2013-14 Results and Media Coverage
By
on January 17, 2014 9:50 p.m.
Several teams took advantage of defending champion Brother Martin's absence from the Louisiana Classic as the two-day, statewide wrestling tournament began.
| Jesuit's Dominic Carmello | Airline's Christian Walden | Live Oak's Cody Hill |
And many of the teams that did so most effectively were among those with which the Crusaders are most familiar.
|
Jesuit led a trio of New Orleans area Catholic schools atop the standings at day's end with 140 points, followed by Holy Cross in second with 111 and Rummel and Catholic-Baton Rouge tied for third with 102.
"I thought our guys wrestled really well today," Jesuit Coach Spencer Harris said. "I thought they wrestled really hard. As far as the lead, tomorrow is the big round. The semifinal round is where you score a lot of points, so you like to tell your guys you expect to win these first three rounds and that tomorrow is where you've really got to focus and have the intensity and making sure you're getting those big points going from semifinals to finals." Brody Martin (106), Nicholas Charles (115), Ben D'Antonio (122), Peyton Markey (128), Jacob Rovira (134), Ashton Queyrouze (154), Gaston Eymard (162), Jake Eccles (172), Guy Patron Jr. (184) and Dominic Carmello (287) each advanced in their respective weight classes' semifinals, which will begin Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
Carmello happily became the last to join that group with a 58-second pin of Travis Gardner of Holy Cross.
"We've had a bunch of people that weren't able to wrestle today, and we came back with Varsity B's, and they did much better than we thought they would do, so I'm real happy with us today," Carmello said. "I liked that match. It was a good match. Last time I wrestled him, I dominated him, but it wasn't a first-round, and I liked how I was able to get him in the first round (Friday)."
The 10 Blue Jays remaining in individual championship contention is easily more than other team, with Catholic and Holy Cross each having five, followed by Rummel's and Brusly's four and Fontainebleau's three.
"Jesuit can and had some substitutions, so I was kind of shocked actually that they would be leading," Catholic Coach Tommy Prochaska said. "I thought Holy Cross would be out ahead of everybody right now. It shapes up for a good tournament tomorrow, for sure. The semifinals at 10:30, they're gonna be a war, and it'll be neat to see what seed battles back to get third because some kids might just get mentally crushed and shut it down, but that third place is big going into the state tournament."
Harris was as plenty surprised by some of the wrestlers who fell shy of the semifinals as he with the standouts who reached the penultimate round.
"I was really happy with our (140) today, Griffin Mason," the coach said. "He stepped up. He's subbing in this week for one of other starters, and he won his first two matches and lost in the quarters, but he's in the tournament. He's in the consolations, and he's doing a really good job, so we're real happy with him."
Christopher Zea (108), George Benoit (134), Brice Duhe (172), Daniel Relayson (197) and Michael Yeatman (222) will represent Holy Cross in the semifinals.
Catholic's semifinalists are Mitch Napoli (115), Brennan Taylor (140), James Claitor (147), Matthew Mire (154) and Matthew Moreaux (172).
Devyn Breaud (115), Tyler Mire (122), Rick LaCava (147) and Ryan Hanley (287) will compete in the semifinals for Rummel. |
Brusly, currently No. 5 in the tournament standings with 95 points, has easily been the top-performing smaller school with Jesuit, Holy Cross, Rummel and Catholic all wrestling in Division I.
"We had some disappointing losses that kinda hurt us early, but we've got eight still left in it and four in the semis," Brusly Coach Jimmy Bible said. "They've just got to wrestle up tomorrow … We were in some tough matches and came out on the short end of the stick, but it is what it is now, and we've just got to come out and be ready for tomorrow."
Kendon Lee (115), Wyatt LeJeune (128), Noah Landry (134) and Trevor Schermer (140) will wrestle for the Panthers in the semifinals.
Fontainebleau's semifinalists are Ethan Eisenhardt, Daniel Priola (197) and Christian Ponson (287)
East Ascension's Alex Betteridge and Hahnville's Nicholas Lirette
complete the 108-pound semifinal bracket, and Ocean Springs' Tristan Ruppert and
Teurlings Catholic's Brock Bonin do so in the 122-pound class.
Airline's Christian Walden and Live Oak's Cody Hill are the top seeds in 128.
"It's been an experience, man," Walden said. "I'm a freshman. I've been to big tournaments, but this is my biggest one in Louisiana, so it's a big experience … I'm happy to be a part of it, man. There's not much I can say about it really."
Sulphur's Brennan Taylor completes the 134-point bracket, and St. Amant's Joshua Averett and Live Oak's Seth Bosarge remain alive for the 140-pound title.
Parkway's Zac Funderburk (147) Shaw's Bryce Ballas (147), Sulphur's Trey Duhon (154) and John Ehret's Jack Fontenot (154) are semifinalists in their respective classes.
De La Salle's Alex Martin, Zachary's Daniel Rittell and St. Paul's Tanner Leblanc will challenge Eymard in 162.
Shaw's Kody Woodson (172), Covington's Brendan Allen (184), Fisher's Matt Adams (184), Hahnville's Kendrick Jones (197), C.E. Byrd's Quin Gilliam (222), Lafayette's Rodrigo Diaz (222), Centreville Academy's Brian Arnett (222) and East Ascension's Conor Karwath (287) complete the semifinal fields.
