Crusaders once again rulers of Division I mat

February 25, 2014

by Site Administrator

If the Louisiana High School Athletic Association held separate championships for public and non-public schools as it does for the sport of football, East Ascension would have claimed part of the Division I glory.

But since the LHSAA does not divvy up this competition by the status of its schools, the Spartans managed to finish last week’s championship meet in a nondescript seventh place.

Once again, Catholic school wrestling ruled the two-day event at Kenner’s Pontchartrain Center by landing the top six places.

And, for the 12th time, Brother Martin was the best of the lot, making it an even dozen times the Crusaders returned to Elysian Fields with the Brother Melchior championship trophy – the third consecutive year the oversized hardware will sit in the foyer of the school’s Ridgley Center.

Led by five individual champions and three runners-up, the Crusaders scored 312.5 points to outdistance five other Catholic school teams which filed behind them in descending order.

Jesuit, 277 points, finished second, followed by Catholic of Baton Rouge, 216.5 points; Holy Cross, 204; Archbishop Rummel, 174 and St. Paul’s 137.5.

East Ascension finished with 136.5 points.

The Crusaders gave head coach Rob Dauterive his sixth title as their mentor.

Ever since wrestling was introduced as a sanctioned sport in the late 1930s, three schools have dominated its top division: Holy Cross under Brother Melchior Polowy won 22 state titles from 1945-1968, Surachai “Sam” Harnsongkram built a 33-year dynasty at Jesuit, having won 18 team championships with nine runner-up trophies, and, more recently, Brother Martin has been the kingpin of the mats.

Archbishop Rummel and Catholic High have interrupted the Brother Martin and Jesuit runs by winning in recent years.

Holy Cross, a Division II power over the past few years, made a strong showing in its rise to Division I, but placed just three wrestlers in the finals, all of whom finished as runners-up.

Five Brother Martin grapplers won individual titles, including Steven Shields (106 pounds), Mason Mauro (113), Paul Klein (132), Austin Meyn (138) and Yehia Riles (182).

A pleasant surprise was De La Salle, whose 176.5 points gave the Cavaliers a second-place showing in Division III, behind perennial powerhouse Brusly.

Two Cav wrestlers – Alex Martin (160 pounds) and Logan Sylve (170) – won individual weight-class titles.

Brusly wrestlers had won seven consecutive championship matches from 106 pounds to 152, when Martin broke the streak by winning a major decision over Brusly’s Diondre Dorsey.

Archbishop Shaw finished third in Division II behind champion Teurlings Catholic and Live Oak.

The Eagles had three finalists. Kody Woodson (170 pounds) and Brennan Falcon (195 pounds) won individual titles, and Bryce Ballas was runner-up at 145 pounds.

We are the champions!

STEVEN SHIELDS
Brother Martin
Div. I, 106 pounds
Record: 43-8