Brusly, Catholic in state title hunt

By ED CASSIERE
Special to The Advocate
Published: Feb 18, 2006

KENNER — Brusly’s bid to three-peat is still on target, and Catholic High has a shot at a state title, too, after Friday’s competition in the State Farm/LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament at the Pontchartrain Center.

Brusly advanced 11 of 14 wrestlers to the Division III semifinals — including top seeds Blake Panepinto (103 pounds), Nick Hebert (140), Jake Leveron (171), Myron Harris (189) and Andrew Baldwin (215) — and scored 106 points to grab the team lead. The Panthers lead by 24 points over second-place Teurlings Catholic of Lafayette.

“We wrestled fantastic,” Brusly coach Jimmy Bible said. “Thirteen of our 14 wrestlers scored points, and 11 are in the semifinals. We’re sitting really pretty right now.”

In Division I, Catholic is tied for third with St. Paul’s with 107 points, 16 points behind leader Brother Martin. The Bears have seven semifinalists, including top-seeded Brian Parenton (145).

“We took our lumps today like everyone else, but in my opinion we’re still in the hunt for the championship,” Catholic coach Tommy Prochaska said. “It all depends on how well we wrestle Saturday.”

The LHSAA, in a last-minute change, conducted nearly all the consolation matches Friday. Today’s semifinal matches will begin at 10 a.m., followed by third- and fifth-place matches. The 52 championship matches — three divisions, 14 weight classes — will start at 6:30 p.m.

Brusly went 14-3 with 11 pins in the championship bracket and got a pair of victories from No. 4 seeds Marc Myers (112) and Eric Stocking (135). Leveron opened defense of his title with a fifth-minute pin of Teurlings’ Jeff LeBlanc.

The Panthers’ most pleasant surprise came from fifth-seeded Ty Welch, who was 0-2 during the regular season against Teurlings’ fourth-seeded Nash Barecca but rolled to a 7-0 quarterfinal victory.

“That was a good turnaround,” Bible said. “I always knew Ty had it in him.

“His guy got a little gassed at the end, and he put him away.”

Also advancing to the Division III semifinals were 2005 champions Chris Nowosiwsky (119) and David Roper (152) of Parkview Baptist. Both moved up one weight classification this season, and both are top seeds.

Other Division III semifinalists include Parkview’s Tanner Ducote (103), Preston Bradford (112), Philip Govan (140) and Jake Keller (160), Redemptorist’s Thomas Ventress (119), Ricky Bordelon (125), Ian Guedry (171) and Britton Purvis (189) and Brusly’s Casey Landry (145), Thomas Cebollero (160) and Alex Schofield (275).

Catholic’s Parenton, who finished fourth at 140 pounds last year, pinned Airline’s Michael Wranosky in 2:22 in the second round and defeated St. Amant’s eighth-seeded Chase Wise 18-9 in the quarterfinals.

Also reaching the semifinals for Cathoilic were second-seeded Michael Fresina (130), third-seeded Luis Alexander (103), Mitchell Fischer (125) and Jonathan Lambert (160), fourth-seeded Kyle Kleinpeter (135) and sixth-seeded Robert Town (112).

Fresina won twice, including an 8-1 quarterfinal victory against Brother Martin’s seventh-seeded Travis Meaux. Town upset St. Paul’s third-seeded Michael Young 10-8 in the quarters.

But Catholic’s Jeff Falcon, the top seed at 119 pounds, lost by pinfall to Airline’s unseeded Alex Huffman in the quarterfinals.

“Jeff suffered a mouth injury about three weeks ago and had to wrestle with a mouthpiece and a face mask,” Prochaska said. “He gave a gutsy performance, but he just wasn’t wrestling as well as he did before the injury.”

St. Amant’s David Vidrine (140) also reached the Division I semifinals.

Six Baton Rouge-area schools have semifinalists in Division II, led by East Ascension with four. But none of those teams is contending for the team title.

Two-time defending champion Northside leads Division II with 128 points, 11 more than runner-up Parkway. Tara is a distant seventh with 41 points.

Division II semifinalists include Zachary’s top-seeded Jesse Graves (112) and Cade Felps (119), Tara’s Blake Dowden (125) and East Ascension’s Michael Wascom (152). Graves and Felps were 2005 champions but moved up one weight classification.