Brusly wrestlers claim state title

Panthers roll to big win; Catholic places third

By ED CASSIERE
Special to The Advocate
Published: Feb 19, 2006

KENNER — Brusly didn’t slow down after it reached Saturday’s finals of the State Farm/LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament at the Pontchartrain Center.

Already assured of their third consecutive team championship, the Panthers pulled away by winning seven of their nine individual title matches.

Brusly finished with 275‰ points, 103 more than runner-up Teurlings Catholic and 54‰ more than the Panthers scored last year. The biggest disappointment for Brusly wrestlers — no peroxide splash for their coach, Jimmy Bible.

“He’s saved,” said senior Jake Leveron, who successfully defended his title at 171 pounds. “Coach said if we had 10 finalists, he’d dye his hair beach-blond. We had nine.”

Leveron defeated South Cameron’s Bart Vidrine 9-2 in their final and said earning his second championship was much more difficult than the first.

“After you win (a championship), you don’t look at the hill you have to climb to win the second,” Leveron said.

“I had two hard losses at the beginning of the year, and that woke me up. I’ve been on a roll ever since. I’ve been working toward this.”

Blake Panepinto (103 pounds), Nick Hebert (140), Casey Landry (145), Thomas Cebollero (160), Andrew Baldwin (215) and Alex Schofield (275) also won championships for Brusly.

Panepinto pinned South Cameron’s Brett Richard in 1:52. Hebert pinned Parkview Baptist’s Philip Govan in 3:02. Landry pinned Pearl River’s top-seeded Jimmy Ballantyne in 3:47, and Cebollero edged Pearl River’s top-seeded Matt Cannon 6-5.

Baldwin beat Teurlings Catholic’s Sam Albarado 7-4, and Schofield defeated Teurllings’ Benji Hebert 5-4.

“We were favored,” Leveron said. “We figured we’d do this good.”

In Division I, Catholic ended a two-year drought of individual titles when top-seeded Brian Parenton defeated Comeaux’s Justin Goodwin 10-8 at 145 pounds. The Bears, who placed third in the team standings with 174 points, had two runners-up.
 
Michael Fresina lost 10-7 to Comeaux’s Mitch Trahan in the 130 final, and Jonathan Lambert lost 8-2 to Comeaux’s David Bonin in the 160 final.

Also winning individual championships were Zachary’s Jesse Graves and Cade Felps and Tara’s Blake Dowden in Division II and Redemptorist’s Thomas Ventress and Britton Purvis and Parkview Baptist’s David Roper in Division III.

Graves, Felps and Roper were repeat champions. Graves (112 pounds) defeated Parkway’s Nathan Johnson 19-11, and Felps pinned Parkway’s Landon Robin in 3:15.

Dowden (125) beat East Ascension’s Gregory Ruiz 3-0. Ventress denied Parkview’s Chris Nowosiwsky a second consecutive title with an 8-3 victory at 119 pounds, and Purvis (189) defeated Brusly’s Myron Harris 10-3.

Roper (152) pinned Fisher’s Jordan Koenig in 4:52. Jesuit scored 232‰ points to win the Division I title for the third consecutive year, and Parkway scored 294 points to win Division II.

Selected the outstanding wrestlers by the meet’s coaches were Lafayette’s Andre Broussard in Division I, Parkway’s Mike Newberg in Division II and Northlake Christian’s Elijah Levee in Division III. Broussard beat Rummel’s Tyler Ehret 6-4 in the 112 final.