2013-14 Results and Media Coverage
By
on February 07, 2014 11:45 p.m.
By not fault of its own, Brusly theoretically trailed
Catholic-Baton Rouge by 14 points at the City Championship Wrestling Tournament
before the wrestlers ever even hit the mat.
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The Panthers mathematically couldn’t gain as many points as the Bears on Friday due to the randomized drawing of first-round byes, leaving Brusly with a little ground to be covered heading into Day 2 of the event. But the Panthers aren’t alone.
Catholic High, the hosts of the tournament, leads all the competition after the first day with 141.5 points. Brusly sits in second with 133, followed by Live Oak with 101, Zachary with 99.5 and East Ascension with 95.5.
“Overall, I’m pleased,” said Brusly wrestling coach Jimmy Bible. “I wasn’t real happy with the number of byes we had in the first round. That kind of gives other teams an unfair advantage, but it’s randomly done. It wasn’t on purpose or anything, but we started off 14 points in the hole to Catholic before we even got started. So we’ve got to make up those points somehow. They’re good too, and they’re going to make it up too.” |
Both schools sent 12 wrestlers into the semifinals, which are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Should everything pan out accordingly, the Bears and the Panthers could meet in the finals in nine of the 14 weight classes.
“It’s going to be a dogfight,” said Catholic High wrestling coach Tommy Prochaska. “We’ve got 12 in the semis and Brusly has 12 in the semis. (Saturday) when the semis start it’s going to be unreal. There were a couple of upsets of some kids, but overall the upper-echelon kids made a statement for both teams today.”
The Panthers did pull off the biggest upset of the day when Blayze Olano beat second-seeded Logan Knox from St. Michael’s in a 6-4 decision.
Live Oak had itself a successful day as well, sending nine wrestlers into Saturday’s semifinal. One of which is Cody Hill, who will be going for a rare third consecutive city title.
Friday’s competition ended at the semifinals for both the winner’s and consolation brackets, with Saturday’s action set to start at 3 p.m. The finals are scheduled to begin around 6:30 p.m., and it’s sure to get interesting.
“It’s going to be a dogfight,” said Bible, echoing Prochaska’s sentiments. “It’s going to be a struggle. It’s all about how any people we can put in the finals and place higher than Catholic. It’s never easy, but it’s out of my hands. It’s in the kids’ hands; they’ve got to do the wrestling.”
Dutchtown (87.5), St. Amant (69), Central (51), Dunham (48) and St. Michael (39) round out the top 10.
Catholic High will be in search of it’s 12th straight city title, while Brusly is trying to win its first since 1998.
