2012-13 Results and Media Coverage
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St. Paul’s senior Connor Campo knew he was a marked man all season. That comes with the territory of entering your final year of high school wrestling coming off on an undefeated junior season against in-state competition.
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Even with that pressure, Campo battled through and completed a second consecutive undefeated season, this time against in and out-of-state competition, as he defeated Rick LaCava of Rummel in the finals by pinfall in the Division I 132-pound finals on Saturday at the LHSAA wrestling state championships held at the Pontchartrain Center.
“To finish completely undefeated is a great feeling. This is awesome,” Campo said. “To finish with a pin was the best. I had already pinned him twice this year so I knew I had to get another. That was very satisfying.” Campo had a bye into the first round and pinned his way into the semifinals with two consecutive victories. He scored a 17-1 technical decision over Trey Duhon of Sulphur in the semifinals.
Craig Kettleson said that Campo is a very talented kid that he pushed this year to be more of a leader on the team despite Campo’s quiet nature.
“He doesn’t speak too much but he lets is actions do the speaking.,” Kettleson said. “He trained very hard during the offseason. He was the guy who ran first in the drills and lifted more weights than anybody. He would take kids off to the side and work with them at practice. When he gets on the mat, he expresses him extremely well.”
Kettleson also credited Campo’s incredible natural ability and sense of timing. Those are what helped Campo win the 126-pound championship as a junior even though he didn’t wrestle in the state tournament as a sophomore and didn’t place as a freshman. “Coach told me to work as hard as I can this year,” Campo said. “He told me just to do everything that I thought a leader should do that that’s what I did.” |
LONE COUGAR: Helen Cox finished with 29 points in Division II, good enough to finish 21st out of 29 teams. However, it becomes more impressive when you realize Cox only had one wrestler – Jorge Sanchez Jr. Sanchez was the top seed in the 132-pound weight class and finished off his state tournament with a 5-4 decision victory over Holy Cross’ Nick Bonck in the finals.
“It’s great to go against these wrestling powerhouses,” Sanchez said. “But I know that when I stepped in Coach Dean’s room, it was no different than any other practice in the city. I give my credit to him and my father who has always been with me. Coach Dean makes us go to Division I competition and that’s the only reason I won state today.”
“Coach Dean” is Dean Tessitore, the head coach at Thomas Jefferson. Since Sanchez was the only representative from Cox, Tessitore was able to be the Helen Cox head coach as well since the Cougars couldn’t field a team outside of Sanchez.
“I’ve been having him for the last three years and this last year he’s really come on strong,” Tessitore said. “He wrestles well and listens to everything we tell him. I can’t ask for anything more.”
Sanchez defeated Dante Anderson of Huntington by pin in the second round, Jeffery Lewis of Benton by 14-2 major decision in the quarterfinals and then Belle Chasse’s Jordan Mastrianni 3-2 in a match that went over eight and a half minutes.
What made the match even tougher for Sanchez is that he calls Mastrianni his best friend. “Standing across from him was crazy but I knew I had to beat him,” Sanchez said. “I just put in my mind that I had to beat him and I just did what needed to be done.”
MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLERS: Paul Klein of Brother Martin, Cody Hill of Live Oak, and Trenton Pelloquin of Basile were named the most oustanding wrestlers in Division I, II and III respectively.
Klein had two pins and two major decisions including a pin in 1:08 in his finals match. Hill had three pins, all under 1:45, before earning an 18-2 technical fall in his championship win. Pelloquin was an eight seed but earned four decision victories to win the 170-pound weight class.
MOMENT OF SILENCE: Prior to the event, there was a moment of silence held for Greg Lavergne, a volunteer coach at Carencro who passed away during a practice at the school on Feb. 7.
Lavergne has volunteered at the school for more than 10 years and also helped to start what eventually became the Cajun Wrestling Club. He was 48.
ATTENDANCE RECORD SET: After bringing in 6,219 fans on the first day, the wrestling state championships had 6,650 come in on day two for a total of 12,869 to set a new record for the event.
The old mark was set just last year as 12,837 fans attended the 2012 state championships.
