-day event trimmed the championship bracket field from 417 wrestlers to 56 — four semifinalists from each of the 14 weight classes.

"It's a great experience," Holy Cross Coach Eric DesOrmeaux said. "Every match that we're coming out in, the kids have had to wrestle (the full) six minutes to win. There's no easy matches today … What we're looking to do is push as many kids through to the second day as possible. The kids are wrestling hard."

Saturday will begin at 9 a.m. with consolation matchups. Semifinals begin at 10:30 a.m., leading up to the 4 p.m. finals, with the usual suspects currently leading the way.

Brother Martin enters Saturday with a tournament-best 156.0 points, followed by Jesuit's 120.5 and Catholic's 120.0. Holy Cross (83.5), St. Paul's (81.0) and Rummel (71.0) fill spots No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6, respectively.

"My team's doing what they're supposed to do," Brother Martin Coach Robert Dauterive said. "We had five byes in the first round, so that's 10 bonus points we miss out on, so we know we have to make up those bonus points, but three of those kids have come back and won, so at least they got half the points back."

Top 287-pound seed Ross Brister as well as Jordan Giroir and Josh Tapia, the No. 3 seeds in the 162-pound and 222-pound classes, all reached the semifinals following first-round byes to lead the Crusaders' nine-wrestler contingent, the largest of any school. Paul Klein, Austin Meyn, Dominic Casadaban, Devin Leblanc, Daniel Albrecht and Kyle Delaune join that trio in their respective individual title hunts.

"I know their 106-pounder lost, but the rest of 'em are wrestling really tough, which is what I expect out of their team, a championship team," Catholic-Baton Rouge Coach Tommy Prochaska said.

Twelve of 14 top seeds advanced, as did 12 of the 14 No. 2 seeds.

Denham Springs' Christophe Marson, Jesuit's Mitch Capella, Live Oak's Cody Hill, St. Paul's Connor Campo, Comeaux's Tyrek Malveaux, Catholic's Brandon Luckett and Jesuit's Manny Armour joined Brother Martin's Brister, Delaune, Albrecht, Casadaban and Klein as No. 1 seeds to reach the semifinals.

Collin Laird

North Vermilion 147-pounder Collin Laird provided the tournament's first — and one of its largest — surprises by knocking off top seed Cody Thomas of Parkway.

"I came into the tournament with a really bad seed — I don't know what happened," Laird said. "It wasn't really a big deal. I don't think he'd wrestled a lot of competition either, so I don't think he got a right seed either."

Like Laird, Destrehan's Rae Juan Marbley beat 222-pound No. 1 Brennan McKnight of Rayne in the second round en route to the semifinals.

Taulli said Laird likely had his eyes a little more fixed on upsetting the No. 2 seed, Redemptorist's Grant Godso, if anything after falling short at Brusly last weekend.

Laird couldn't help but smile at the idea.

"I lost last weekend to him, 5 to 6, so it'd be ideal to meet with him in the finals and get him back," Laird said.

The Louisiana Classic was still well worth the trip for Thomas and his Panther teammates, according to their coach.

"You've got guys that we don't ever get to face — top competition that we don't get up in north Louisiana," Parkway Coach Emmett Beggs said. "We get to wrestle D-I, D-II and D-III guys, and one of my guys (Jason Pitts) already wrestled a Brother Martin No. 1 seed (Klein) and did fairly well, so it's going a long way for their confidence if they do well in their matches."