Warrior Wrestling

The St. Michael Warriors concluded the season with a huge showing in the LHSAA State Wrestling Tournament. There were 12 Warriors in the top 5 and 9 Warriors made it to the finals. Both of these are records for the Warriors. The Warriors entered the tournament and in the eyes of many they were the most talented team. The Warriors left little to chance in the early rounds by pinning 24 of there first 26 opponents. This gave the Warriors an early jump on defending champion Holy Cross, Teurlings Catholic and Parkway.

12 Warriors made the semi-final round. This assured the Warriors of placing all 12 of those wrestlers. Two wrestlers fell into the consolation bracket. Stephen Dupuis wrestled 145 for the Warriors. He was at a huge disadvantage as he was wrestling 2 weight classes above his weight. Stephen fought hard, but could not overcome the weight difference.

Michael Borne, a first year starter and undersized 215 lb. wrestler, wrestled in arguably the deepest weight class in the tournament. 13 of the 14 wrestlers on the 215 lb bracket had winning records. Michael lost a tough first round match. He then came back to beat Kurland Parks of Parkway, before losing to 5th place finisher Daniel Curry of Broadmoor.

Charlie Morgan continued a brilliant season he pinned his way to the finals with 3 first round pins. In the finals he met a tough and ready Anthony Gettys (Holy Cross). Charlie suffered a concussion in the first round, but survived to win the match 11-8. (112) All-American Ben Willeford pinned his way to the finals as well. He defeated Mark Carrier (Teurlings) in the finals 6-0. Mark could not mount any offense and was ridden out through the final 2 rounds. At (119) Ryan Weber lost in the semis to Ethan Nicosia (Holy Cross). He then lost a heartbreaker to Lexus Morgan (Riverdale) 7-6 in the Consolation semi-final round. Ryan fought back to take 5th beating Monkurvis Irvin (Northside) 6-4.

Some questioned whether Tres' Gravois (125) should be a #1 seed. All Tres' did was pin his way to the finals including and impressive 1:03 pin of Traven Lemalle (Northside) in the semi-finals. Tres' looked poised and ready in the finals and made quick work of Lance Allison (Parkway) pinning him 1:07 into the 2nd round. (130) Landon Carr came in as the #3 seed and made the finals to face highly regarded Phillip Miller (Teurlings). Carr gave 100% in that match, but fell to Miller 11-4. (135) Michael Morris lost a tough match in the semis to eventual champ Cody Pilotte (Holy Cross) 8-4. Morris backed that up with a 10-8 victory over #4 Richard Simmons (McKinley) and then took a 7-5 sudden victory win over Jordan Mastrianni (Belle Chasse) to win 3rd.

(140) Brock Portier had to pins to make the semi-finals. He then took a convincing 9-1 decision over Joseph LeBlanc (Teurlings) to make the finals. In the finals Brock made a mistake that cost him the match against Dustin Appelt (Belle Chasse). (152) Seth Barker continued to impress the competition using his "cwadle" to make the finals. In the finals he came up short dropping a 10-0 decision to Nick Michael (Holy Cross). That loss didn't diminish the fact that Seth had a breakout season for the Warriors. (160) Miles Greenblatt had a tech fall and a pin to make the semis. There he pinned Briston Dooley (Teurlings) in 4:25. Miles met highly regarded Matthew Vetkoetter (Parkway) in the finals. Miles mad a mistake early and it cost him the match. Miles had a great senior campaign.

(171) Chase Dunlap came into the State Tournament looking for a little redemption. Chase posted a pin and a major decision to make the semi-finals. In the semis he met Mitchell Houghton (Bossier). Last year Mitchell beat Chase twice in the State tournament. This year Chase put together a great match and won a 6-5 decision in the tie breaker round. In the finals Chase matched up against Jason Rucker (Istrouma). Chase wrestled tough, but dropped a 9-3 decision. (189) CJ Patton put it all together at the right time. He entered the tournament as the #6 seed. He pinned his first opponent in 0:19 and then poured it on #3 Orlando Calhoun (Norhtside) until he quit in the third round. CJ lost in the semis, but came back in the consolation semis posting a 0:37 pin over Robert Chenevert (Benton) that sut up a meeting against #1 seeded Jeremiah Thornton (Huntington). CJ won that match with a convincing 8-4 decision.

(285)  Sophomore Stephen Scardina capped off a great season at the State Tournnament. After drawing a first round bye as the #2 seed Dino met Trevor Taylor (Riverdale) in the quarter-finals. He pinned Taylor just 0:41 into the first round. Dino met Holy Cross' Jordan Berges in the semi-final round. He wrestled tenatively and came away with a 9-4 decision pushing him into the finals. This set up a match against cross town rival Timothy Johnson(Istrouma). During the season Dino had dropped 2 matches to Johnson. The two battled deep into the match and with less than a minute left the score was tied at 5-5. After a blood time out for Dino he made the decision to cut Johnson with 36 seconds left in the match Johnson took a 6-5 lead. Dino came forward pushing the pace and with 18 seconds pushed Johnson oout of bounds. The referee restarted the match and Dino exploded on Johnson taking him down on the edge of the mat and putting him on his back completing a 5 point move. With a 10-6 lead Dino won the LHSAA State Championship. This victory gave the Warriors  their 4th Champion on the night and left them just 15 points shy of the Team Scoring record of 293.5 points. The 278.5 points scored by the Warriors eclipsed the previous record of 203.5 they scored in 1996. 

Ben Willeford All-American

Senior Ben Willeford returned from the ASICS/Vaughan Junior & Cadet National Championships as an All-American. In the Greco-Roman part of the event Ben wrestled his way to a fifth place finish. In the fifth place match he defeated highly regarded Tanner Moon (Alabama). After losing the first period 0-7. Ben worked hard in the second period to gain a 3-1 win. Tied 1-1 going into the third period Ben dug deep. He scored late in the period to secure a 5-1 decsion for the period and secured All-American status. He was the only All-American from the state of Louisiana this season. Everyone, associated with the Warrior Wrestling Program, is proud of Ben's accomplishments.

  For the second time in two weeks the St Michael Warriors finished second in a dual tournament. This time it was at Zachary High School in a dual tournament where St. Michael was the only Division II school.

  The Warriors stopped a few hearts in the first match. Low intensity allowed the Fountainbleau to keep it close, but wins by Willeford, Carr, Portier, Barker and Greenblatt, gave the team a six point edge.

  By the second dual, this one against host Zachary, the team was back in Warrior form racking up eight wins – seven by pin – to best the Broncos 45-33. But by far the most impressive match of the weekend was against Chalmette. Warrior wrestlers blanked the Owls scoring nine pins on their way to a 75 - -1. That’s right, the Owls had a negative score. They lost a team point for unsportsmanlike conduct in the dual’s opening bout.

  There was even a silver lining in the loss to Catholic in the tournament’s championship round. Warriors posted a few more wins than they did in the previous weeks second place finish at St. Amant.

  Ben Willeford earned that award for most pins in the least time overall. While Ben Willeford, Landon Carr, and Stephen Scardina won the awards for most pins in least time for their respective weight classes. Pinning is the key to our success. 

It’s looking like a real showdown when the wrestlers meet each other in the City Championships this weekend. Practice hard. Rest up. And Go Warriors.