2012-13 Results and Media Coverage
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Holy Cross' Alex Nicosia celebrates winning his third consecutive
state championship. The Tigers won their 27th overall team
championship. - (Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
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Holy Cross wrestlers pose with the state championship trophy -
(Patrick Greenfield, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
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When Holy Cross built its new campus, a trophy case was placed in the middle of the Student Center with enough room to house the Brother Melchior trophy, which stays with the state champion in each division for the following year. Prior to the state championship meet, all three trophies are brought back to Holy Cross where they undergo a cleaning before being handed out to the new champions.
The trophy is named for Brother Melchior Powoly, a former brother at Holy Cross who helped bring wrestling to Louisiana. The trophy case can be seen from the Tigers’ wrestling room and sat empty for the last year as Holy Cross finished in second place last year to Teurlings Catholic. However this upcoming year, it will be used for its intended purpose.
Holy Cross pulled away from Teurlings Catholic in the semifinal round as the Tigers earned the Division II team championship, and the school’s 27th overall at the LHSAA wrestling state championships on Saturday night at the Pontchartrain Center. The Tigers finished with 280 points to 238.5 for the Rebels despite only having one state champion.
Senior Alex Nicosia, won the state championship at 120 pounds for his third consecutive individual title, said that the Holy Cross coaches constantly used the empty case as motivation throughout the season. “It’s kind of a dream come true for me as a captain,” Nicosia said. “My teammates were hoping this trophy was coming home. It’s important to the school for us to have the trophy. We worked all year for this, so it’s nice to see that work paying off.”
The Tigers were able to run away with the team championship despite losing 113-pound top-seed Dylan Soileau to an illness on Thursday night. Coaches made the decision to pull him out of the competition.
However, Tigers Coach Eric DesOrmeaux said that became a rallying point for the remaining wrestlers throughout the tournament. “This is a tight group,” DesOrmeaux said. “When Dylan got sick, these guys knew they were going to pick up the pace. They knew what they were capable off long before these guys walked into this building.”
It was the third state championship for DesOrmeaux as the Tigers took the Division III championship in 2011 and the Division II title in 2009.
Prior to the semifinals, both DesOrmeaux and Teurlings Coach Kent Masson said that the semifinals would be the round that could decide the tournament and they ended up being correct.
Holy Cross placed nine of 11 wrestlers into the finals while the Rebels placed just four of eight. The Tigers came up with big victories time-and-time again placing with four wrestlers making the finals while wrestling “above” their seeds as four No. 3 seeds made it into the finals. Because of that, Holy Cross had the state championship all but locked up heading into the final matches.
Senior Austin Doyle was one of those No. 3 seeds and he said the end result – the state championship – was worth the work that the team put in throughout the season. “We were already giving up the 113-pound weight class so we knew it was going to be a dog fight,” Doyle said. “Teurlings is a fantastic team. We knew they were going to give their best effort. We just knew that we were going to have to give better than our best effort if we were going to take Melchior home.”
Doyle also lauded the efforts of unseeded wrestlers David Olivier (145) and Nicholas Nugent (170) who combined to score 19 points. Olivier finished in sixth place in his weight class. “My main goal was to help the team out,” Olivier said. “I was happy with what I gave to our kids. We fought hard. Because we fought hard throughout the whole tournament, we didn’t need to win every one of our finals.”
Teurlings’ Brock Bonin (106) and Nick Schneider (182) were the Rebels only individual champions. “It was pretty good to come in first,” Bonin said. “I wanted the team to win but being able to come in first was pretty good too.”
With Holy Cross moving to Division I next season, and the Rebels returning 11 of their 14 varsity starters for next year, the future is bright for Teurlings Catholic, who has finished in the top three the last seven years.
“We have a good solid nucleus to begin with,” Masson said. “We lose three senior starters and one more guy who’s a great guy in the room. The core of this group is coming back and I think we’ll be in good shape for the next few years. We’re in a really good shape overall as a program.”
