2013-14 Results and Media Coverage
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BATON ROUGE – Coach Jimmy Bible brought his Brusly High wrestling team into action Saturday with some unflattering images of trophies from past events.
Bible displayed runner-up trophies from the Baton Rouge City Classic and other major tournaments, all as a way to push his team to go one step further.
It worked.
Brusly tallied 269 points to topple host team Catholic High on Saturday at the City Classic. The Panthers snapped an 11-year championship streak for CHS.
“We’ve been bridesmaids far too long – now we’re the bride,” Bible said. “We knew Catholic wouldn’t give it away, and they didn’t.”
Live Oak placed third (181), East Ascension fourth (169.5), Zachary fifth (165.5) and Dutchtown sixth (127.5). St. Amant, Central and St. Michael tied for seventh (65) and Dunham placed 10th (63). |
The championship win came down to a tightly contested battle between the two state powerhouses. Catholic held only a five-point edge over BHS going into the championship round, but scoring helped the Panthers turn the tables in the end.
Both teams bagged four wins in the championship round.
Freshman Kendon Lee, seniors Noah Landry and Koby Mancuso, and junior Donald Johnson brought home the gold medals for Brusly.
Losses in the championship round the last two years in the City Meet fueled Mancuso. “It finally worked out for me,” he said. “I came into this meet taking one match at a time and the coaches put me in a position to win the city – it was my year to take it all.”
Lee improved to 47-1 with a pinfall over Live Oak’s Jacob Chenevert in the 115-lb. weight class. “I credit my team for getting me here,” Lee said. “A lot of people say this is an individual sport, but it’s a team sport because you need all your brothers on the team to support you.”
Noah Landry dominated St. Amant’s Tristyn Wheeler in a win on a 3-0 decision in the 134-lb. bracket. Johnson gained the victory on a 5-1 measure over Travis Goodman of Dutchtown in the 222-lb. division.
Johnson overcame a busted knee that floored him in the second round. “When that happened, I thought about my nephew, Kadon Dominique Johnson, who passed away earlier this year,” he said. “He was my motivation to continue.”
Catholic’s James Claitor dealt a heartbreaker to Brusly’s Trevor Schermer, who lost on a 3-2 measure. The Claitor win capped a long-standing rivalry between him and Schermer, who gained the measure when the two met last month at the Louisiana Classic. “He’s a tough wrestler and he came out prepared,” Schermer said after the bout.
Schermer sustained a concussion a week earlier in action at the Live Oak Duals, which kept him from practice most of the week leading into the City Classic.
Third-place awards for Brusly went to Barrett Sanchez (122), Toby Hebert (140) and Dillon Prejean (197). Austin Franklin (108) and Diondre Dorsey (172) each finished fourth.